Almost everyone has experienced a zombie-like feeling after a night of poor-quality sleep. Research shows that a single night of sleep deprivation can have a negative result on cognition and behavior.[1]Sleep deprivation for children can be particularly costly. Good quality sleep helps children with healthy brain development. That is why Dr. Bennett includes a whole lesson on how to protect your child’s sleep in her Connected Family Online Course. By following research-backed guidelines, setting sensible rules, and setting up your house to optimize learning and safety, your family can avoid costly digital injuries. If you are interested in learning about how to create a safe screen environment at home while discovering ways to promote open and honest communication within your family then check out our GKIS Screen Safety Essentials Course. In today’s GKIS article, you’ll discover how a child’s learning can be negatively affected by lack of sleep and how to avoid it.
How does lack of sleep impact a child’s learning?
Attention and Concentration
A child needs an average of 9 to 11 hours of sleep each night for optimal health and learning performance.[2]Poor sleep affects the functional connectivity of the prefrontal cortex. This means that a sleepy child will experience problems in their ability to focus and sustain attention in a learning environment. Further, a 2009 study demonstrated that sleep may cause the child to become overly sensitized to reward stimuli.[3] An overly sensitized person craves rewards so much that if they can’t get the desired activity immediately, they may resort to acting out and tantrums. To understand more about this process, check out Dr. B’s whiteboard video GetKidsInternetSafe from Sensory Overload on the Dr. Tracy Bennett YouTube Channel.
Memory
Mental lapse refers to a moment of unexplained forgetting, like walking into a room and forgetting what you came in for. A sleepless night slows down brain cell activity, sometimes resulting in impairing daytime mental lapses. A 2017 UCLA study demonstrated that lack of sleep disrupts the brain cells’ ability to communicate with one another, resulting in a mental lapse that negatively affects the way we perceive and react to things around us.[4]
Learning and Information Processing
In Dr. Bennett’s book Screen Time in the Mean Time, she explains that when we don’t get enough sleep our brain’s housekeeping and memory consolidation tasks remain undone, leaving us unable to efficiently acquire or retrieve information. Without good focus, attention, and memory, kids are unable to process information and understand and learn new concepts.
Creativity
Sleep deprivation can also limit planning, creativity, and the ability to think outside of the box. According to a study from the University of Loughborough, sleep deprivation can negatively impact a person’s creativity by impairing one’s ability to create new ideas and change strategies.[5]
How does a lack of sleep impact mood and behavior?
Sleepy Throughout the Day
If your child chronically gets insufficient sleep at night, their body may compensate by falling into a pattern of daytime hypersomnia. This is a condition when someone repeatedly is falling asleep throughout the day.[6]
Mood Swings
Lack of sleep can be a main contributing factor in mood swings.[7] Moodiness and irritability can negatively affect relationships, leading to deeper problems and feelings of hopelessness. If sleep deprivation is habitual, it can contribute to clinical conditions like anxiety, depression, and even psychosis!
Decision-Making
Little to no sleep can also affect how well we make decisions.[8] That means that kids who have sleep deprivation will have a difficult time prioritizing tasks like when to brush their teeth or do homework. If your child seems to get stuck on even the smallest of choices, consider if sleep may be the issue.
How can lack of sleep affect learning in children of different ages?
Teenagers tend to have more sleepless nights than younger children. Not only do parents allow later bedtimes for teens, but they also stay up chatting with friends and playing video games. Without the right amount of sleep, teens have more trouble focusing and learning in class compared to younger children. According to the CDC Healthy Schools, teens ages 13-18 need 8-10 hours of sleep.[9]
How can parents help their children get better sleep and improve their learning?
Ten percent of American children are estimated to have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Children with ADHD often struggle in school because they get distracted and have difficulty following through. Kids with ADHD also tend to LOVE screen technology. Not only do screens offer them a world of on-demand discovery, but they can also gain expertise over time and earn much-needed social capital that they may have difficulty earning in real life. To help your family make their way through the world with a fun, positive connection and better screen safety, access Dr. Tracy Bennett’s expert parent and family coaching videos through our GKIS Screen Safety Essentials Course. In today’s GKIS article, we will discuss the benefits of technology and app recommendation for children with ADHD.
What is ADHD?
