Does Heavy Media Use Make Girls Less Happy?
By KJ DELL'ANTONIA
Researchers at Stanford University examined an online survey taken by more than 3,400 8- to 12-year-old girls and found that “those who say they spend considerable amounts of time using multimedia describe themselves in ways that suggest they are less happy and less socially comfortable than peers who say they spend less time on screens.”
As Matt Richtel describes in more detail on The Times’s Bits blog, it’s a survey that has problems: media time is self-reported, and the girls who would choose to take such a survey may not be representative of the general population. It’s also an interesting age group to lump together: the differences in media use between 8-year-olds and 12-year-olds are likely to be dramatic. The survey was offered through Discovery Girls magazine online, which markets itself to girls from 8 to 12, but has a decidedly pre-teen feel. (Today’s survey asks, “Have you ever gotten a not-so-great hairstyle from your BFF?”).
But what the Stanford researchers gathered from the collected data does suggest that most parents’ instinct to limit both social media and passive media for tweens and young teenagers is sound. Online communication and video use were both associated with “negative social well-being indicators.”
The researchers suggest that girls (boys were not included in the survey) “need to experience the full pantheon of communication that comes from face-to-face contact, such as learning to read body language, and subtle facial and verbal cues.” The more media use of any kind, the less time for real-world interaction — and face-to-face contact was strongly associated with feeling good about social connections.
Boiled down to its simplest result, this survey reveals that the more time 8- to 12-year-old girls say they spend online, the less happy they are — and that is surely not what those girls wanted or expected when they begged for custody of Mom’s old laptop.
Parents understand why our kids want to be online. When you keenly remember being the last girl in class to get a pair of high-top Reeboks, it must be tempting to let your daughter be among the first on Facebook. But when we give in to our children’s requests, it’s usually in the hopes of making them happier. If more time online has the opposite effect, it’s a strong argument for insisting that the middle grade years be conducted IRL (in real life).
My oldest daughter is just 7, so I haven’t navigated these waters yet — although she just asked me for an e-mail address. I fully admit that my good intentions have not yet met the force of her desires (my son, who’s 10, has no interest in social media). I intend to take this survey as a reminder that my daughter, like most children her age, probably doesn’t know what’s good for her. That’s still my job. Researchers say the question of how social media affects younger children and adolescents needs more study. As a parent, I think I need to make sure I give my daughter’s media diet more thought.
SOURCE: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/does-heavy-media-use-make-girls-less-happy/
ARTICLE #2
Cassidy: Stanford study of tween girls' technology habits is a lesson to us all
By Mike Cassidy
Mercury News Columnist
Posted: 02/04/2012 03:00:00 PM PST
Updated: 02/06/2012 10:21:52 AM PST
Maybe we didn't need another study to remind us that the explosion of digital devices and the content that they put at our fingertips have changed the way we relate to each other.
And in fairness, the Stanford researchers who recently published work on the way multitasking and media immersion affects tween girls weren't trying to reach conclusions about the way we should live our lives. That's the role of philosophers and preachers, not academics and statisticians.
But the study by communication professor Clifford Nass and education and learning science professor Roy Pea has me thinking that we might all learn something from their work.
Their big conclusions? Eight- to 12-year-old girls who spend
Read the report
Stanford study on girls' social well-beinga lot of time multitasking and using media, including television and social networking, tend to report that they feel socially inferior and out of the ordinary. The researchers could not go so far as to say heavy media use and multitasking caused girls to feel bad about their social lives. In fact, it could be that socially awkward tweens turn to technology and media for comfort.
But the good news here? The research also found that the more time girls spend in face-to-face conversations, the more likely they are to feel happy with themselves and their social standing. In fact, it appears, face-to-face conversations can inoculate heavy media users from feeling like social flops.
Nass and Pea acknowledge that the study is short on
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cause-and-effect answers, but they say, the work raises red flags and suggests comprehensive studies of media use, face-to-face conversations and social development would be worthwhile.
