Reading the young brain
Read a good book lately? Ever wonder why the last book that moved you drew a lukewarm reaction to your best friend who you recommended it to? And vice versa?
Could be that we all just have different tastes or memorable experiences that resonate with books that clang off our friends like a peice of iron off a metal gate. Or, some might say, it suggests something about how are brains are wired.
Vittra School students in Sollentuna Sweden read in groups at their school where kids of various ages share the same classroom. (AP Photo/Christopher Grant)
The Web and the brain
A book by Nicholas Carr called, “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,” takes a look at the concept that constant online usage is affecting how the neural circuits of our brain are wired. And Mediapost writer Gord Hotchkiss explains that, “The brain has a habit of developing multiple paths to the same end goal. Many functions that our brain controls tend to have dual routes: a quick and dirty one that rips through the brain at lightning speed and a slower, more rational one.”
Guess which route the brain takes when reading content from the Web?
Some would say there is a danger here, especially if Internet reading supplants books and long-form articles for the young brains of children and teens. Others would ask, “Is there really much difference between this situation and when we were reading ‘Cliff’s Notes,’ instead of the longer version of ‘War and Peace’?”
Video games a threat?
OK, but what about the time young minds spend with video games? Can any good come from that?
Steven Poole of London’s online edition of the newspaper, The Guardian, has written, “As has always been the case … the adult paranoia expressed here about the supposedly harmful influence of videogames depends on a sublime ignorance of the form. In fact, you’re not going to get far in most modern videogames if you can’t read. And some of them make you read an awful lot.”
Phoenix Wright
In support of his assertion, Poole cites the series of games Nintendo DS produced starring Phoenix Wright. These are games in which you play the part of a defense lawyer in a series of wild criminal trials that get more complex as you move along through conversations that you must recall and sift for contradictions. Says Poole, “At a rough estimate, one Phoenix Wright game contains at least as much text as your average children’s novel.”
Another game, “The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass,” has many scripted conversations and written signs to read and also makes players write, jotting down notes on their maps via a touchscreen and stylus so they can solve the puzzles and navigate through increasingly hazardous temples.
Getting children and teens away from the Internet is probably not going to happen as the following stats show:
Are there dangers in young minds spending too much time on the Web? You bet. The vulnerability that children and teens have in spending time with inappropriate sites is alarming. But the danger of them spending so much time reading on the Internet — even if it is reading the posts of Facebook friends — is probably less than spending 270 minutes a day in fron the TV set.
Like everything else, balance and moderation are the best bet, and it is up to parents to insure that their kids are reading longer-form books and articles as well as reading the Web.
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Comments
This post exemplifies the evolving media and effects that we studied this week in regards to Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan discussed that we are evolving from literary men to electronic men, from individuals to tribes. We used to rely on books for our knowledge and as media and technology grows and progresses, we begin to see the changes. When reading books we used to have to force understanding the topic and take time to rationalize. Now we have the option to a “quick and dirty” path as the blogpost mentions—we can browse our news on the web in real time and have faster realization on the spot and get on with life, rather than taking the time to think it out and understand. Adults today have been able to have access to both the literary and electronic sides, they grew up having to read their text books for understanding of news and history, and now they are transforming to an electronic age. This forces us to questions what this is doing to today’s children who may only see the electronic side of media. Rather than exercising their brains with a good book on a regular basis, they’re exercising reading habits by regular exposure to online media –facebook messages to blogposts to instant messages, and so on. Also, children are growing up in a tribe already, rather than as an individual. This is sad in regard to my childhood memories of learning to read. I always felt that while I learning to read I was learning about myself–my likes and dislikes. I found myself loving to learn about certain topics and flocking to that section of the library for more. It’s sad to think that today’s children may not have this as they feel may feel social pressure from the media online.
I enjoyed this post for multiple reasons. One is that I have a 5 year old son and watching his interest in the internet and video games has been fascinating to me. Even at the age of 4, he is literate in the ways of the internet. Although he needs assistance getting to a particular website, once there he has no trouble finding the games and activities that he wants. Secondly, my mother is a retired librarian so just watching the changes in libraries since I was old enough to know what was going on around me to now working to keep my son aware of libraries and regular books. Having some level of media literacy is imperative, it will help us keep a broad view of the world and help us filter out the nonsense. I only hope I can stay one step ahead of him, although someday it’s inevitable.
I enjoyed reading this post. It is sad how the television, computers and video games have taken over the enjoyment one gets from reading an interesting book. When I was younger I would rather go to the children’s section in the library sit on a bean bag and read a few books. I excited me knowing my mom was going to take me to the library. As I grew older I turned my attention to television for entertainment. I am still in he process of trying to focus more on reading. It has gotten even harder considering all the distractions around me.
