Are we too wired for our own good? I won't write much on this either... as the article you just read was fairly lengthy. I will say that as a mother I worry that my not-yet-three year old son knows how to navigate Youtube and that my one year old wants nothing more but to play with my phone. As a teacher, I see my students every single day literally stuck to their smart phones. When they think I'm not looking they sneak a look at facebook or quickly write a text. If there is a lull in class they immediately plug in their headphones. They do not want me to do examples with them on the overhead because they just like looking at things on the digital projector... they would rather be passively observing some digitalized version of what I am explaining to them in real words and symbols that they can tangibly see and hear. It does worry me because I can see that their ability to concentrate has shortened from only a decade or so ago when I was in high school. It also worries me because they are addicted to the constant information being put out there for them to see. When I was in high school we had to dial-up to connect to the internet and the noise it made was so loud my parents knew everytime I was going online. They got an internet bill each month saying how many hours had been used, and if we went over I had some answers to give. Plus, even though we were connected to social sites like MSN Messanger and ICQ, our access was limited by the sheer physicality of accessing a computer. So even if we were addicted we had to limited our screen time because we simply could not spend all day sitting at our computers. Today's kids face a different world... one which we will have to learn to navigate sooner or later!
