I don't know that anyone could have predicted how quickly and how pervasively social media has become a part of our daily lives. Let's talk about Facebook. I remember when Facebook was new, and people of my generation were timid about joining. I was delighted to be reacquainted with former students and cheerleaders. I enjoy seeing pictures of grandchildren that live nearby and far away. I can easily contact friends in other countries. My business page allows me to update courses being offered, to share safety articles, and to talk with coaches.
Facebook has a downside that we have all experienced. We are inundated with silly messages and endless posts about everything people do. In fact, I'm learning that many of my "friends" post too much personal information--and information I don't want to know. I have seen too much self-centeredness and too much "me, me, me." Facebook is also addictive. Yes, I was one of those gamers who asked everyone for a piece or a token or a life. It is too easy to get sucked into the games.
Paul Boboc believes that Facebook has changed the way we connect with people; instead of speaking to people face to face, we now post or message. Face to face communication allows us to see people's reactions to our conversation; it allows us to use nonverbal while we speak. Facebook takes that away, just like email does. Other studies show that we are disconnecting from people to connect electronically. We are spending too much time online, and too little time with others. A mental health website indicates that too much Facebook use by teens can lead to "more aggression, depression, anxiety, narcissism, low self-esteem and antisocial behavior." This is just one example of many articles that indicate too much Facebook can be harmful to our health.
So what do we do? Just as we discussed last week, moderation is the key--whether adults or children. We all need time with "real" friends to laugh, to talk, and to enjoy. Time yourself the next time you log in to Facebook. How much time daily do you spend on Facebook? How does that relate to time spent elsewhere?
What do you think? Is Facebook sucking up your time or are you able to pull away at will?
Much discussion and study has taken place with the subject of the impact of technology on young children and teenagers. I remember a few years ago, professionals were worried about the impact of television on the same groups. Would too much exposure to violence impact their mental and emotional health? Would sitting too long in front of the television adversely affect their physical health? The same types of questions are now being asked about too much time spent with digital technology--smart phones, tablets, etc. As a pediatric occupational therapist, Cris Rowan is concerned about these issues. Her article, "The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child," addresses some of her concerns. She, like myself, remembers when children played outside all day, climbing trees, riding bikes, jumping rope, setting up impromptu baseball games and football games. Imaginary games were the norm with children playing from dawn 'til dusk. Rowan believes technology is negatively impacting the family and adversely affecting children. a 2010 study showed that elementary children were spending an average of 7.5 hours with entertainment technology. My first reaction to this is how can any child in school spend almost 8 hours a day with entertainment technology. I don't know if this is counting time at school or not, but this statistic is disturbing to me. Rowan believes that children who sit all day with digital technology are negatively affected in achieving developmental milestones. Health and education professionals are seeing increases in physical, psychological and behavioral disorders. We know childhood obesity and diabetes are at an all-time high for children in Canada and the United States. The numbers of children with learning disorders such as ADHD, autism, and coordination disorders are increasing. Children need "movement, touch, human connection, and exposure to nature" for healthy development. Spending 7.5 hours with digital technology does not give much time for nature or movement. Touching a screen or pressing buttons does not give the same sensory stimulation or brain development as playing with Lincoln logs or playing kickball.
Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a childhood development expert, shares these thoughts. She agrees that children need to play--playing stimulates learning and exposes children to a variety of sensory stimulations. Children need to manipulate things physically--not through touching a screen. Carlsson-Paige reports that experts are seeing a decrease in creativity in children, especially younger children. A contributing factor to this decrease is the decline in play time. Playtime allows children to learn, to question, to create, to lead and follow, and to solve--all activities children need for healthy development. Interacting with "the screen" doesn't fully involve the child's senses, brain, and body. According to Carlsson-Paige, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity have recommended that children under two should be as screen-free as possible. Screen exposure for older children should be limited.
This information was important to me as a grandmother. One of my granddaughters, Abby age 5, bought her own iPad with money she had earned (her parents chipped in $60). She was fascinated with my Galaxy tablet and wanted her own tablet. She knows how to find the games she wants and downloads them herself. Abby even beats me in "Cut the Rope"! Granddaughter Molly is a budding movie producer as she uses my tablet and phone to make videos of herself and friends. She makes up short stories and then acts them out with friends. The good news is that their parents limit their time on the devices as I do. All my granddaughters enjoy playing board games--the actual games, not the digital versions. They like moving the pieces around the board in Sorry and holding the cards in Uno. They enjoy their Pet Salon play pieces and their Barbie dolls and American Girl dolls. It seems, as with most things in life, that moderation is the key. A mixed experience with real-time play, reading books, and screen play will give children many opportunities to develop as they should. The digital device should not be the "go to" item to make a child happy, to stop tears, or to use as a babysitter. Let's not forget what the experts advised above--lots of hugs and face to face time with family and friends. Children need the interaction with others to develop normal family relationships and healthy social skills.
In a related item of interest, Enterprise City Schools has a new initiative called Connect 2 Learn which allows students to bring their own devices to school. The new policy is called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Students are allowed access to the schools' filtered wireless network, using their own devices. The project was launched at six schools for first semester of 2013 and will be expanded to the other schools in fall of 2014. The guidelines are fairly clear, and parental permission is required. The rationale behind this is to help prepare students for the future, whether jobs or college. The goal is to promote "achievement, engagement and developing 21st Century Learners." No one has to buy a device, nor is anyone required to have one. I am not sure how the devices are being utilized, but I do see several advantages in the classroom. I also see disadvantages as every child will not have a digital device. As a former high school English teacher, I see opportunities for writing and creating with tablets or laptops. A disadvantage to this system was highlighted in the news recently as students in Los Angeles had to return school-issued iPads because students had hacked into the devices in order to use social media sites.