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. Children with ADHD have trouble paying attention, controlling their behavior, and can be very active as if driven by a motor.[1] ADHD can impact emotions, behaviors, and the ability to learn new things. It is usually diagnosed in childhood and often lasts into adulthood. About 60% to 85% of the children diagnosed with ADHD at a young age continue to have it as teens, although symptoms might change with age.[2]
The Three Types of ADHD
Inattentive Type
ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive Type is characterized by a daydreamer who has difficulty paying attention, listening, and following through with tasks. Children with this type of ADHD are often overlooked until late grade school because they are quiet and not disruptive. However, their ability to function to their true ability is impaired in all contexts of their lives. It has been shown that more girls are diagnosed with inattentive ADHD than boys.[3]
Symptoms of ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive Type
Often has trouble giving close attention to details and makes careless mistakes
Has difficulty sustaining attention to certain tasks or play activities
Frequently distracted and doesn’t seem to pay attention to those speaking directly to them
Often does not follow instructions and fails to complete tasks
Has difficulties organizing tasks and activities
Doesn’t enjoy and avoids activities that require them to use mental effort
Hyperactive-Impulsive Type
ADHD, Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type is characterized by a child who fidgets, has trouble staying in their seat, and talks a lot. It is hard for them to stay still for long. They tend to be impulsive and interrupt others. It is more common for a child with hyperactivity to have more accidents and sustain frequent injuries. They also tend to be identified at younger ages because of their acting out potential.
Symptoms of ADHD, Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type
Frequently fidgets with or taps hands or feet
Leaves the seat in situations when remaining seated is expected
Runs or climbs in situations where it is inappropriate
Is “on the go” and doesn’t seem to get tired
Talks excessively
Answers questions before the person has time to finish it
ADHD Combined Type
ADHD, Combined Type is characterized by a child that has trouble paying attention and difficulty sitting still and staying quiet. This is the most common type of ADHD. It is characterized by the symptoms from both the inattentive criteria list and the hyperactive-impulsive criteria list.
How Technology Helps Children With ADHD
Children with ADHD commonly struggle with time management, organization, and failure to focus. Technology and apps can help children with ADHD stay organized, reach their goals, and fight the urge to get distracted.
GKIS-Recommended Apps for Kids With ADHD
Rescue Time
Rescue Time is a web-based time management and analytics tool that helps children be more efficient and productive. One of the symptoms of ADHD is “distraction.” This app aims to prevent distractions and any possibilities of children getting scattered. It allows you to rate each activity from “very distractive” to “very productive” and sets goals for children while tracking progress. With all of that rescued time, be sure to plan fun family activities. For great ideas, check out Dr. B’s GKIS article, #TogetherAtHome Family-Friendly Activity Ideas
Roblox
Roblox is available for iOS and Android. It is a video game that is reported to strengthen planning skills, organization, and working memory as children learn as they go. Roblox is a game where people come together to create and imagine as they play. It is a fun game where the whole family can have fun. To learn more about the risks and benefits of Roblox, check out our The GKIS Sensible Parent’s Guide to Roblox.
News-O-Matic
News-O-Matic is available for iOS. It is a captivating app that delivers news in small chunks which is useful for older children with ADHD. The stories vary from funny to serious and have a read-aloud option for kids who struggle with reading.
Mindnode
Mindnode is available for iOS and it is designed to help children focus and be organized. It is an app that uses mind maps to help children visualize their thoughts. The map can be color-coded and contains images. Children with ADHD tend to be energetic; this app can help make sure that they stay concentrated.
Relaxation and Mindfulness Apps
Headspace
Headspace is a mindfulness app that helps children exercise, meditate, and visualize. This is beneficial because it helps them take a moment to focus and stay calm.
Toonia Colorbook
Toonia Colorbook is an app where children use coloring activities to help them relax. It can help children concentrate, calm down, and keep their minds balanced. Keeping the brain busy with something simple as coloring can have a relaxing effect.
Did you know that our activities change how our brains grow? And the way our brains work determines what activities we like to do. In other words, our brain wiring changes over time, and those changes lead us to prefer some tasks over others. These days, we spend more time on our screens than we do outside or face-to-face with other people. That means our brains are wired to function best in the virtual world. Because screens are a relatively new phenomenon in the scope of human history, we don’t know what the long-term outcome of screen use will be on our brains. Child and teen brains are especially vulnerable to rewiring issues because they are already in a massive state of change. Will this information change the way you use your screens?
Brains!
Neurons & Superhighways
Our brains are made up of millions of brain cells, called neurons. Neurons communicate with each other and help us think, move, and even breathe! Neurons are necessary for us to live. The healthier our brains are, the better our lives are.
As we age, our brains are constantly remodeling. At first, our brains use many neurons to complete one task. But with practice, our neurons form superhighways for the most efficient thinking. As we age, fewer neurons can get the same task done that used to take far more neurons. The more primitive pathways that get replaced prune away while the superhighways develop.
