Digital Tech and Kids

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?

Beware of the Blob--I mean Blog!

This week I want to blog about blogging. I am new to blogging, and trying to get all my thoughts and details organized is like wrestling a blob. Just when I think I know where my writing is going, it changes into The Blob! Blogging is not new; it has been around since the 1990's--according to New York Magazine the first blog was created in 1994 by Justin Hall, a Swarthmore student. I had thought blogging was a more recent invention! By 1997, Jorn Barger used the work Weblog for logging the Web, but Blog became the word of choice in 1999. In late 1999 Blogger becomes the first popular free blog site. Soon, blogs become one of the most popular forms of self expression on the internet. New York Magazine also included one of the first people, but certainly not the last, fired for something she discussed in her blog--Heather Armstrong has this distinction. Her website is called Dooce and is still up and running. Digressing here (but I think it is important!), last week I wrote about Shae Allen's termination because of what she wrote in her blog. It's interesting to note that Armstrong, on her About page, addresses her experience:  "My advice to you is BE YE NOT SO STUPID." Armstrong goes on to advise that writing about work in a blog should never be attempted unless supervisors and bosses know and give their blessings. No one is as wise as those who have learned from experience!            

Blogging continues to be a popular pastime and career. Yes, there are those out there who blog for a living. Armstrong's inclusion of ads on her blog was so successful her husband was able to quit his job and manage the blog business.  Google's AdSense began in 2003 and still runs strong. Blogging continued to grow in popularity, and in 2004 Merriam-Webster's "Word of the Year" was blog. The Huffington Post launched in 2005 as a community of blogs; thousands of unpaid bloggers contributed material. Blogging.org reports that in 2012 the U.S. has at least 42 million blogs, and more than 300 million people read or watch a blog monthly. Eighty-one percent of bloggers will never make $100 from their blogs, but 8% will earn enough to support their family, and 2% will make $150,000 while blogging one to two hours daily. Wouldn't we all like to be in that 2%?

Why do people blog? I'm sure the reasons can be as different as the people who blog, but common sense tells us that people blog because they want to express their opinions or share their knowledge or experiences on a particular topic. Many want a public platform to display their political views or their stance on important topics. Ali Luke tells his readers that bloggers typically fall into seven types:  niche expert, business owner, professional blogger, journal writer, platform-builder, product promoter, and freelancer. I follow several blogs. One Good Thing by Jillee is a good example of a blog that crosses the gamut of Luke's seven types. Jill is a business owner, she is a professional blogger, and she fits into the niche type as her blogs are generally how-to advice. Following her blogs has taught me lots about household tips, but she also talks about going to blogging conventions. She spotlights other bloggers in her blog. One Good Thing by Jillee led me to BlogHer, a platform for many bloggers to share their ideas. BlogHer is an amazing site with blogs for women by women (yes, a few men too!) and they pay for content. For the business owner, blogging is perfect for getting your message to customers and potential customer and for promoting your product. With the ability for readers to share blogs they like, blogging is an easy method to spread the word about you and your business. The journal writers are those bloggers who write in a narrative, often about personal experiences and daily life.Leanne Shirtliffe ~ Ironic Mom's blog fits this category. Her motto is If you can't laugh at yourself, laugh at your kids; all of us who are parents can certainly appreciate finding humor in the daily grind of life. Read her blog Children, Swearing, and the Middle Finger for a good laugh.

Mena Trott and her husband founded Six Apart, a company whose products have enabled people to become online publishers--in other words, bloggers. In her Ted Talk shared here, she discusses writing a personal blog, detailing the ups and downs of every day life. She makes an important point that personal blogs are a record of who we are. As I listened to her, I thought about future archeologists digging and researching into the 21st century. They may find computer fragments and remnants of our trash, but they may also find these written records that show how we lived, how we loved, and how we met our experiences with life and death. Just as we read letters from Civil War soldiers or maybe letters from our grandmother to our grandfather, someday others will read our blogs and know that the human experience is shared--even through the centuries.

I have included statistics and hot links in this blog--not just to show I know how to research but to show you where the research came from. As bloggers we have a responsibility to give quality content. We want to trust the blogs we read; we want to trust that these writers know what they are talking about. If I'm writing about a personal event, I might exaggerate some things (which is OK as it is my story), but if I am giving advice about the stock market, you want to know that I am knowledgeable about financial matters. This leads me to another important point about writing for an audience--we must spell correctly and write grammatically correct sentences. If we are writing in dialect or for effect, that's great, but if our readers see mistake after mistake, our credibility slides and so does our number of readers. I know I sound like an old lady English teacher (that is my background), but we are often judged by how we express ourselves--whether spoken or written.

