YOUNG AND WIRED
Computers, cell phones, video games, blogs, text messages -- how will the sheer amount of time spent plugged in affect our kids?
San Francisco Chronicle
Katherine Seligman
Sunday, May 14, 2006
As parents become increasingly concerned, some scientists and psychologists are sounding alerts about the effects of so much wired time, much of it spent multitasking. Aside from the more visible consequences of so much screen time -- lots of children who don't get enough exercise and higher obesity rates -- they believe there may be troubling developmental, learning and social ramifications.
Meanwhile, skeptics say all this concern is part of a historical pattern, one generation that looks on the next as being corrupted by something new. Didn't it happen with radio, rock 'n' roll, comic books and television? Is it possible that the Baby Boomers -- who've turned the microscope on every aspect of their children's lives -- are just doing what their parents did now that their kids are teens? It's not an easy question to answer.
View full text of article here
San Francisco Chronicle
Katherine Seligman
Sunday, May 14, 2006
As parents become increasingly concerned, some scientists and psychologists are sounding alerts about the effects of so much wired time, much of it spent multitasking. Aside from the more visible consequences of so much screen time -- lots of children who don't get enough exercise and higher obesity rates -- they believe there may be troubling developmental, learning and social ramifications.
Meanwhile, skeptics say all this concern is part of a historical pattern, one generation that looks on the next as being corrupted by something new. Didn't it happen with radio, rock 'n' roll, comic books and television? Is it possible that the Baby Boomers -- who've turned the microscope on every aspect of their children's lives -- are just doing what their parents did now that their kids are teens? It's not an easy question to answer.
View full text of article here
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