Attention Screen Disorder
Technology in our world is inevitable. Nothing is going to stop progress, but what is this going to cost? Children spend more time, inside their homes, alone doing nothing; while the amount of time they spend with their families declines. Families are getting smaller and smaller, and more and more moms are becoming the breadwinner: Wendy Wang, a research Associate with the Pew Research Center, says, “A record 40% of all households with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income for the family” (Wang). Where does this leave the children? Dads are not as nurturing as moms are biologically, so moms tend to be that nurturing influence in children’s lives. Who is watching the kids now that mom and dad are both working? Anne Collins, a behavior and discipline associate with Great Schools Inc., states that, “Some days were so busy… video game or TV show quiets my son – and I’m grateful” (Collins). I simply say technology is watching our children; it has a fast paced barrage of commercials, sitcoms, and negative influenced shows that portray the world at lightning speeds. This technology can be delivered in all kind of different forms, internet, cables, and signals that we allow into our homes daily. What does this do to the attention span of those watching these “screened” devices? As adults, we tend to tune these types of distractions out. Adults focus on what is important at the time, while the information still comes flying by them. If we keep up this ever increasing “screen time” exposure to technology, we are going to have a reduction of what can hold our attention, Hannah Richardson, a BBC News Education and Family reporter, says it this way, “prolonged screen time can lead to reductions in attention span because of its effects on the brain chemical dopamine” (Richardson). Children soak it all in. The extended screen time in the name of peace and quiet is causing children to have an attention deficit, especially when life starts to slow down. The growth of “screen time” on computers, TVs, cell phones, and other high tech devices will affect the next generation: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) problems will continue to raise with the use of these devices until every youth and adult have a small attention span.
What is Attention Deficit Disorder? The WebMD website states it this way, “Attention Deficit Disorder is a behavioral condition in which people have difficulty paying attention, may be more active than normal, and tend to act without thinking” (“Attention”). Attention Deficit Disorder shows up in youth who spend a lot of time in front of screens. The more time youth spend in front of screen, the more it will affects the wiring of how their brain is structured. WebMD says, “The function of chemicals in the brain that help regulate attention and activity are dopamine and norepinephrine.” (“Attention”) and continues to say that these chemicals, “affect attention and impulse control” (“Attention”). A personal attention and impulse is being affected by long uses of screens.
What causes the increase in Attention Deficit Disorder in youth? Parents spend less time involved in their children’s lives, most families have both parent working. According to our class textbook by Reid Luhman, “70 percent… both members in the labor forces” (Luhman 385). This is causing children to have, “unhealthy and artificial relationships” (Jensen-Savoie) online, with perfect strangers as stated by Dr. Gayle Jensen-Savoie. Neighbors have less interaction with each other, causing less involvement in our communities and a total lack of substance. The involvement of Parents has decreased in children’s lives, teacher are overworked, underpaid, and don’t take any actions towards youth who show signs of a disorder, due to possible parent backlash.
Reading, math, and learning ability are greatly affected by extended doses of “screen time.” Hannah Richards says, “A lot of screen material is not well designed for a child’s cognitive processes” (Richardson). Kids with cell phones, computers, and other gadgets have very short attention spans do to the exposure to these types of technologies. John Roach, an advocate for video game play, “cautions against foregoing the more traditional brain exercises of reading, writing and arithmetic to play shoot-’em-ups on the computer” (Roach).
“Screen time” in youth has increased in recent years furthering the effect of the disorder. Technology at home, work, remote school learning and even the physical school classrooms have progressively started to move faster. This phenomenon can only be explain with the push of technology that students need to learn more in a shorter period of time. A coping mechanism for this push is, everyone should multitask. Mark Harris of Entertainment weekly explains his multitasking this way, “I typically find myself watching TV while looking at a viral video on my laptop, trying to get my Netflix account and my cable box to mate with each other so that I can play streaming movies while fiddling with the smartphone I am still trying to persuade to make friends…” (Harris). Mark goes on, and on, but finishes off his almost endless list of multitasking with, “At the end of each day, I have filled my head with a bit of everything and a substantial, nourishing, thought-provoking portion of … nothing” (Harris). While multitasking is a tool it does tend to overload, Mark Zuckerberg says what children say if anyone would listen to them, “You have part of my attention… the minimal amount” (qtd. in Harris). It is not going to get any better in this multitasking pace. Technology is advancing to the point that our 55 inch living room television will soon be able to tell our friends what we are watching while allowing those same friends to interact and comment about the show, while at the same time ordering our favorite pizza, reminding us that our brother who is in the room wants anchovies, and then authorize the monthly payment for our mortgage. Think about how technology is simplifying or shortening everything we do.