Our brain is its biggest when we are 10 years old! Then our gray matter (the brain tissue packed with neurons) decreases from there. At certain ages, some parts of our brain remodel more than others based on the types of learning that we are doing. For example, babies and toddlers are remodeling the brain areas responsible for attaching to others and learning a language. Teen brains are remodeling the brain areas responsible for creating abstract ideas and connecting with their peers.
Brain Thinning from Excessive Screen Use
To build healthy brains, we must take good care of ourselves and get good sleep, nutrition, and exercise. We also need to do a lot of balanced learning off-screen, not just on-screen. Doing different types of learning will build a more capable, healthier brain.
Doing only one type of learning over and over for many hours a day will build a less capable brain than learning a variety of things. In fact, studies are showing that kids who use screens seven hours a day, versus kids who do not, show thinning in many parts of the brain and lower scores on thinking and language tests.[i][ii][iii][iv] The way their brains process information is also negatively affected.[v]
Is multitasking healthy for our brains?
Many of us spend much of our day multitasking, which means going back and forth between different screen tasks and in-real-life tasks. We are doing many (multiple) tasks at the same time – going back and forth between a primary task and an interrupting task. We love to be connected to our screen devices when we are doing in-real-life things like checking our social media during homework or watching a video while at a restaurant. Most of the time that’s fun and works great. But other times our screen devices can reduce the quality of our work.
Many people think that when they are multitasking, their brains can work on everything at the same time as if the brain has a huge mental pipeline where different things flow in and out at once. But the brain can’t do many things at the same time. Instead, we have a single mental pipeline that is built to do only one thing at a time.
When you are multitasking, you end up quickly going back and forth between those tasks rather than doing them at the same time. We call that toggling back and forth. Those activities must take turns using the same brain area. Competition between the same cognitive resources can decrease our energy, happiness, and learning performance.
But it’s not so simple to say that interrupting one task with another is always a problem. Sometimes there are learning benefits to using screens during real-life activities. The challenge is figuring out what screen activities help get the task done and which are distracting us and wearing us out.
Do younger people outsource to their screens better than older people?
Young people who grew up with screens tend to multitask more often and better than older people who did not grow up with screens. With early life practice, they have learned the mental flexibility of digital learning. Screen natives learn differently than screen immigrants.
For example, younger people are better than older people at multitasking.[vi] Using our screens for things like memory, increased access to information, mapping, performing calculations, and creating is called outsourcing. Outsourcing to screens means less need for memory or spatial skills and less cognitive effort.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Well, the answer is complicated. Some types of limited multitasking are healthy for learning. Other types are not so much. Furthermore, we cannot trust our judgment. Though people insist they get more done, better, and faster when multitasking, they are most often wrong.[vii] Multitaskers don’t recognize that juggling tasks cost us more time and results in worse performance, kind of like a drunk driver saying he drives better while under the influence.
The Costs of Multitasking
Performance Decline
Results are consistent across studies that multitasking results in a small but significant decrease in test scores (4-5% decrease). Larger interruptions cause even larger decreases.[xiii][xiv] Perhaps a 5% decline doesn’t seem like much, but it is half a letter grade.
If two tasks require different cognitive resources, like walking and talking, then the performance decline is smaller. If tasks require similar cognitive resources, like talking and texting, which both require language centers, then the deficits are larger.[xv]
In the long term, multitasking (with social media and instant messaging for example) can lead to lower grades and poorer cognitive performance overall, especially in the areas of working memory and attention.[xvi][xvii] Multitaskers tend to have poorer memories because they are getting less memorizing practice.
Time Cost & the Google Effect
Multitasking also costs us extra time. When people are interrupted, it takes an average of 23 minutes, 15 seconds to return to work, often getting distracted by two or more tasks after the interruption.[xi]
When we use the Internet, we are also less likely to remember something we’ve learned if we know it’s published online, a dynamic now called the Google effect.[xii] It’s as if we quit thinking or taking responsibility for learning because we expect our smartphones to have it handled. Why bother to take the effort to remember the date if a press of a button will get the job done?
Brain Drain & Anxiety
Another cost of multitasking with our screens is brain drain. Research has shown that toggling between mental tasks burns the brain’s fuel, oxygenated glucose, at a rate faster than concentrating on a single task.[xx]We think we are saving time and energy by fracturing our attention, but we are actually draining the very energy necessary to do the work and taking more time to do it!
