Worldcrunch
Many parents give their toddlers a smartphone or tablet. Is this a total disaster or can children adapt to the new media? For Die Zeit, Wenke Husmann takes a closer look at what scientists say about how screens influence the development of children’s brains.
We are drowning in digital hyper-production, or the vast torrent of pictures and data coming out of our screens. There is no room for mystery or creativity. The art of delay, essential for contemplative thought, is definitively lost in the culture of digital immediacy. So what can we do about this?
In Colombia and elsewhere in the Western world, parents worried about the horrors of the modern world hurting their children have turned to keeping their children on a leash and, worse, overexposing them to Internet garbage. They must let go, so their children can function as social beings, educator Julián de Zubiría Samper writes in El Espectador.
Technology is often blamed for our growing lack of focus. But our modern lifestyles — stress, a work system based on competitiveness and even our diet — also impair our ability to pay attention. Is this cause for concern or a natural consequence of our evolution? And what, if anything, can be done about it?
Whether we’re kids or adults, with different risks and problems posed, we share the same challenge: how to use screens, and use them well.
A recent study shows overwhelming agreement that it’s unnecessary to offer pre-school children digital training. And nearly all parents agree on strict limits to screen time as kids get older.