NYTimes | I recently watched my sister perform an act of magic.
We were sitting in a restaurant, trying to have a conversation, but
her children, 4-year-old Willow and 7-year-old Luca, would not stop
fighting. The arguments — over a fork, or who had more water in a glass —
were unrelenting.
Like a magician quieting a group of children by pulling a rabbit out
of a hat, my sister reached into her purse and produced two shiny Apple
iPads, handing one to each child. Suddenly, the two were quiet. Eerily
so. They sat playing games and watching videos, and we continued with
our conversation.
After our meal, as we stuffed the iPads back into their magic storage bag, my sister felt slightly guilty.
“I don’t want to give them the iPads at the dinner table, but if it
keeps them occupied for an hour so we can eat in peace, and more
importantly not disturb other people in the restaurant, I often just
hand it over,” she told me. Then she asked: “Do you think it’s bad for
them? I do worry that it is setting them up to think it’s O.K. to use
electronics at the dinner table in the future.”
I did not have an answer, and although some people might have
opinions, no one has a true scientific understanding of what the future
might hold for a generation raised on portable screens.
“We really don’t know the full neurological effects of these technologies yet,” said Dr. Gary Small, director of the Longevity Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind.” “Children, like adults, vary quite a lot, and some are more sensitive than others to an abundance of screen time.”
But Dr. Small says we do know that the brain is highly sensitive to stimuli, like iPads and smartphone screens, and if people spend too much time
with one technology, and less time interacting with people like parents
at the dinner table, that could hinder the development of certain
communications skills.
So will a child who plays with crayons at dinner rather than a coloring application on an iPad be a more socialized person? Fist tap Dale.