Our screens drain us in other ways too. A 2015 study found that smartphone notifications hijack attention and distract us by launching distracting thoughts whether we’ve checked notifications or not.[viii] Furthermore, when smartphone users are unable to answer a notification, their pulse and blood pressure increase, they feel anxious, and their problem-solving skills decline.[ix] The more attached we are to our phones and the closer they are to us, the more distracted and stressed we are.[x]
Brain overload from multitasking can take a toll on mental health. Factors that make us most vulnerable to rapidly switching tasks are anxious and impulsive personality traits, stress, and too little sleep.[xxi]Without downtime, mental stress and fatigue can lead to poorer learning, irritability, and mood and anxiety disorders, especially for teens.[xxii]
Homework & Multitasking
Kids argue, and rightfully so, that it is impossible to do homework without multitasking on- and offscreen. As they get older, school tasks require the student to look up information for research, communicate with other group members, and track progress across multiple platforms.
Here are some research findings that can help you make better choices while doing schoolwork.
Watching TV or videos while doing schoolwork interferes with performance.
Watching TV and doing homework are both demanding tasks that compete for the same brain areas. Research studies have demonstrated that watching television, or even just having it on in the background, impairs reading performance, [xxiii] memory of homework facts, [xxiv] and even your memory of what you’ve watched on TV. [xxv
How about music and homework?
It was once widely believed that listening to classical music makes you smarter, known as The Mozart Effect. However, this theory has largely been proven to be untrue.
Studying in a quiet environment results in better homework performance than studying with music.[xxvi] Kids tend to think they do better while listening to the music they like and worse while listening to music they don’t like. But performance is poorer in either condition.[xxvii]
However, music does have a positive role in learning if you listen to music you like before homework or during breaks due to a bump in arousal and mood (called the Stephen King Effect).
Is using a laptop during the lecture OK?
College students who do not use any type of technology during class time tend to outperform those students who do use screen technology during the lecture.[xxviii] Researchers explained the results in terms of a bottleneck in attention. Meaning that more goes into the brain than it can handle, so it must slow down to catch up. Using a smartphone decreases a student’s ability to remember lecture information.[xxix] Moreover, laptop use during lectures not only distracts the user but also distracts the student’s neighbors.[xxx]
Supertaskers & Neuroplasticity
Pumping yourself up to learn before homework and relaxing during breaks is a good thing. But distracting yourself during homework with anything that may compete for the same brain resources is a bad thing. But there are exceptions to this rule.
Approximately 2% of the population, called supertaskers, defy statistics and demonstrate an extraordinary ability to screen out distractors when multitasking. It’s as if they have super-enhanced brain skills called synaptic plasticity.[xxxi]
Supertaskers can maintain these exceptional abilities by practicing excellent brain health habits, like good organization and time management, and refueling with emotional and cognitive control strategies that are screen-free like mindfulness, imagery, and meditation.
The Work-Home Boundary
It’s not just kids and teens that are impacted by screen time. Parents also have problems getting off their screens.
Studies have found that the boundaries between work and home have blurred. Overall, our work and school days span more hours and our jobs have become more demanding. This has led to more stress and dissatisfaction and less connection to the things that are meaningful to us.[xviii] We have trained ourselves to self-interrupt, leading to worsened task prioritization and poorer sustained attention overall.[xix]
How can we overcome the depleting effects of multitasking and screen time?
Taking YouTube breaks is not the answer.
Try these things instead:
Focus on one task at a time.
Do your work first, then enjoy fun content as your reward for a job well done.
Batch notifications (turn off notifications, then save them up and go through them all at once every few hours instead of constantly checking).
Take frequent screen-free brain breaks. Don’t go on the screen because you will lose track of time and stay distracted. Instead, let your mind wander or stare off for fifteen minutes every couple of hours.
Sprinkle in brain-healthy activities throughout your day, like yoga, group hikes, and nutritious snack times.
[ii] Kim, S., Baik, S., Park, C., Kim, S., Choi, S. & Kim, S. (2011). Reduced Striatal Dopamine D2 Receptors in People with Internet Addiction. NeuroReport 22.8: 407-11. Web.
[iii] Koepp, M., Gunn, R., Lawrence, A., Cunningham, V., Dagher, A., Jones, T., Brooks, D., Bench, C., & Grasby, P. (1998). Evidence for striatal dopamine release during a video game. Nature 393: 266-268.
[iv] Kühn, S., Romanowski, A., Schilling, C., Lorenz, R., Mörsen, C., Seiferth, N., & Banaschewski, T. (2011). The Neural Basis of Video Gaming. Translational Psychiatry 1: e53.
[v] Dong, G. Hu, Y., & Lin, X. (2013). Reward/punishment sensitivities among internet addicts: Implications for their addictive behaviors. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 46, 139–145.
[vi] Ie, A., Haller, C., Langer, E., & Courvoisier, D. (2012). “Mindful Multitasking: The Relationship between Mindful Flexibility and Media Multitasking.” Computers in Human Behavior 28.4: 1526-532. Web.