How much “screen time” do we need to get something done? Most things take 30-60 minutes. The media is getting to us and our children conditioned to this shorter time allowances and most people are not even aware of it. Our attention span is being shortened.
How many commercial do we see a day? How does this attention structure affect our kids in their everyday lives? According to psychologist Dr. Aric Sigman TV is, “wrecking their attention spans, triggering depression, and addicting them” (Halper). TV is a major player in the “screen time” that will follow our kids through life, unless we make active steps to limit its impact.
How many computers and gadgets do you own? Children who were in a study about screen addition, “often had access to at least five different devices at and one time” (Sellgren). The more technology advances the smaller and more likely we are to own not just one but several “screen” devices.
How many television are in your house? My house has four televisions and I can say that Katherine Sellgren of BCC news tells the truth, “televisions are being used to provide background entertainment” (Sellgren) how many more distractions can children take?
We are looking at screens everywhere we go, social interaction gets limited to the point we don’t socially interact physically at all. Can you take away your teenager’s cell phone without causing the end of his or her world? We might want to start to think that screen addiction as a mental illness. Children addicted to “the screen” are, “aggressive, irritable and hostile when deprived of their iPads or laptops” (Whyte). Some children are addicted to using electronic devices 24/7, another word for this disorder is “Internet-use disorder” (Whyte) If you or your child can’t leave an electronic device a loan for fifteen minutes, when you are awake, you might be a candidate for this disorder.
Could students and young people be more informed than their parents? Teenagers are being exposed to more information at an increasingly younger age. A blog I read says, “Students in this day and age of information have all of the tools that they need to receive current world events simply with their smartphones” (UnknownWon). The smartphone is not a simple “screened” device. The smartphone has more power than what the 1980s defined as “a supercomputer.” All the technology, portable, and “the screens” are just at the end of teen’s fingertips.
What are teens doing with their smartphones and other screens? Lauren Shanley of Great School Inc. says, “most common use of the Internet among teens is social media” (Shanley). I know this from observing my teenage son. He needs to check Facebook and see what his friends are doing. He must check online to see where the best events are at. He must know who is talking about what and why something happened, he hopes to know before anyone else has a clue of what is going on.
Teenagers need to get their information quickly, waiting to learn something, is not an option for them. If it is not in their hands when they think of it, they have already forgotten it. Mark Halper explains it this way, “screens are obliterating kids’ attention spans” (Halper). Over time we end up with information overload, and teens turn into zombies. Picture this teenagers walking and none of them are looking up. Every one of them is looking at their phones, completely oblivious that anyone is around. I have a name for this growing teenage information overload, I call it, “Squirrel Syndrome.” You have probably seen the Disney Pixar movie “Up,” a story about an old man who wants to make his late wife’s last wish come true. In the old man’s journey he runs across this dog that can talk. This dog is very lovable, cute, and helps the man out greatly. However; this dog has “squirrel syndrome” he can be side tracked very easily, and it is always a squirrel. We as a culture are very much like this dog. I can’t say how many times I have been “squirreled” while writing this paper. Teens lose interest very quickly. The problem is that with this quick paced multitasking, the perception follows teens into “real” life. With no way to pay attention and no way to stay focused, how are they going to survive?
Video games boost visual skills in children to the point it can help them in the “real” world. John Roach of National Geographic say, “people who play action video games can process visual information more quickly and can track thirty percent more objects than non-video game players” (Roach). When children play games it develops coordination with their hands and eyes. Those who play games have visual skills that are faster than with those children who do not play games. Action games stimulate chemicals in the body that makes learning and remembering easier for children. I come to the same question John does, “What is it about the action video games sensory overload?” (Roach) The simple answer is that youth and adults who play games are better at solving problems.
