Have you noticed that modern kids no longer want toys for Christmas?That's right; the basketballs, blocks and Barbie dolls are way too old-school. Modern kids prefer electronics -- mesmerizing and very expensive electronics like iPads, phones, and sophisticated (often violent) computer games.
Jim Tonkowich's article begins with this phenomena but goes on to cite several reasons why this is a pretty alarming cultural development. Read on.
[Chad] Dukes is nervous about all this. From his point of view, giving all sorts of electronics to kids is "progressively taking them further and further out of really doing anything other than being in a room looking at a screen."
He went on: "I worry that kids aren't even getting toys any more…. They're getting electronics and it's kind of wrapping them up in their own little world. Get on a bus or get in a cab or go to a bar and tell me how many people you see interacting with one another and tell me how many people you see flipping through their phones… Well, fast forward to a new generation of children now who are being raised on this technology. Are we even going to speak to each other any more?"
Later in the article, Matt Richtel quotes Dr. Michael Rich (Harvard Medical School and the Center on Media and Child Health) from a New York Times article titled, "Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction."
Regarding kids multitasking with all the available technologies, Rich says, "Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing…. The worry is we're raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently." That is, they will not be adults with bad study habits, but ones incapable of certain cognitive functions.
Richtel cites studies indicating that during downtime, our brains become "surprisingly active." That's when we synthesize information and connect ideas. It's the phenomenon of waking up at 2AM with the solution to some knotty problem that baffled you all day. Dr. Rich told him, "Downtime to the brain is what sleep is to the body, but kids are in a constant state of stimulation." He implored parents to "Bring back boredom."
Many of us who are older and immersed in technology can relate to Nicholas Carr's comment in his 2008 Atlantic article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" When reading he says, "I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I'm always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle." What has happened to adults as a result of technology is happening to children in a much more profound way at a much faster rate.
And the problem for the Church extends far beyond deep reading. Christian spirituality is built on prayer, study, meditation, and contemplation all of which require the ability to concentrate and attend for more than a couple of minutes at a time.
