A child’s view on technology’s harm

I was interested to read Stuart Dredge’s discussion of whether tablet computers are harming children’s ability to read (Are tablet computers harming our children’s ability to read?, 24 August). It’s an important subject, but it might be useful to note that there has never been a new technology of communications that wasn’t presumed to have negative effects, particularly on the young. Sometimes, however, one is reminded that there are perhaps other ways of thinking about how technology affects children. I’ve been doing a lot of background research for an essay examining the possible social, cultural and, crucially, neurological effects of smart technology on children – it’s all still a bit vague (worth remembering that these smart technologies are new, the iPad only coming on to the market in 2010, so research is playing catch-up). Then a new perspective emerged from a surprising source. I was talking to a childcare worker, who said that she had been doing an exercise with a young girl using a booklet called You’re One of a Kind, in which the child responds to questions such as “your favourite colour/animal?” or “how tall/old are you?”. One question was: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The child replied: “I want to be a phone so that my parents will pay more attention to me.” A four-year-old’s brutal judgment on adult absorption with technology.

Professor Michael Tracey
University of Colorado at Boulder


http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/26/a-childs-view-on-technologys-harm

How sad -- people really do have their priorities out of whack. It's not the phone's fault, it's the parents'.

It's been said before but I really feel sorry for most of todays kids,they seem to spend most of their time playing on Computors or walking around with a Phone stuck in their ears.It,s the same with my Grandchildren
why I don't know,across the road from me there is a large wood of about 200 acres and plenty of green fields,when I was young I spent hours playing there.

Cuchulain wrote:I was interested to read Stuart Dredge’s discussion of whether tablet computers are harming children’s ability to read (Are tablet computers harming our children’s ability to read?, 24 August). It’s an important subject, but it might be useful to note that there has never been a new technology of communications that wasn’t presumed to have negative effects, particularly on the young. Sometimes, however, one is reminded that there are perhaps other ways of thinking about how technology affects children. I’ve been doing a lot of background research for an essay examining the possible social, cultural and, crucially, neurological effects of smart technology on children – it’s all still a bit vague (worth remembering that these smart technologies are new, the iPad only coming on to the market in 2010, so research is playing catch-up). Then a new perspective emerged from a surprising source. I was talking to a childcare worker, who said that she had been doing an exercise with a young girl using a booklet called You’re One of a Kind, in which the child responds to questions such as “your favourite colour/animal?” or “how tall/old are you?”. One question was: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The child replied: “I want to be a phone so that my parents will pay more attention to me.” A four-year-old’s brutal judgment on adult absorption with technology.

Professor Michael Tracey
University of Colorado at Boulder


http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/26/a-childs-view-on-technologys-harm

That's so sad, all kids need is love and attention. It makes me sad to hear of people taking their kids for granted. You only get that time once and all too soon they are grown up

One chance to raise your children into little adults, if you'd rather be on your phone I'd question why you bothered in the first place.