So what is it, ADD or smarter kids? ADD in its simplest form is attention distraction and action video games are definitely an attention distractor that happens to give a nice side effect of being more alert. However; when video games and intense concentration are all a teen concentrated on, it can have bad effects. Teens can suffer socially and physically from these games. John Roach says it like this, “Balance is the essence of everything” (Roach). If we could remove technology and the screens, it would help society as a whole slow down and “smell the roses.” Using technology all the time is hypnotizing us into thinking that we cannot live without our screens; However if we use technology and screens wisely we could “have all the time in the world to learn about current world events” (UnknownWon). If we want to not become slaves to our screens, we need to listen to our doctors, limit our technology input. Technology, when not tempered, leads to always needing input. This input is causing us to overload like the movie I saw about a robot called “Johnny 5” (Short Circuit). This robot was designed for military purposes. Due to a freak accident, got struck by lightning, and became alive. This robot lost its program and went on a two hour quest for “input.” This movie points out that adults need to set screen time limits for their children, teenagers, and probably even for themselves on the amount of input they really need to process on a daily basis.
In conclusion, screen addition has dramatic effects on the overall Attention Deficit Disorder will play in the lives of our children, their child, and our children’s children. ADD is affected by the chemicals in our brains, especially with long sessions of looking at “screens.” Mom and dad both working outside of the house is forcing children to be more resilient in fending for themselves, and has allowed them ample time in front of the screens of our lives. You would hope that the extra time technology provides us, our children would spend it learning math and reading, but unfortunately they are just spending it on social media sites seeing and checking what their friends are doing. Media is in turn watching, seeing, and selling anything they can cram down our throats in revenue maximized thirty second ad spot. The squirrels of distractions are taking too much of our attention. We need to be limiting the number of devices that we are being distracted with; after all, the screens are everywhere, in the workroom, on the street, and even in our cars. If this effect is left unchecked it will poison our ability to function. Local communities need to work to get people together without screens and to experience real-life! Civilization needs to have exciting and encouraging “live” socialization events for all ages. Technology can be good, and “screens aren't going away” (Collins), but technology needs to be checked. Everything needs to be done in moderation.
Work Cited
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Collins, Anne. “Is My Son Addicted To Screens?” GreatSchools. GreatSchools, Inc., n.d. Web. 6 May 2013.
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Harris, Mark. “Taking Multitasking to Task.” EW.com. Entertainment Weekly Inc., 23 Feb. 2011. Web. 6 May 2013.
Jensen-Savoie, Gayle. “Screen Addiction and Young Adults.” Fulshear Ranch Academy. 18 July 2011. EbscoHost. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.
Luhman, Reid “The Sociological Outlook” 8 Ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc. New York. (2007) 385. Print.
Richardson, Hannah. “Limit Children’s Screen Time, Expert Urges.” BBC News. BBC, 9 Oct. 2012. Web. 6 May 2013.
Roach, John. “Video Games Boost Visual Skills, Study Finds.” National Geographic News. National Geographic Society, 28 May 2003. Web. 6 May 2013.
Sellgren, Katherine. “Warning Over Children’s Multi-Screen Viewing.” BBC News. BBC, 3 Aug. 2011. Web. 6 May 2013.
Shanley, Lauren. “Screen Abuse by the Numbers” GreatSchools. GreatSchools, Inc., n.d. Web. 29 May 2013.
Short Circuit. Dir. John Badham Perf. Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton, G. W. Bailey, and Tim Blaney. Tri Star Pictures, 1986. Film.
UnknownWon. “Are Today’s Youth More Informed than Their Parents?” hubpages.com. HubPages Inc, n.d. Web. 6 May 2013.
Up. Dir. Pete Docter Perf. Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, and Bob Peterson.
Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, 2009. Film.
Wang, Wendy. “Breadwinner Moms.” pewsocialtrends.org. Pew Research Center, 29 May 2013. Web. 29 May 2013.
Whyte, Sarah. “Screen-addicted Children May have Newest Mental Illness.” smh.com.au.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 Sep. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.