"When you do find these robust correlations," Pea says, "it certainly suggests, 'Boy, this is a hot place to look.' And it also raises some alarms."
It raises alarms about tweens, sure. But what about the rest of us? Think about it: How often are you emailing the boss with your smartphone while sharing dinner with your family, and, oh, keeping an eye on Google (GOOG) alerts for that piece of news that could change your life, or the life of your company?
And you wonder where the kids get it?
"I think there is something profound about this press for speed and responsiveness over engagement," Nass says.
For tween girls, the danger could be that a heavy technology diet is preventing them from learning how to meaningfully interact with other people, a deficiency that could last a lifetime. Nass says kids learn how to pay attention by talking face-to-face. There are cues in our faces, our posture, our tone, that can be easily missed online or while talking and texting at the same time.
"Our bodies and faces, our voices, are exquisitely tuned to manifesting emotion," he says. "And our brains are exquisitely tuned to detecting those emotions."
For adults, the danger is that a heavy technology diet will cause us to forget how to meaningfully interact with other people.
Being an optimist, I like to think that we'll realize that even when we can hold everything in the palm of our hands, something can still be missing. One day, we just might wake up and say: Remember when we used to talk to one another?
Which gets us back to the good news -- face-to-face conversations. We should have them -- lots of them. And make sure the kids in our lives to do, too. Not that many haven't figured that out for themselves.
"Face-to-face is better," Renata Mancilla, 11, says as she talks with me (yes, face-to-face) at San Jose's Herman Intermediate School during an open house at which the sixth grade is showing off its mad digital skills. "When you're doing texting and G-Chat," she says, "you can't really tell if they agree with you."
In short, the digital devices that bring us constant content are wonderous inventions and marvelous tools. But tools are designed to be put down from time to time. And that's the best way to go, whether you're a tween girl or a time-pressed adult. "We're really designed, as social beings, to be looking into one another's eyes," Nass says.
No doubt. Maybe you didn't need a study to tell you that. But maybe it's helped to get you thinking.
Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5536. Follow him at Twitter.com/mikecassidy.SOURCE:http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_19880969?source=rss
Researchers at Stanford University examined an online survey taken by more than 3,400 8- to 12-year-old girls and found that “those who say they spend considerable amounts of time using multimedia describe themselves in ways that suggest they are less happy and less socially comfortable than peers who say they spend less time on screens.”
As Matt Richtel describes in more detail on The Times’s Bits blog, it’s a survey that has problems: media time is self-reported, and the girls who would choose to take such a survey may not be representative of the general population. It’s also an interesting age group to lump together: the differences in media use between 8-year-olds and 12-year-olds are likely to be dramatic. The survey was offered through Discovery Girls magazine online, which markets itself to girls from 8 to 12, but has a decidedly pre-teen feel. (Today’s survey asks, “Have you ever gotten a not-so-great hairstyle from your BFF?”).
But what the Stanford researchers gathered from the collected data does suggest that most parents’ instinct to limit both social media and passive media for tweens and young teenagers is sound. Online communication and video use were both associated with “negative social well-being indicators.”
The researchers suggest that girls (boys were not included in the survey) “need to experience the full pantheon of communication that comes from face-to-face contact, such as learning to read body language, and subtle facial and verbal cues.” The more media use of any kind, the less time for real-world interaction — and face-to-face contact was strongly associated with feeling good about social connections.
Boiled down to its simplest result, this survey reveals that the more time 8- to 12-year-old girls say they spend online, the less happy they are — and that is surely not what those girls wanted or expected when they begged for custody of Mom’s old laptop.
Parents understand why our kids want to be online. When you keenly remember being the last girl in class to get a pair of high-top Reeboks, it must be tempting to let your daughter be among the first on Facebook. But when we give in to our children’s requests, it’s usually in the hopes of making them happier. If more time online has the opposite effect, it’s a strong argument for insisting that the middle grade years be conducted IRL (in real life).