As a person who hates to read I felt a little guilty while reading this post. Ever since I was a young child I have had issues comprehending what I read. I can read over a section millions of times and forget completely what I was reading. But when it is something I find interesting I can read and read for hours. Along with my guilt I agree completely with the post. Our world is changing and the value of a book has dramatically declined,the imagination has disappeared and technology has completely taken over our brains. McLuhan touches on this epidemic in his videos. Books and the deep understanding of them use to be how we educated ourselves and now the “easy way out” seems to be technology and how fast we can learn about something. I also see a connection with this post and the Magic Bullet Theory. The choice to choose to read is linked with selective exposure and peoples tendency to expose themselves to those mass communications which are in agreement with their attitudes and interests.
I would definately agree that the interaction of Children and simply reading on the internet is detrimental to their education and growth of literary knowledge. Reading on the internet always provides an emergency exit, an ” I don’t understand what the author is saying, so rather than picking through the peice, I will just go google it’s true meaning”. I personally believe that nothing can compare to an afternoon of sitting down with a book and challenging oneself to dive into the unknown, highlighter and ready to annotate.
It’s interesting that you wrote about the difference to reading online and reading some form of print. Personally, I can’t process much more than a paragraph on content that I’m trying to read online before I start quickly skimming. Unfortunately, I found myself doing just that while reading your blog post about reading online. I had to remind myself that it was for a class and start over. I have to print things out if I hope to actually read and absorb. The concern would be that if we’re skimming quickly, we’re not actually processing anything and keeping our minds strong. Yes, our brains need workouts just like the rest of our body and print offers a better workout.
Are Video games a threat? Depends on who you ask! Violence in the media, whether it be a video game or a movie, is nothing new. However, its the growing media influence that is new to some.
If you look at the aggressive stimulation theory, their blame seems to be placed directly on the media. A young teen blured the lines between the media and reality because he is exposed to it. This theory fails to look at other factors. Does this teen have a history of violence? They could be prone to violent acts, but typically it’s hard to prove the media is 100 percent to blame.
The Catalytic theory is more realistic in today’s society. It admits the media has a strong influence, but it points out the media is just one contributing factor in a violent act.
Steven Poole’s statement about reading in video games validates the fact that at least some learning is occuring while a child partakes in this media form. Could the child be reading a book instead? Sure, but if he/she can gain the same reading practice from an act they find enjoyable then why not? Wouldn’t this, in the long run, be better at promoting reading than to force books upon a child who simply is not interested?
As far as I’m concerned, the media industry has much improved the subliminal learning that they introduce to children. Take cartoons and television shows for children today compared to those that most of us grew up watching. If my child watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, they are asked to count and recall information from earlier segments. I certainly don’t recall any of this learning being incorporated into Tom & Jerry or Rescue Rangers.
I read an article similar to what was on your blog. The article was titled, “Is Google Making Us Stupid: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains?” by Nicholas Carr (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/)
The article talks about how it has become increasingly difficult for people to read long pieces of writing. The cause? Internet. Reading is not an inherent trait: it has to be developed over time. People do not know automatically how to read and after they learn the techniques they develop their own style reading. Because much of what is on the Internet is aimed at sending quick messages to our brain and because people have begun to simply “scan” papers and articles, their reading capacity has significantly decreased, due to a learned style of reading that focuses on “in-and-out” attitude. It is not a good change, but the difficult part is overcoming this phenomenon, since that is how much of today’s works of writing tend to be structured.
I wish it wasn’t true that books have lost their value and popularity in contrast to media, technology and the internet. I know growing up for me personally I was never into reading books but at the same time I wasn’t consumed by video games or endless amounts of television. My mom used to always say that too much television or relaxing on the couch just to be entertained by technology would “rot my brain.” As a child I never understood her meaning behind saying this, but now that I am older and can see how technology has affected the learning habits and abilities of individuals, it all makes sense. I babysit for a family that has four young children and it is so scary to see how immersed they become to their video games, technology, television and internet. The youngest of the four children is a five year old girl and she is more illiterate in technology that I ever would have been at the age of five, but when I go to help her with her vocabulary she seems to struggle with understanding the visual and functional sounds and pictures of words and phrases, not to mention it takes her away from the addicting video games that she loves to play so much so that spoils her “fun.”
I do feel like the ninety minute estimate is very low for the amount of time that teens are spending on the internet. I feel like I spend way more time than that on the internet. Half of it is probably spend on pointless blogging and internet surfing, but I do feel like I spend a decent amount of my time on the internet researching things or reading articles and reviews that give me a little more insight and a better understanding of the entertainment industry, which I am extremely interested in. I also watch a lot of TV, probably as much as the average television critic. Then I spend time on the internet seeing what critics are saying and what observations they made that I didn’t. My dad likes talking to me about television among other things because he knows that as much time as I spend watching TV, I am actually paying attention to it. I look at production and writing. I don’t just watch to watch.
I cannot believe that some of these statistics can be true. As a child I read all the time with my parents, with other students, and on my own. I’ve noticed and become aware that as children sit in front of the television longer they are becoming less and less understanding of words and sentence structure. Also, along the same lines as being online and watching television is the way the children now communicate with each other. They are instant messaging and constantly texting in slang and abbreviations. They are slowing forgetting proper standards for writing and literacy. Our brains are learning to ignore correct grammar, structure, style, etc. as we browse the web.