[vii] Finley, J., Benjamin, A., & McCarley, J., (2014). “Metacognition of Multitasking: How Well Do We Predict the Costs of Divided Attention?” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 20.2: 158-65. Web.
[viii] Ward, A., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. (2017). “Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of Oneâs Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity.” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 2.2: 140-54. Web.
[ix] Clayton, R. (2015). “The Extended ISelf: The Impact of IPhone Separation on Cognition, Emotion, & Physiology.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 20(2), pp. 119–135., doi:10.1111/jcc4.12109.
[x] Ward, A., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. (2017). “Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of Oneâs Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity.” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 2.2: 140-54. Web.
[xi] Sano, A. (20160. “Neurotics Can’t Focus: An in Situ Study of Online Multitasking in the Workplace – MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab, www.media.mit.edu/publications/neurotics-cant-focus-an-in-situ-study-of-online-multitasking-in-the-workplace/.
[xii] Sparrow, B., et al. (2011). “Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips.” Science, vol. 333, no. 6043, pp. 776–778., doi:10.1126/science.1207745.
[xiii] Conard, M., & Marsh, R., (2013). “Interest Level Improves Learning but Does Not Moderate the Effects of Interruptions: An Experiment Using Simultaneous Multitasking.” Learning and Individual Differences: n. pag. Web.
[xiv] Wood, E., Zivcakova, L., Gentile, P., Archer, K., De Pasquale, D., & Nosko, A. (2012). “Examining the Impact of Off-task Multi-tasking with Technology on Real-time Classroom Learning.” Computers & Education 58.1: 365-74. Web.
[xv] Conard, M., & Marsh, R., (2013). “Interest Level Improves Learning but Does Not Moderate the Effects of Interruptions: An Experiment Using Simultaneous Multitasking.” Learning and Individual Differences: n. pag. Web.
[xvi] Fein, S., Jones, S., & Gerow, J. (2013). “When It Comes to Facebook There May Be More to Bad Memory than Just Multitasking.” Computers in Human Behavior 29.6: 2179-182. Web.
[xvii] Fox, A., Rosen, J., & Crawford, M. (2009). “Distractions, Distractions: Does Instant Messaging Affect College Students’ Performance on a Concurrent Reading Comprehension Task?” CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(1): 51-53.https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2008.0107
[xviii] Gregoire, C. (2016). “The American Workplace Is Broken. Here’s How We Can Start Fixing It.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 Nov. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/american-workplace-broken-stress_us_566b3152e4b011b83a6b42bd.
[xix] Sano, A. (2016). “Email Duration Batching and Self-Interruption: Patterns of Email Use on Productivity and Stress – MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab, 17 May 2016, www.media.mit.edu/publications/email-duration-batching-and-self-interruption-patterns-of-email-use-on-productivity-and-stress/.
[xx] Sridharan, D., et al. (2008). “A Critical Role for the Right Fronto-Insular Cortex in Switching between Central-Executive and Default-Mode Networks.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 105, no. 34, pp. 12569–12574., doi:10.1073/pnas.0800005105.
[xxii] Becker, M., Alzahabi, R., & Hopwood, C., (2013). “Media Multitasking Is Associated with Symptoms of Depression and Social Anxiety.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 16.2: 132-35. Web.
[xxiii] Lin, L., Robertson, T., & Lee, J. (2009). “Reading Performances Between Novices and Experts in Different Media Multitasking Environments.” Computers in the Schools 26.3: 169-86. Web.
[xxiv] Armstrong, G. Blake, & Chung, L. (2000). “Background Television and Reading Memory in Context: Assessing TV Interference and Facilitative Context Effects on Encoding Versus Retrieval Processes.” Communication Research 27: 327–352.
[xxv] Zhang, W., Jeong, S., & Fishbein, M. (2010). “Situational Factors Competing For Attention: The Interaction Effect of Multitasking and Sexually Explicit Content on TV Recognition.” Journal of Media Psychology 22: 2–13. Web.
[xxvi] Furnham, A., & Bradley, A. (1997). “Music While You Work: The Differential Distraction of Background Music on the Cognitive Test Performance of Introverts and Extraverts.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 11.5: 445-55. Web.
[xxvii] Perham, N., & Vizard, J. (2011), Can preference for background music mediate the irrelevant sound effect? Appl. Cognit. Psychol., 25: 625–631. doi:10.1002/acp.1731
[xxviii] Hembrooke, H., & Gay, G. (2003). “The Laptop and the Lecture: The Effects of Multitasking in Learning Environments.” Journal of Computing in Higher Education 15.1: 46-64. Web.
[xxix] Wood, E., Zivcakova, L, Gentile, P., Archer, K., De Pasquale, D., & Nosko, A. (2012). “Examining the Impact of Off-task Multi-tasking with Technology on Real-time Classroom Learning.” Computers & Education 58.1: 365-74. Web.