Where do you stand on the issue of children and digital devices? How do you manage real time and digital time with your children or grandchildren? Do your schools have a BYOD policy?
Are you aware of the cluttered state of the internet and the World Wide Web? I am going to add to the clutter with this blog--but I think the statistics and related studies emphasize the effects of the clutter. Aaron Elliott cites a study by LifeHack that shows a typical social media user is exposed to 54,000 words daily; that's only 63% of the information social media users get. Media content comprises the other 37% of information loaded on us daily. Words, pictures, videos, music--think of all the information we are exposed to from social media alone!
A 2011 study, Extracting Value from Chaos, tells us "the world's information is more than doubling every two years." The study computes how much digital information is generated and copied yearly. Something like 1.8 zettabytes occurred in 2011. This is astonishing information, and I don't even know what a zettabyte is! As it turns out, azettabyte is one sextillion (that's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) bytes. Measurements of digital information also include a petabyte (one quadrillion bytes or 1,024 terabytes), a exabyte (1000 petabytes), and a yottabyte (1000 zettabytes). What all this means is we are adding information to the internet in astounding proportions. Think about all the ways we personally and professionally add to the clutter--blogging, social media, news, movies, magazines, company web sites, personal web sites, etc. The Library of Congress apparently sees some of this clutter worth saving; the Library has plans to archive the 400 million tweets that Americans produce each day. As a digital immigrant who loves technology, I find these numbers mind-boggling--400 million tweets daily! And when we think of all the inane tweets we receive--why would anyone want to collect these!
I don't know how to solve the problem of internet clutter, but I do know that too much information can be debilitating on us. Information overload is not a new problem; the term was coined in 1970 by Alvin Toffler. But the amount of information we are subjected to today has grown tremendously. Think about the amount of email we receive daily, the YouTube videos we watch, the social media we use--this may be just the personal data to which we are exposed. Now think about the work-related data we use--reports, web pages, social media, research, etc. It's no wonder information overload can add to our stress. A Reuters study found that 2/3 of managers surveyed found information overload contributed to dissatisfaction with their jobs or negatively affected their personal relationships; one-third of those surveyed thought data overload affected their health.
Email overload is easy to experience, as I well know. I receive 150+ emails daily, and I generally work to move them out of my inbox.Merlin Mann (Inbox Zero) gives an interesting Google Tech Talk about how to better manage the email inbox. Mann points out that we need to take care of email immediately--delete, delegate, respond, defer, do. Before I ever watched this video, I began to take actions similar to what Mann suggests. I use Outlook so I can set the program to check for email every hour; some days I extend that to two hours. This alleviates stress for me as I am not anxious about checking every email as it arrives individually. I do not clean out my email as thoroughly as Mann suggests as I do need to see past emails in a conversation, or I need to show that I did send the right information to someone. I sort emails into folders and subfolders and delete several times a day. I suspect many of us are email hoarders, but filing and deleting when possible helps reduce my stress.
Another segment of digital technology that adds to information overload is social media. Facebook, in particular, allows me to stay in touch with former students, friends who live in other areas, and family. I also have a business Facebook page that posts safety articles for cheer coaches and class postings. I am not a Facebook addict and do not personally post often. I only use Twitter for business. I am not a Twitter fan, nor do I feel the need to let everyone know my every move. I know concerns exist about the negative effects of too much social media. Kross, et al. studied the influence Facebook has on subjective well-being in young adults. Their research shows that the more young adults used Facebook, the more their "life satisfaction levels" dropped. As we connect online, are we disconnecting with people in real life. Before texting, we actually called people to see how they are or just to chat. Convenience has taken the place of real conversations.
Information overload can make us feel stressed; stress can reduce our effectiveness in our personal relationships and our work relationships. Taking a social media break for a few days is a good idea--maybe start with one day if you are anxious about the length of the break! Can we give it up for a day or two? Ignore email on the weekend; turn off the computer or ignore the phone's icon for email. How liberating to know we don't have to check updates, postings, and emails! During the work day, take a few breaks away from the books, reports, or monitors. Look out the window, talk with a co-worker about the weather, breathe deeply and close your eyes. We need these breaks to give our minds a rest.
We talk about overuse injuries in sports, and I think a correlation can be made with the information overload syndrome. Just as we treat overuse injuries with rest and breaks from training or playing, let's take breaks from information exposure. The information will be there when we return.
Facebook has a downside that we have all experienced. We are inundated with silly messages and endless posts about everything people do. In fact, I'm learning that many of my "friends" post too much personal information--and information I don't want to know. I have seen too much self-centeredness and too much "me, me, me." Facebook is also addictive. Yes, I was one of those gamers who asked everyone for a piece or a token or a life. It is too easy to get sucked into the games.
Paul Boboc believes that Facebook has changed the way we connect with people; instead of speaking to people face to face, we now post or message. Face to face communication allows us to see people's reactions to our conversation; it allows us to use nonverbal while we speak. Facebook takes that away, just like email does. Other studies show that we are disconnecting from people to connect electronically. We are spending too much time online, and too little time with others. A mental health website indicates that too much Facebook use by teens can lead to "more aggression, depression, anxiety, narcissism, low self-esteem and antisocial behavior." This is just one example of many articles that indicate too much Facebook can be harmful to our health.
