Parenting in the Digital Age

Maybe the smart phone's hegemony makes perfect evolutionary sense: Humans are tapping a deep urge to seek out information. Our ancient food-foraging survival instinct has evolved into an info-foraging obsession; one that prompts many of us today to constantly check our phones and multitask.



Monkey see. Click. Swipe. Reward.

A new book The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World explores the implications of, and brain science behind, this evolution (some might say devolution). It was written Adam Gazzaley, a neurologist and a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and research psychologist Larry D. Rosen.

Our friends at NPR's Shots blog recently spoke with one of the authors about distraction's impact on productivity. I wanted to talk with Dr. Gazzaley about what his research tells us about teaching, learning, studying and screen time in the age of digital distraction.



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You write about the positive impact that things like exercise have on alleviating the distracted mind, and not far behind are cognitive exercises, video-game training and meditation. What, if anything, can teachers do to enhance learning using some of those tools? Or are those really for parents and the students themselves to activate?

That's a great question. To first just pause on those approaches, many of these are ancient — like meditation, mindfulness practices. Exercise has been recognized for a long time in terms of its value on our health and now its value on our brains. What we present here is a picture where technology is not evil. It didn't create these problems or these challenges of interference. It has aggravated them. It doesn't necessarily have to be dismissed. As a matter of fact, that's impossible. We have to wrap our heads around how we can re-imagine technology as a positive force on our minds.

We are now exploring at UCSF, at our center, creating video games, which we know young people certainly enjoy playing, that are not just entertaining and engaging but take principles like meditation and exercise and music and bring them into a game environment to help improve these very fundamental abilities of the mind.

Let's end with strategies for parents to optimize performance given the distracted-mind reality. Tell us some tips. Model good behavior?

There needs to be some positive acceptance that young people are going to use this technology. I don't think that just denying it is reasonable. I also don't think an extended period of removing technology is likely to be helpful. I think that it is reasonable to take technology "time outs," to have environments and maybe even times where the family interacts with each other and not the outside world through texts. It's sort of a return to the dinner table as a place where you learn how to engage in face-to-face, meaningful contact. Put your tech aside. You can return to it afterwards.

And I think to lead by example is critical because we now know that parents are as guilty as their kids in pulling out a phone during a dinner conversation and texting. I think that that is really critical just to say it has to be balanced and we're going to practice how to balance it as a family.

Source: npr.org

Sipping wine while my two kids watched Little Kingdom on my iPhone and scoffed pizza at a cafe, I clocked numerous death stares from the mum next to us. I politely asked if the device was bothering her. She muttered about her daughter (who was drawing) being sensitive to noise. Really? In a pizza joint at 6pm? Her attitude indicated that parents are well and truly divided about screen time. And we’re all approaching it differently.



Some mothers I know ban ‘digital heroin’ during the school week while others let kids have an hour or two a day. What is clear, is that parents are worried. In fact, 71% believe digital-media use could create problems for 8-11 year olds, according to the World Economic Forum.

So how much are kids staring at screens and how bad is it really?

Associate professor Ben Edwards recently managed a project to find out. The Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, found kids aged between four and five years are spending 2.2 hours a weekday watching screens, increasing to 3.3 hours by the age of 12.



These findings exceed the American Academy of Pediatrics’s recently released guidelines of no screen time for under two years of age, one hour a day for two to five year olds and two hours a day for five to 12 year olds. And it’s not just mobile devices, the recommendations include television and screen time in schools.

“The amount kids are looking at screens is increasing simply because kids have more access to mobile screen devices,” says Edwards. And he believes over two hours a day is too much – “because screen time crowds out other activities.”

Child health nurse Jane Barry, who works with toddlers and teens, believes the two hour daily rule should be reviewed. “The rules are not based in the real world for most families. Everyone’s got digital devices – computers, laptops, iPads, iPhones. It’s unrealistic to not expose your child to screens until they’re two.”

Recent Australian research backs her up and will be used to rewrite the guidelines by the end of 2016. The University of Western Australia studied children’s use of technology and found 63% of children are routinely breaking the two-hour limit. “The screen time recommendations are limiting,” says Barry. “Our guidelines are now in the process of being reviewed – so watch this space.”

Edwards says it’s difficult to limit screen time, but as part of giving your child a 'healthy diet' of activity there are lots of strategies. “Have clear rules and expectations about the amount of recreational screen time. Screen free days are another option.”

Source: honey.nine.com.au