6 01, 2013

Is Technology Creating a Generation of Bad Decision Makers

By | January 6th, 2013|Categories: Parenting|Tags: , , , , , , , , |4 Comments

Decision making is another aspect of children’s thinking that seems to be suffering as a result of the latest technology. This poor decision making is illustrated by events over the last few years involving young people making egregiously bad decisions that involve technology (not to mention the frequent examples occurring in the adult world!). For example, teenagers whose “sexting” to a friend is released in cyberspace, embarrassing or illegal behavior that’s recorded on mobile phones and uploaded onto the Web, and the tragic consequences of cyberbullying. In looking at decision making among children, let me begin with a brief lesson in brain anatomy and functioning. Children start off at a severe disadvantage when it comes to decision making because the prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully develop until well past adolescence. The prefrontal cortex is instrumental to so-called executive functioning, namely, determining good from bad, planning, recognizing future consequences, predicting outcomes, and the ability to suppress socially inappropriate behavior. This means that children begin their lives “behind the curve” when it comes to decision making; their default is to make poor decisions. So, anything that makes bad decision making easier for children to act on just adds insult to injury.

2 01, 2013

Teach Your Children to Single Task, not Multitask

By | January 2nd, 2013|Categories: Parenting|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

After reading my last post, I hope you’re convinced now that so-called multitasking isn’t what it purports to be and definitely doesn’t do your children any favors in school or anywhere else. So, the next thing to do is to show them (and perhaps yourself) that “single tasking” is a much better way to go. Single tasking is definitely not rocket science, but it may require that your children break some deeply ingrained habits around their use of technology and learn new habits that will enable them to be more productive and efficient. The good news is that, with some commitment and discipline, your children can retrain those habits and, in a relatively short time and with the benefits clear, become comfortable and adept single taskers. Given that single tasking may involve some pretty big changes in your children’s use of technology, I would encourage you to collaborate with them so they have buy into whatever changes you want to implement. The reality is that if they don’t see the value in changing the way they focus, they will resist any efforts you make with them and those efforts will be doomed to fail. Educate your children about what multitasking really is and why it doesn’t work well, especially in their studies. Then, introduce them to single tasking and show them how it can help them in so many ways.

18 12, 2012

Parenting: Mama, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be…Multitaskers

By | December 18th, 2012|Categories: Parenting|Tags: , , , , , |3 Comments

Like many digital natives, your children are probably on their way to becoming lifelong multitaskers (or so you think). As the research indicates, children these days spend about seven-and-a-half hours a day interacting with technology unrelated to school and when multitasking is counted, that number jumps to an astonishing ten-and-three-quarter hours. Your children may be [...]

15 10, 2012

Parenting/Popular Culture/Technology: Is Facebook Creating a False Self in Your Children?

By | October 15th, 2012|Categories: Parenting, Popular Culture, Technology|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

In my last post, I described how new media is causing the externalization of children’s self-identity. The result of this externalization may be your children developing a false self, in which they internalize the messages of popular culture and media, such as valuing themselves based on their wealth, appearance, or popularity, and those messages become [...]