Is “Screen Time” Dangerous for Children?

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Life Hacks November 28, 2016 Issue
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Is “Screen Time”
claims Gopnik makes about screen
time or the presence of technology in
our lives today.

Dangerous for Use green to highlight quotable

Children?
phrases, ideas or passages. These
don't necessarily have to be
quotations said by somebody in the
article. They should be impactful,
A child psychologist—and grandmother—says well-worded statements that you
might later use to help write your
such fears are overblown. paper.

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By Alison Gopnik article that you found confusing and
need to hear other members of class
talk about in order to gain further
perspective.

I was in the garden with Augie, my four-year-old grandson, watching the bees
in the lavender. “Bees make honey,” I said, transmitting the wisdom of the
ages in good grandmotherly fashion. After a pause, Augie replied, “How do they
make the honey?” There is nothing like a child’s question for exposing the limits
of a grandmother’s wisdom.

“Actually, Augie, I don’t know,” I said.

“But, Grandmom, you have your phone,” he said. For Augie, a smartphone is as
natural and unremarkable as the bees and the lavender, and holding one is
almost synonymous with knowing.

I Googled “How do bees make honey?” There were dozens of videos explaining
it. As we stood in the garden, shielding the screen against the sunlight, Augie
and I learned that worker bees secrete an enzyme called invertase, which
converts nectar into dextrose, then flap their wings to thicken the nectar into

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honey.

“It’s kind of hard to see the bees,” I said, squinting at the screen.

“Why don’t we watch it on the big computer?” Augie said.

For the next hour, we sat inside, bee-surfing. Someone in Sweden had posted a
speeded-up video of bees building a hive, months of construction compressed
into two minutes. There was a whole subgenre of beekeeper selfie videos. Best of
all was a BBC documentary about the “waggle dance,” the remarkable
communication system that allows bees to give one another directions to the
places where they’ve found nectar.

My own childhood was dominated by a powerful device that used an optical

interface to transport the user to an alternate reality. I spent most of my waking
hours in its grip, oblivious of the world around me. The device was, of course,
the book. Over time, reading hijacked my brain, as large areas once dedicated to
processing the “real” world adapted to processing the printed word. As far as I
can tell, this early immersion didn’t hamper my development, but it did leave me
with some illusions—my idea of romantic love surely came from novels.

English children’s books, in particular, are full of tantalizing food descriptions.

At some point in my childhood, I must have read about a honeycomb tea. Augie,
enchanted, agreed to accompany me to the grocery store. We returned with a jar
of honeycomb, only to find that it was an inedible, waxy mess.

Many parents worry that “screen time” will impair children’s development, but
recent research suggests that most of the common fears about children and
screens are unfounded. (There is one exception: looking at screens that emit blue
light before bed really does disrupt sleep, in people of all ages.) The American

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Academy of Pediatrics used to recommend strict restrictions on screen exposure.

Last year, the organization examined the relevant science more thoroughly, and,
as a result, changed its recommendations. The new guidelines emphasize that
what matters is content and context, what children watch and with whom. Each
child, after all, will have some hundred thousand hours of conscious experience
before turning sixteen. Those hours can be like the marvellous ones that Augie
and I spent together bee-watching, or they can be violent or mindless—and
that’s true whether those hours are occupied by apps or TV or books or just by
talk.

New tools have always led to panicky speculation. Socrates thought that reading
and writing would have disastrous effects on memory; the novel, the telegraph,
the telephone, and the television were all declared to be the End of Civilization
as We Know It, particularly in the hands of the young. Part of the reason may be
that adult brains require a lot of focus and effort to learn something new, while
children’s brains are designed to master new environments spontaneously.
Innovative technologies always seem distracting and disturbing to the adults
attempting to master them, and transparent and obvious—not really technology
at all—to those, like Augie, who encounter them as children.

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Directions: In this space provided below, summarize the main ideas and arguments
made by Gopnik in your own words. Once you are done, upload this to Moodle.

I thought this was about to be a major boomer

article, but he actually defends technology a bit
and explains how it is useful to both younger
and older generations by showing how a child
can interest an elder by sharing an interest. He
talks about books as a thing of the past, which is
kinda what they're becoming

Like the bees, we live by the reports of others. Unlike the bees, we can invent
new worlds, constructing them out of sonic vibrations, ink, or pixels. Sometimes
those worlds deceive and confuse; at other times, they tell us something
revelatory. When Augie’s father got home, Augie rushed to meet him, his words
tumbling out in excitement. “Daddy, Daddy, look,” he said, reaching for the
phone. “Do you know how bees make honey? I’ll show you. . . .” ♦

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November 28, 2016

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