My oldest daughter is just 7, so I haven’t navigated these waters yet — although she just asked me for an e-mail address. I fully admit that my good intentions have not yet met the force of her desires (my son, who’s 10, has no interest in social media). I intend to take this survey as a reminder that my daughter, like most children her age, probably doesn’t know what’s good for her. That’s still my job. Researchers say the question of how social media affects younger children and adolescents needs more study. As a parent, I think I need to make sure I give my daughter’s media diet more thought.
SOURCE: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/does-heavy-media-use-make-girls-less-happy/
ARTICLE #2
Cassidy: Stanford study of tween girls' technology habits is a lesson to us all
By Mike Cassidy
Mercury News Columnist
Posted: 02/04/2012 03:00:00 PM PST
Updated: 02/06/2012 10:21:52 AM PST
Maybe we didn't need another study to remind us that the explosion of digital devices and the content that they put at our fingertips have changed the way we relate to each other.
And in fairness, the Stanford researchers who recently published work on the way multitasking and media immersion affects tween girls weren't trying to reach conclusions about the way we should live our lives. That's the role of philosophers and preachers, not academics and statisticians.
But the study by communication professor Clifford Nass and education and learning science professor Roy Pea has me thinking that we might all learn something from their work.
Their big conclusions? Eight- to 12-year-old girls who spend
Read the report
Stanford study on girls' social well-beinga lot of time multitasking and using media, including television and social networking, tend to report that they feel socially inferior and out of the ordinary. The researchers could not go so far as to say heavy media use and multitasking caused girls to feel bad about their social lives. In fact, it could be that socially awkward tweens turn to technology and media for comfort.
But the good news here? The research also found that the more time girls spend in face-to-face conversations, the more likely they are to feel happy with themselves and their social standing. In fact, it appears, face-to-face conversations can inoculate heavy media users from feeling like social flops.
Nass and Pea acknowledge that the study is short on
Advertisement
cause-and-effect answers, but they say, the work raises red flags and suggests comprehensive studies of media use, face-to-face conversations and social development would be worthwhile.
"When you do find these robust correlations," Pea says, "it certainly suggests, 'Boy, this is a hot place to look.' And it also raises some alarms."
It raises alarms about tweens, sure. But what about the rest of us? Think about it: How often are you emailing the boss with your smartphone while sharing dinner with your family, and, oh, keeping an eye on Google (GOOG) alerts for that piece of news that could change your life, or the life of your company?
And you wonder where the kids get it?
"I think there is something profound about this press for speed and responsiveness over engagement," Nass says.
For tween girls, the danger could be that a heavy technology diet is preventing them from learning how to meaningfully interact with other people, a deficiency that could last a lifetime. Nass says kids learn how to pay attention by talking face-to-face. There are cues in our faces, our posture, our tone, that can be easily missed online or while talking and texting at the same time.
"Our bodies and faces, our voices, are exquisitely tuned to manifesting emotion," he says. "And our brains are exquisitely tuned to detecting those emotions."
For adults, the danger is that a heavy technology diet will cause us to forget how to meaningfully interact with other people.
Being an optimist, I like to think that we'll realize that even when we can hold everything in the palm of our hands, something can still be missing. One day, we just might wake up and say: Remember when we used to talk to one another?
Which gets us back to the good news -- face-to-face conversations. We should have them -- lots of them. And make sure the kids in our lives to do, too. Not that many haven't figured that out for themselves.
"Face-to-face is better," Renata Mancilla, 11, says as she talks with me (yes, face-to-face) at San Jose's Herman Intermediate School during an open house at which the sixth grade is showing off its mad digital skills. "When you're doing texting and G-Chat," she says, "you can't really tell if they agree with you."
In short, the digital devices that bring us constant content are wonderous inventions and marvelous tools. But tools are designed to be put down from time to time. And that's the best way to go, whether you're a tween girl or a time-pressed adult. "We're really designed, as social beings, to be looking into one another's eyes," Nass says.
No doubt. Maybe you didn't need a study to tell you that. But maybe it's helped to get you thinking.
Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5536. Follow him at Twitter.com/mikecassidy.SOURCE:http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_19880969?source=rss
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