Narmeen Rehman
Bloomfield Hawkeye
Bloomfield Hills HS
1st Place
Division 2, News Writing
Environmental, Health or Science
She looked around the room and all she saw was glowing faces looking down.
“As much as I don’t like to admit it, I’m addicted. It seems like we all are,” said BHHS senior Alesha Kotian. “Nowadays, the media is everywhere and the amount of ‘screen time’ or time [teenagers] spend staring at their phones or computer screens is alarming. It’s pathetic. It truly saddens me that our personal connections are now being limited to a screen.”
Between everything from television to Twitter, the American Academy of Pediatrics agrees with Kotian finding that the average teenager spends over eleven hours in front of a screen consuming various forms of media as opposed to the recommended two hours a day. With teenagers spending more time in front of the screen, the question of social implications arises. Arlene Pellicane, author of Growing Up Social, believes that this increase in media exposure is building a social disconnect.
“Our homes are experiencing a subtle shift. Parents and children alike are growing more comfortable with spending increasing amounts of time with devices. Unknowingly, we’ve accepted a trade-off. We might be sharing the same space as our family members, but we are not emotionally connecting with each other as we are looking at screens.”
Pellicane believes that this emotional wall is not only building in the home, but in all of our relationships too. “Navigating relationships on a screen can seem more transactional than with humans. You can delete friends who bother you and just get new ones. People can be treating you like a commodity; they are there for your convenience to meet your needs.”
For students growing up in the digital age, researchers at UCLA found that this attitude towards relationships following prolonged exposure to screens could be a red flag. The study sent one group of sixth graders to the Pali Institute, an educational camp just outside of Los Angeles, where electronic devices were prohibited. While one group was device-free, the other group of sixth graders followed their daily routine with regular media consumption. Five days later, each student was tested and the results showed that the group of students who did not have any access to such devices was significantly better at reading human emotions, as opposed to the group who had regular access to telephones, tablets, and television.
“Honestly, we were pretty surprised that just five days would have that effect. In such a short time, the kids got better at recognizing emotion,” said Yalda T. Uhls, senior researcher at the UCLA Children’s Digital Media Center. “But we think this is good news because if indeed lack of face-to-face time is changing people’s ability to understand emotion, our results suggest you can disconnect for five days and get better – it takes so little time to reconnect.”
“Clearly, it’s time for a change. If five days of being away from technology makes us better, imagine the 365 days that we spend in front of these devices,” said Kotian. “We need technology, but more than that we need to look at the consequences and find better ways of incorporating it into our lives. Like all things in life, we need to find a healthy balance.”
“The issue really is not that staring at screens is going to make you bad at recognizing emotions. It’s more that if you’re looking at screens, you’re not looking at the world,” Uhls said. “Neuroscience has found that the brain changes throughout the life span, so the fact is that we are learning from our environment all the time. And if we’re not looking at the environment around us, the world around us, chances are we’re not learning from it.”
While prolonged screen time may have adverse effects on learning in some parts of the brain Pellicane believes there are some perks that cannot be ignored.
“Due to excess screen time, parts of our brain that are in charge of one-on-one people skills, empathy, and sustained concentration are weakening. However, at the same time, screen time is strengthening other parts. For example, quick decision making, visual acuity, and multitasking.”
Keeping in mind the potential positive effects of screen time as well as the implications to relationships, districts like Bloomfield Hills are debating whether or not to integrate technology into the classrooms.
“Our district had been looking at the possibility of going one-to-one for several years. Seeing the potential of the type of works student had to do and the ability to move towards paperless was exciting. Additionally, giving all the students the same access to technology was considered,” said Andy Gignac, vice-principal of West Hills Middle School (WHMS). However, Uhls believes that all sides should be considered before introducing technology into the classroom.
“You can’t learn non-verbal emotional cues from a screen in the way you can learn it from face-to-face communication. It’s going to reduce children’s face to face interactions with the teacher and each other. Research indicates that there are important social costs, and schools really need to think about that.”
This past fall, WHMS officially decided to distribute iPads to the middle schoolers. In October, fourth and fifth graders received one iPad for every two students for the classroom. By Mid-November, the iPads were checked out to 6th and 8th graders for the year.
“I was apprehensive about a few things. But, the potential is endless. I will say that my initial reaction has been exceeded as I have witnessed how the devices are transforming learning at WHMS,” said Gignac. “Students have access to information at their fingertips all the time. I have heard feedback from many teachers that the students have been very connected to their learning and the devices have played a role in that. The students really are united when someone runs into a problem; they work together to figure out a solution.”
With regards to how the tablets transform the way students interactions with one another and the relationships they are building, Gignac believes the students’ socializing skills may have changed for the better.
“There has been an interesting social interaction that I didn’t anticipate. I was surprised prior to rolling out the devices, I really thought it would completely interfere with their social skills,” said Gignac. “Now, I believe that their social skills are evolving as they interact around the technology sometimes. I think that the pros outweigh the cons. I think that tablets, such as iPads, take the traditional classroom and open up a door to a vast oasis of information and opportunity.”
“Should kids not look at screens anymore? Unless you want to move to Siberia – and I am only saying that figuratively, because chances are even Siberia has the Internet. I think that ship has sailed,” said Uhls. “I love media, I’m pro-media and content, my kids are media- savvy, and I enjoy the best it offers, it’s just that it’s very important to find a healthy balance.”
“Sure, [students] social skills might be affected by screen time. But, you can’t blame students for the amount of time they’re in front of the screen. So, I think that it’s unfair to say that our generations social skills are getting worse. It’s just that the way we are socializing is different than any time before,” said BHHS senior Esther Yi. “The reality is that technology is our future – there’s a reason why it’s everywhere and why schools are starting us with it from a younger age. As time goes on, each generation will be exposed more and more to technology. There might be costs, but we need to know the effects of the appropriate amount of screen time and how to use technology in order to be successful members of society.”