[xxx] Sana, F., Weston, T., & Cepeda, N. (2013). “Laptop Multitasking Hinders Classroom Learning for Both Users and Nearby Peers.” Computers & Education 62: 24-31. Web.
[xxxi] Watson, J., & Strayer, D. (2010). “Supertaskers: Profiles in Extraordinary Multitasking Ability.” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 17.4: 479-85. Web.
“First impressions are everything.” This once referred to tone, dress, and personality. Now, it also refers to your social media page. Teens rack up an average of 6 hours per day of social mediag.[1] They not only browse endlessly, but many also post impulsively. With immature prefrontal brain development, kids and teens are unable to anticipate consequences. Plus, the internet culture is vulgar, shocking, and celebrates pushing moral limits. Using profanity, sub-tweeting and cyberbullying are common. Using principles from Dr. Bennett’s book, Screen Time in the Mean Time: A Parenting Guide to Get Kids and Teens Internet Safe, this article covers how to best guide your teen through the social media dilemmas of cyberspace.
Social media is the perfect place to “out” your enemies.
My friend “Catherine” used to expose her ex-boyfriends on Facebook. Once she posted, “He says he’s over me, but he just came to my house and cried.” Often, she’d think twice and delete her post. Other times, her ex-boyfriends posted angry responses outing her bad behavior back.
My friend “Robert” also shared a personal story. This is one about Myspace going wrong. When he was in the eighth grade, his high school sophomore girlfriend sent him sexy selfies. Robert showed his friends the photos. Although he refused to text them directly, a friend hacked his phone and sent himself the photos. Within a few days, the girl’s family and the police were at Robert’s door. Her photos had been posted on Myspace. Although Robert did not directly post her photos, he was held responsible because they were initially on his phone.
Online Behavior Matters
We love our podcasts at GKIS. In one of our favorites called Hidden Brain. The “You Can’t Hit Unsend” episode tells the story of William, whose social media posts destroyed a golden opportunity with Harvard.[2]
William was a brilliant high school senior from Pennsylvania. He was a great student who played competitive golf and performed for the local symphony. Although he didn’t believe he was “Harvard material,” he applied anyway. He was accepted through the early admission process and was overcome with joy. In the excitement of his acceptance, Will quickly joined an online group chat to meet other incoming freshmen.
One chatroom that focused on sharing memes was particularly funny. As the chatroom friends grew closer, they exchanged increasingly “edgier” memes, riding the fence between funny and offensive. To be added to the subgroup chat, at least one edgy meme had to be shared in the main group chat. As time passed, the memes increased in explicitness, oftentimes referring to outrageous, violent, and sexual topics. Will states that members of the chat knew that their meme was good based on how many likes and fire emojis members commented afterward.
The admissions department at Harvard University learned of the private chatroom and investigated. Harvard withdrew admission offers from ten prospective students because of their participation.
Will shared that he will always remember the last sentence of the email, “Harvard can withdraw admission under various conditions, including if you engage or have engaged in behavior that brings into question your honesty, maturity, or moral character.” Now he recognizes how adults would be offended and regrets his posts. He apologized, “It is far too easy to act out of character behind a screen in a fast-paced setting and to say things I would never say or even think of in my everyday life.”
The Harvard student newspaper later published the story. Soon after, the story was everywhere, including CNN and Fox News. Will and his family were devastated.
He waited a year and applied to other schools, only to be rejected by all ivy league universities. Will’s voice broke with emotion as he spoke of the experience. Fortunately, his emotional honesty appealed to a physics department chair at a school he was waitlisted at, and he was ultimately granted admission.
College Recruiters and Managers Search Applicants Online
Social media posts can make or break a teen’s future. The relationship between your digital footprint and personality is about as constant as the relationship between personality and behavior, also known as “the personality coefficient.“[3] That means that your behavior on your social media profile is a reliable source of information about your personality.[4]
Many college admission officers and employers use online data to investigate prospective students or employees. While the internet is fun and creates a space for creativity and connection, adolescents can make dire mistakes online just as they do offline. Instead of those mistakes happening in front of a few close friends and family, they can be blasted out to millions. Social media profiles produce large amounts of user-generated data that may be used and sold in ways we cannot anticipate.[5]
As social media evolves, parenting tactics must evolve as well. That means educating yourself about the risks of posting and challenging your kids to explore online risk with ongoing empowering dialogue.
Here are a few ways you can prep them today:
Use our free GKIS Connected Family Screen Agreement to set parameters and create a screen-friendly, cooperative dialogue.
