Does the Internet make kids anti-social? Does it make them stupid?
Being in the online industry and having a daily goal of figuring out how to help brands and entertainment companies reach people online, I obviously work under the auspice that people are spending more time online, so reach them in the location where they are.
Because I am immersed in these worlds, I am often asked (generally by an older inquisitor) whether I think the Internet, and more specifically virtual worlds / social networks, is causing kids to become anti-social, creating an eco-system that hinders their ability to converse face-to-face and disallows their ability to learn. Generally, my response is simple. There is good and bad to every new technology, but I believe the pros of the social internet far outweigh the cons. That when I was a kid, my world was confined to my class and my soccer team, but now kids are more aware of the world around them than ever before.
In support of my thoughts, I found this BusinessWeek article particularly interesting, as it describes how the Internet, although may be causing many kids to stop reading books “cover to cover,” has actually made them more able to parse information quickly and turn that analysis into personal thought, rather than following the line of a book directly with no choice in its outcome. Kids today expect to be part of the conversation. They require the conversation to be had. And they are not afraid to share their opinions. I don’t think anyone can argue this is a detriment to the future of society.
Can it be argued that people reading books less is generally a bad thing? Are we beginning to engage in a time where kids stop reading classics we all read in high school? Perhaps. But are they becoming stupider? Are they becoming less social? I think the answer is unequivocally no. The article itself says that the # of students taking AP classes has increased 75% from 1999 to 2005. I imagine you can find a statistic that leans the other way, but I welcome your thoughts.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
In my opinion, I think when children use the Internet alot, they can improve their knowledge by searching information for their study.On the other hand, if they misuse it, they will get influenced by watching and reading some sites which are not meant for them.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Thanks for the comment Hour. I absolutely agree with you. There is good and bad to everything. The Internet can both support learning and cause adverse affects to kids. Depending on the age, I’d say that it is the parent’s responsibility to ensure the computer isn’t misused or abused.
November 15th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Interesting line of thought - though I would temper the choice of two extremes (i.e. “the internet is always great!” and “the internet makes kids into zombies!”) and direct the line of questioning towards “where is the inflection point between where amount of time / type of online activity goes from positive to negative?”
I think we would all agree that any kid shouldn’t spend 20 hours a day playing Warcraft, but at what point does 2 hours of Facebook activity spent after, say, cribbing one’s entire homework from Wikipedia, become a net negative vs. a net positive?
I would love to see some simple experiments (or at least a good longitudinal study) done that attempt to answer these questions vs. either the anecdotes from marketers (”all this sugar in the cereal helps the kids CONCENTRATE BETTER!!!”) or the anecdotes from teachers (”Kids these days are all nihilistic narcissists!”)
November 20th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Agreed Matt. Pros and cons to everything. The inflection point where positive turns negative is likely one that will differ for each kid. The rules don’t change though. Plagiarizing is plagiarizing, regardless of where the content is taken. Is the decision of time spent and activity one that must be made by parents? I think so. But can it be specifically answered of where that line should be drawn…not sure. The net negative vs. net positive is more a function of use than simply time. Here’s another article about the pros of socialization of the internet for kids. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/us/20internet.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
I imagine with a tiny bit of digging, we can find 10 articles that take the other perspective…would love to see them.
November 28th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Does the internet help us learn?
December 9th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
is the internet more harm than good or more good than harm?