If you decide to write a blog, don't let the white page scare you. You have to start somewhere, and the best bloggers are those who are passionate about their topics. Share with friends and family or let them "discover" you on their own. Realize that everyone who reads your blog will not agree with you. A local newspaper reporter told me that people won't agree with everything we write, but the fact that they replied or commented means they read our work and cared enough to respond. Disagreement may lead to conversation. So tackle your blob, I mean blog, and see what happens!

 

 

 



ARE YOU MOBILE?

You don't know how much you depend on your mobile phone until you don't have it. This spring my Galaxy S3 smart phone was damaged by an over abundance of soy sauce! While waiting for my replacement phone, I had to use an old Kyocera flip phone. There was nothing smart about this phone. To text I had to use the numeric key pad; it was a frustrating week, but I did have use of a phone. My household is much like millions of others; my cell phone is my only house phone. Having to use the Kyocera truly emphasized to me how dependent I am on the services provided by my Galaxy S3. That week also taught be that having a phone that is mobile is a must.

Before I get into the mobile age in which we live, let's reminisce on how far the telephone has evolved. We all know Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in the late 1870s; actually he was the first to the patent office!  Massachusetts was the first state with regular telephone lines and in 1878 the first telephone company was formed--Bell Telephone (now AT&T). The first pay phone came about in 1889. You've seen the old movies where the caller had to put the listening device to his or her ear and speak into a separate speaking device--it was clunky but it worked. Telephones evolved to rotary dialing, and in 1941 the first touch-tone system was installed. By the 1970s the cordless phone had made its appearance, and the early 1990s gave rise to the first digital cordless phones. Research into cellular phones began in the late 1940s, with the first portable cell phone used in 1973. Remember those huge bag phones? We all tried to find a way to afford those so we could be "in" but also so we could be mobile. From tin cans connected by a string to walkie-talkies to the smart phone--we digital immigrants have seen quite a revolution and evolution in communication devices.

Today's smart phones are truly smart; they are masters of multi-tasking. My phone can make and receive calls, texts and voicemails, serve as a camera, capture my email, take me to the internet for information or online shopping, and provide me with music, movies, books, social media, newspapers, magazines, pictures, etc. One handy product I can put in my pocket and take anywhere--what could be easier? My smart phone can even take the place of my desktop computer. In fact, Business Insider tells us that in 2011 smart phone sales exceeded personal computer sales for the first time ever. It appears that the digital age is moving quickly to the mobile age--the device must be portable, easy to connect, and give us access to everything.  Globally, mobile phone users (using something like my old Kyocera) still outnumber the smart phone users, but this number changes daily.

 We are changing from sitting at the desktop to reclining in a chair to use our computers.  A 2012 report from the USC Annenberg School predicts the personal desktop computer is on the way out; laptop use will also dwindle. The replacement--tablets. The tablet is a "'lean-back'" device as users sit back to use it. The "'lean forward'" nature of the personal computer makes users go to the desktop and lean over a keyboard. Tablet users take the device wherever they go. The same Business Insider referenced earlier gives statistics to indicate tablet use is steadily rising and even extending through the traditional evening prime time period. Ever use your mobile devices while watching TV?

When I first read this, I was surprised. A tablet replace my desktop and two monitors? Never! However, as I think about this, I see this is probably a realistic prediction. For hard core desktop publishing, bookkeeping, etc. I see the big desktop computer still being used--at least in my case. It's hard to beat the two monitors when designing newsletters, flyers, and other publications. I do like to sit back and use my touch screen laptop for lots of other activities, and it can be connected to another monitor or the smart TV.

When I travel, I really like to take my Galaxy tablet. The tablet has all the bells and whistles of the desktop without the size and weight. If we think about tablets, they are designed for most of our senses: we can hear audio content, see colorful, engaging content, and touch the screen. The tablet contains all the types apps I use on other devices and has a Bluetooth keyboard, so I can work on spreadsheets or blogs. While sitting in a doctor's office I can catch up on the AP news, scan magazine articles, connect with SEC football news, read and reply to email, and play games. This last activity is probably one that many of us think of when we think of the smart phone or the tablet--playing games. That same Business Insider reports shows that game apps have blasted by Nintendo DS sales by hundreds of thousands of downloads or sales since about March of 2011.

I began this blog with the history of the telephone, and I think the tablet has developed in a similar way. Just as we began with the basic big telephone we did also with the early computer. As the telephone evolved, it became smaller, portable, and multi-tasking. The early computer has gone through a loosely similar evolution from the large desktop machine to the laptop to the tablet. Smaller is not always better, but it seems that mobile is. So what's next? Greg Satell cites Kaku's Caveman Law: Whenever there is a conflict between modern technology and the desires or [sic] our primitive ancestors, these primitive desires win each time. Satell believes the next products will be "not only vastly more powerful, but also more natural and eventually disappear altogether." Intriguing thought--devices that will be so ubiquitous we won't even notice them. That reminds me--have you heard about Samsung's new smart watch!!