Engage in fun co-viewing, both with passive screen use (TV) and interactive screen use (browsing the internet). Fun projects may include researching a particular topic using various learning formats (articles, videos, images).
Find food recipes and cook a meal together.
Co-create a movie – complete with music, still-image slides, videos, and graphics.[6]
Work together to purposely stylize your family’s cyber footprint. Ensure that that footprint will work for you rather than against you.
Act as a role model on social media and encourage responsible posting.
Internet sites can collect and analyze large quantities of data from everyday devices.[7] This information provides more opportunities to use data in deceitful ways. With helpful GKIS tools, you can best prepare yourself and your teens.
Thanks to Isabel Campos for her research and help with writing this article. Interested in learning more about current cyberspace news? Signup for weekly GKIS articles by entering your name and email address at GetKidsInternetSafe.com!
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
Do you suffer from digital amnesia? How many phone numbers can you recite offhand? Can you name three movies that are out? Does anybody have paper maps in their cars anymore? Most of us, particularly the digital natives, Google to search out random facts and figures rather than relying on memory. Researchers call this the Google effect, meaning that fewer of us bother to memorize things if we believe they are online.
Google was introduced to the Internet in 1998. It is a search engine that calculates and ranks the web pages that receive the most attention. Google not only serves up delicious content, but it also determines what we see first on our search list. Google works to filter out useless, scam-like, or explicit information and images from our search list.
Websites that rank the highest load quickly, do not use flashy animation, and have a coherent list of relevant search terms. Google weeds through the bad web pages to provide us with the best, which makes the scary world of the Internet a lot safer and easier to navigate. Google provides users with convenience, comfort, and trust.
What is the Google effect?
As Albert Einstein said, “Never memorize what you can look up in books.” Did I remember this line? No, I opened my Google Chrome web browser, proceeded to Google.com, and searched “famous quotes about memory.” We are moving to a future of memory decline and an over-reliance on technology that’s always at our fingertips.
Dr. Maria Wimber, Professor at the University of Birmingham’s School of Psychology, said the Google effect “makes us good at remembering where to find a given bit of information but not necessarily what the information was. It is likely to be true that we don’t attempt to store information in our memory to the same degree that we used to because we know the Internet knows everything.”
Betsy Sparrow from Columbia University explained, “Our brains rely on the Internet for memory in much the same way they rely on the memory of a friend, family member, or co-worker. We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information can be found.” We are more likely to commit keywords to memory than the facts they lead us to.
How powerful is the Google effect?
It’s been estimated that 90% of us have undergone digital amnesia. Over 70% of parents have not memorized their children’s phone numbers.[3] We are even less likely to remember an experience if we snapped a photo of it.
In her study, Dr. Maria Wimber assigned one group to go around the museum taking pictures, while the other group was told not to take pictures and just to enjoy the experience. Those who took pictures were found to remember significantly fewer details than those who did not use their smartphone.[3] Dr. Wimber elaborated, “One could speculate that this extends to personal memories, as constantly looking at the world through the lens of our smartphone camera may result in us trusting our smartphones to store our memories for us. This way, we pay less attention to life itself and become worse at remembering events from our own lives.”
As a millennial accustomed to heavy smartphone use, I would go as far as to say we rely on the “likes” from our social media posts to determine the worth of an event. If we get lots of likes, we must have had a great time; fewer likes and it was a bust.
Is the Google effect bettering us for the future?
Anthropologist Genevieve Bell thinks that the Google effect is not as detrimental as others think. She reports that technology “helps us live smarter.” Creating good search words is how knowledge is conforming to the technological future. There is such a thing as a good or bad question. If you type in a random mess of words into Google’s search bar, it’s likely you won’t find an answer that fits your needs. But being able to write a short, competent question that produces a concrete answer is a form of intelligence.
Bell gave an example of new parents worried that their child is not sleeping well. Her theory is that a smart parent would be able to comprise all the symptoms into a great Google search, while others might rely on others’ feedback. Google can find legitimate websites to back up the diagnosis of the child, while feedback from friends is just a matter of opinion.
What can you do to optimize Google’s benefits and minimize the risks?
Decide if you’re pro-integrated technology or if the commitment to technology has a negative impact on our future.
Emphasize to your kids that worth is more than skin deep. Provide opportunities for intellectual, spiritual, and character growth. Value substance.
Be a good role model. Watch your GTS ratio.
Educate your children about the risks and benefits of trusting the Internet.
Monitor and limit how often your teens use the Internet when studying with screen time management apps. Encourage them to build the scaffolding for memory with less reliance on Google.
Teach how to balance healthy and fun activities like interacting often with family members face-to-face, riding bikes, or reading books.
