TRAVERSE CITY — Our kids are distracted more than ever, with technology being the major culprit. Studies have shown increasing evidence of potentially harmful physical and psychological impacts from early exposure.
“We don’t know long term consequences for literally social media technology addiction. So, we’re seeing, rise up in individuals and children. So, what do we do to limit it? I mean, you’ve got to set boundaries,” said Shiloh Smith, Psychology Instructor at Northwestern Michigan College.
Today’s kids are growing up in a world their parents and grandparents are grappling to understand as technology changes at a more rapid pace than ever. Part of that, is the use of smartphones and other electronic devices. That’s leaving teachers with an extra challenge.
A 2023 study published in JAMA Pediatrics, titled “Screen Time at Age 1 Year and Communication and Problem-Solving Developmental Delay at 2 and 4 years” looked at 7,000 mother-child pairs and found a strong correlation between screen time at one-year-old and an strong likelihood of future cognitive delays. “My job is just to make it interesting enough that they would much rather watch me instead of the cell phones,” said Smith.
Since Smith teaches college students, she can’t ban phones from class. She gives them a chance to use their devices as a part of her instruction, “Well, I’m not saying you’re exactly encouraging the use but you know kind of incorporating the youth into your, into your instruction.”
When it comes to school age kids, Smith said it’s up to adults in their life to set a good example, to show them how to be present by doing things like re-establishing family dinner time and leaving their phones off the table, “You know, one of the things I teach in my class is that behavior is more powerful than words. Like, you can tell somebody something all day, but if you’re behaving in a certain way, they’re going to follow the behavior more.”
There are some schools that emphasize the use of technology at an early age, even giving iPads to pre-school kids. Studies in developmental psychology, however, have shown students in such schools can develop shorter attention spans and have more difficulty learning. Smith said it’s a double-edged sword, “I’m not saying that it isn’t possible that it can cause cognitive delays. But on the other end of the spectrum, you know, it can also make them more ready and prepared for a workforce that is going to have technology as every part of it.”
As kids get older, they start seeing more and more on the internet and social media. So much of it is negative and that can have a major impact on mental health. Jessie Houghton is the Chief Academic Officer of Secondary Schools at Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS), “When you increase screen or spend more time isolated, just scrolling through things, there’s lots of research out there. Kids feel worse about themselves.”
A 2022 study from the National Institutes of Health found that 95.9% of preschool-aged children use digital devices, with 94.2% of those devices being smartphones. Importantly, 95% of these young children did not own the devices themselves, but simply use their parents’.
Right now, there are bills in the Michigan Legislature that would require all public-school districts to limit cell phone use during instructional time. It passed the senate, but it still needs the approval of the house and the governor. TCAPS, however, already has a similar plan in place. Students in grades K-8 are not allowed to have a device during the day and high schoolers have to give their phones to the teacher before each class or leave them in their lockers. “Yeah, we’re three years ahead of the game. I will be honest, it’s partly because our community, like we had parents who were concerned. We had parents who had who had been to and in some of the secondary schools were like, hey, it’s lunchtime, and here’s a group of kids and they’re all on their phone around a table together,” said Houghton.
Bottom line, technology and electronic devices are here to stay and there is still a lot for child psychologists and educators to learn before we can truly know the impact.
In the meantime, Smith offered up this piece of advice, “You know, there’s good and bad with everything. It’s all about moderation now. It’s like the old wives’ tale, right? Everything in moderation.”