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  • meliaesc@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    The internet has drastically and measurably changed the behavior and attention span of children.

    • dustyData@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      We said the same thing. Of the TV. And the radio before that. And of the comics before that. And of the theater before that. And of the circus before that. Etc.

      We ought to be careful of many pseudoscientific claims. Specially in psychology. We don’t have a control group of children before the advent of the internet to compare today’s children with. The “i 'member!” crowd are now all adults, a group who are notoriously biased and bad at being objective regarding their own childhood.

      We can compare today’s children with and without certain habits, and indeed it has been found that mobile internet access, and social media specially, are detrimental to children in some personality development aspects and cognitive skills. But this is not a pass to make broad generalizations of entire generations of all children and parents across the globe. That’s just generational bigotry.

      Like, different habits lead to different behaviors? Sure, no shit. But that doesn’t change the fundamental make up of human beings.

      • meliaesc@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        I’m a little confused why you don’t think there have been journaled studies on the differences between children with access to technology and those without. Some examples are impoverished communities and countries and people in strict religious sects. TV, radio, books, they have all had an impact on they way brains develop and process information. Biologically no, if you pluck a newborn and place them in North Sentinel Island, they will adapt perfectly. But that’s the thing, the human mind is meant to adapt to its surroundings. The surrounding of the majority of children today is being absolutely bombarded with distractions, and it has a measurable affect on behavior across the board.