Thanks, Wendy Goolsby, CSUCI Intern, for this great article about Google’s effect on our learning. It is because of these factors that I have changed my teaching style at CSUCI. No longer do I give in-class exams that cover several factors at once. I found that my students just procrastinated and crammed, which didn’t lead to quality learning. Now I offer an online timed multiple-choice quiz after each lecture. They are telling me that this forces them to keep current and they’re remembering and applying material better. Even we digital immigrants must adapt. 🙂 For more parenting support on educating about the effects of the Internet, check out the GKIS article Youtube Beauty Gurus Suck Money and Teen Confidence.
Teen life is complicated! And just like adult life, it is difficult to stay in healthy balance. My GKIS teen screen media series breaks the balance into three primary areas: learning and academics, friends and fun, and rest, rejuvenation, and self-care. Maybe you hoped that as your teens gained more independence, your parenting responsibilities would decline? Think again! Parenting a teen is perhaps the most emotionally taxing phase thus far. Not only must you learn to compromise and negotiate, but teaching, modeling, and supporting complex skill building is what separates the successful teen from the unsuccessful.
Adolescents live busy lives. Along with big changes to their bodies and brains, this generation is more overtasked than ever before with academics becoming increasingly important for launch. Teens must increasingly transition from middle school to high school, class to class, activity to activity, screen to screen. In my practice, I have seen overtasking increasingly take a concerning toll on teen mental health. Outsourcing tasks to screen media helps with day-to-day activities, like using social media to maintain friendships, calendars to schedule, texting and email to communicate, the Internet to seek new information, and word processing to store and produce classroom assignments. However, they still need our help with overall organization and self care. Parents can support their success by helping teens with big picture skills by setting up, teaching, and supporting organization, project management, and study tools.
Valuable organization, learning, and education tools for any family with teens include:
A FAMILY COMMAND CENTER. In our house this revolves around the kitchen computer. Not only is this where we calendar activities that automatically synch on all of our phones, but we have a basket that serves as an inbox. This helps stage regular planning sessions and organize papers that need signed and deadlines that must be met. Scheduling and post-it notes can be completed by keyboard, others with old fashioned pen and paper. Calendar and to-do list apps include iCal, Google Calendar, Outlook, and Cozi.
SPECIFIED DOCKING STATIONS. This sounds obvious, but organization takes preplanning. Assign a filing-not-piling area for important items like screen media, backpacks, keys, and shoes. If kids get in the habit of storing items in one space, it avoids a lot of frantic searching and last-minute scolding. At night, I suggest a docking station in the parent’s bedroom for screen media devices. Otherwise, you will be unable to check for compliance and sneaking WILL happen.
STOCKPILE COLOR-CODED SCHOOL SUPPLIES. It doesn’t take long for folders to rip and paper to run low. By getting your teen’s school supplies organized from the beginning and staging backpack checks, you can help them stay organized and avoid missed assignments. Setting up folders on-screen media is also helpful for digital organization and efficiency. With the right support and materials, teens will become increasingly independent with their academics.
ONLINE CLOUD STORAGE TOOLS. Apps like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Picasa are an extremely helpful way to get organized and stay organized. I personally store all of my university materials on Dropbox so I can effortlessly pull them up for use at the beginning of class. No more heavy book bags, lost flash drives, and aching shoulders. Cloud backup services are particularly important for security. My friends at Cloudwards provided me with this comparison chart to help with smart selection.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS. Apps like Evernote and Trelloare excellent systems to track projects and prioritize tasks. You can even share projects so group partners and parents can see progress and help keep track of deadlines.
ONLINE EDUCATIONAL TOOLS. There are so many online educational tools being developed every day I can’t possibly offer the best and the greatest. However, longtime favorites include the Skype so kids can form study groups and share homework information, Khan Academy or Learning Birdfor online lessons and homework help, iTunes University for a library of free educational resources, StudyBlue for user-created flashcards and study guides, XMind or Coggle for mind mapping and project collaboration, and Cold Turkey to block apps, websites, or even the entire Internet until your work is done. Your teen’s school will likely suggest a variety of tools at the beginning of the year to optimize parent communication and support. Set it up and use it!
Most of us learn organization and efficiency through the school of hard knocks. However, tanking your grades in high school during this learning period can have serious consequences when it comes to college opportunity. Instead of abandoning your child to digital overwhelm and long-term academic consequence, I suggest you start off the school year with a setup day for online tools and encouraging instruction. By teaching winning learning, organization, and study strategies, your teens will not only feel loved and supported with a strong parent-child alliance, but they will also start a trajectory of learning success that sets the stage for excellence. That’s a feel-good parenting job that will pay off for a lifetime.
