PLUGGING IN
The Pro’s and Con’s of a
High-Tech Childhood
The American Academy of Pediatrics (1999) has called the
negative influence of mass media on children a
Major Health Concern.
A 2003 poll by Common Sense Media found that 9 out of 10
parents believe that exposure to the media is contributing to
children becoming:
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too materialistic
using more coarse and vulgar language
engaging in sexual activity at younger ages
experiencing a loss of innocence too soon
and behaving in anti-social or even violent ways
Personal, social, educational, physical, familial,
moral and financial ramifications:
Multi –Problematic:
Abuse of Television viewing in children can lead to:
http://www.eyeintheear.com/tv.html
 Social isolation, lack of social skills
 Obesity, eating disorders, poor body image
 Exposure to violence, crude language, sexual material, and
other age in-appropriate material
 Decrease in physical activity, actually changes metabolic
rate
 Decrease in imagination
 Less family time/communication
 Changes brain development in the young
 Creates a ‘gimme’ society through excessive advertising,
materialistic children, ingratitude
 Attention deficit disorder
 poor school performance
 Creates unrealistic expectations for a happy ending/simple
solution to big problems in half an hour
 Promotes stereotypes, racial discrimination, low self-esteem
in minorities
Abuse of computer use in
adolescence can lead to:
 Social isolation, lack of social skills
 Exposure to sexual predators, unsolicited or unmonitored
pornography, accidental sharing of personal information
 Less family time/communication
 Inappropriate chat rooms
 Creation of a new form of social cliques, ‘mean teens’, cyber
bullying, cyber gossip (via My Space.com, Instant
messaging, chat rooms, etc.)
 Decrease in physical activity
 Easy access to sites that promote harmful information, e.g.
Suicide sites, weapon construction sites, etc.
 Instant messaging instead of physically playing outside in
groups
Abuse of use of video games in
adolescence can lead to:
 Social isolation
 Aggressive or violent behavior
 Desensitizes youth to human suffering
 Creates unrealistic time/space relationship
expectations
 carpal tunnel syndrome or ‘gamers thumb”
 Decrease in physical activity
 Decrease in imaginative play
 Decrease in family time/communication
WHAT USED TO
BE CONSIDERED
PLAY TIME IS
NOW ALMOST
EXCLUSIVELY
MEDIA TIME!
PLA
Y! PLAY!
PLAY!
SCARY STATISTICS:
 Two-thirds of adolescents have TVs in their rooms.
 Children spend four and a half-hours per day, on average, in
front of a television, computer, and video game screens, often
alone.
 The average American Adolescent spends about 28 hours
weekly watching TV and only spend 38.5 MINUTES weekly
in meaningful conversation
 Each hour of TV watching is associated with an increase of
167 calories in their dietary intake
 Advertising is King. Adolescents dumped $558 billion, this
year alone, into retail coffers. Mostly on fast-food, sweets,
snacks and beverages. As the Nickelodeon motto has it, “Kids
Rule!”
Each hour of screen time leads to a 12 minute
Reduction of sleep time. With an average of 7 hours
In front of a screen daily (yes, Bret…I know you did the
Math already!) that equals 1 hour and 14 minutes of sleep
Lost every night.
Brain development + too much early screen stimulus
=
ADD or ADHD
Role Models for
Girls…I’m impressed!
CHAT ROOMS:
Fun and exciting place to meet
new people…people who are
just like you. People who are
honest about themselves and
have only your best interest
at heart…
Looks like a match to me!
There is light at
the end of the
tunnel!
 Adolescents who form global Internet communities show signs of
developing their own styles of leadership and social involvement
 Young people, who are geographically remote, disabled or
housebound due to illness, may find online chatting an important
form of communication
 Homework and school projects have taken on an entire new
dimension as the Internet has opened up a world of resources
 Multitudes of online help-sites, support groups, and crisis lines
(including suicide watch) are easily accessible to teens who are too
afraid to ask a parent, teacher or peer
 Adolescents can access information about safe sexual practices,
which can prevent AIDS, STD’s and pregnancy
 For those who have difficulty with face-to-face relationships, the
Internet may allow them to more easily express themselves and
thereby experience social connectedness
 middle-school children from low-income households with free
Our approach as a society is to except
this reality and engineer our lives to
adjust healthily to technology. If
we can put the needs of our
children, nature and society first,
perhaps we can carefully navigate
the trouble-strewn media path and
enjoy the benefits while dodging
the dangers.
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.