Generation Touchscreen
While watching the latest episode of ‘The Secret Life of Four-Year-Olds’ with my family, a shocking silence was heard when the children were handed individual IPad's to play with. This not only baffled the teachers watching in on the experiment, with Dr. Elizabeth Kilby admitting that “she has never seen the classroom this quiet and still”, but also my parent’s; both whom are principals, one for a primary school. My mother told me of her personal experiences of children asking for their parent’s phone before even saying hello at the end of the day. Intrigued as I was with the secret minds of these four year olds on my television, it made me question how technology will be able to alter the everyday lives of the children growing up in the first truly digital generation.
This particular episode introduced technology to the four year olds and observed how the children would interact with the digital tech and with each other. The adorable girl trio of Kiera, Iris and Na’Shae are each given an IPad, with all girls raving about their favorite forms of entertainment, with YouTube, Netflix and games being the common denominator among the three. With the children so engrossed with their IPad’s they fail to notice a teacher entering the room and leaving a platter full of marshmallows, chocolate and sprinkles; a child’s dream charcuterie board. It is only after their IPad’s have been taken away they realise the sweet treats in the room and begin to interact and play with each other. The experiment highlights the all-absorbing and engrossing nature of technology and bring to light parents worries about the apparent confining and constraining nature of these new forms of entertainment.
But how bad is it really? Is this another moral panic brought about by the media and stressful parents?
While the series is based in the UK, where one in four children at the age of two and more than a third of children from three to five years old have their own IPad or tablet, the situation is not so dissimilar in Australia. Two out of three primary school children and a third of preschoolers own either a tablet or mobile phone. The use of these technologies as the major form of entertainment for young children is so widely accepted that baby equipment now comes with IPad holders. It seems that whether we like it or not, new technologies have become ingrained into motherhood and are subsequently here to stay.
The benefits are very obvious to parents; they are an instant curer of boredom, the new dummy to stick in front of them in order to subdue. Its clear children love them as well, they are able to play games and learn things quickly while increasing their hand to eye coordination and decision making skills. But of course, not everything about them is positive.
While some major issues surrounding tablet technologies have already become very apparent; undeveloped muscles and bones, increasingly bad eyesight, sleep-disruption and exposure to harmful content, the effects it has on social development are still highly contested.
A major report in the US suggests extensive IPad use can negate traditional methods of playing and communicating with others, leading to a lack of development in social skills such as empathy, behaviour control and self-regulation. It seems this report reflects the small experiment happening on my televisions. As soon as the IPad’s were taken from the trio of girls, they all began to interact and play ‘house’ with each other. Dr Kilby goes on to summarise, suggesting that, “You can’t help but think they must be gaining more skills, more developmental advantages from this kind of social and physical play.”
Other reports have gone a step further, stating that the addictiveness of these children games and apps rewire the brain. The games are usually centered around ‘reward loops’; a design of activities which regularly and repeatedly offer incentives to gain a reward, usually in the form of a neurochemical release of dopamine. While sounding complicated, it easily explains why some people are not able to put down candy crush, knowing they are not gaining much benefit from playing it. The auditory or visual clues; such as sounds or notifications, enhance the addictiveness through the anticipation of the reward to come. It’s clear that if adults are susceptible to these dopamine seeking reward loops, a child would surely not fare any better.
So what to do? It seems parents are once again facing a crossroad with different information offering different opinions on the matter. While some parent’s may try to deny access to tablets, it could inadvertently be harming the child’s social standing. Numerous articles discuss the importance of possessing the latest technologies to fit in at school, especially for young boys in which gaming knowledge and skills are directly related to social standing in primary years. It seems parents must step in when deciding which technologies to use and for how long they are able to use them for; a complex regulation even for industry professionals.
It seems now that there are more questions than answers in regards to the use of IPad’s and tablets for young children. With the dynamic landscape of new technologies, it will be interesting to witness the social and behavioral changes to come from the digital generation. For now, I will sit back and enjoy the insights and wisdom gained by watching adorable, curious four year old’s and their ‘secret lives’.
