Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

bath.ac.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 136 posts

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#31

Post by dx87 »

lordnacho wrote: post #17

One interesting thing I noticed is my kids who have grown up with touchscreens think that everything is a touchscreen. One of them even tried to swipe one of those adverts that's made of a big flatscreen. What confuses them is that some flatscreens aren't touchscreens, eg my macbook, while most of the smaller screens like phones and tablets are. Overall I'd say it's pretty hard to stay conservative about exposing the…

> One interesting thing I noticed is my kids who have grown up with touchscreens think that everything is a touchscreen

I've talked to teachers who said that they've started seeing young children with picture books doing the zoom in/out pinching motion on pages.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#32

Post by nelaboras »

lacker wrote: post #23

The narrative around screen time seems to have been totally overthrown by the coronavirus. A year ago the health authorities were recommending limiting childrens’ screen time. Now at a public school in California our children have mandatory three hours of screen time per day. It just goes to show that these recommendations are not really based on science. It’s more like they are based on guesses by reasonable people…

Or the mandatory 3h of lessons are better than no lessons even if it means kids are staring a screens? It's not all black and white.

That said, obviously the recommendations are not fully science based because the science is not clear-cut. One study will tell you about the spatial skills and reaction ability of ego shooters, another of the negative sides such as normalisation of violence, reduced quality of sleep, etc.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#33

Post by bmh100 »

zyang wrote: post #11

Studies like these are pointless. Parents that give young kids touchscreens tend to not spend quality time with their kids to begin with.

It's important to understand causation. Engaged parents will still want to spend quality time with their children either way, but they will still want to know the impact. Even engaged parents let young children play with toys on their own from time to time. How are physical toys different than touchscreen "toys"?

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#34

Post by barrkel »

vmception wrote: post #22
lordnacho wrote: post #17

One interesting thing I noticed is my kids who have grown up with touchscreens think that everything is a touchscreen. One of them even tried to swipe one of those adverts that's made of a big flatscreen. What confuses them is that some flatscreens aren't touchscreens, eg my macbook, while most of the smaller screens like phones and tablets are. Overall I'd say it's pretty hard to stay conservative about exposing the…

> I noticed my kids who have grown up with touchscreens think that everything is a touchscreen. eh I'm in my 30s and am angry at car dashboards that clearly have GUI buttons on them but can only be used by the corresponding physical button on the side, or in some random other place nearby. Be nice if they did both if use while driving and not looking at that interface is the concern. I want to sink all of those cars.…

Similarly but contrariwise, I want to sink those driving devices which have removed physical buttons and mandated screen taps precisely because they can't be used without taking your eyes off the road.

You can feel physical buttons. If the UI has a consistent menu system and a reset mechanism (e.g. a home button), you can navigate it blind. If it has different input modalities (switches, dials, toggles of different shapes and sizes) for different functions, even better.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#35

Post by pbhjpbhj »

untog wrote: post #10

> There has been growing concern that toddler touchscreen use may negatively impact their developing attention but this fear is not based on empirical evidence.” That isn’t surprising to me: there are no inherent properties attached to a touch screen that would affect attention. But there are plenty of fast paced games and videos that could, and those tend to be viewed through touch screens. So I still wonder about t…

Adverts aside, TV shows usually require 10s of minutes of concentration on a connected subject thread (depends a lot on the programmes of course). Touchscreen activities are usually shorter with brief reactive interactions?

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#36

Post by birdyrooster »

lordnacho wrote: post #17

One interesting thing I noticed is my kids who have grown up with touchscreens think that everything is a touchscreen. One of them even tried to swipe one of those adverts that's made of a big flatscreen. What confuses them is that some flatscreens aren't touchscreens, eg my macbook, while most of the smaller screens like phones and tablets are. Overall I'd say it's pretty hard to stay conservative about exposing the…

I can’t tell you how many time I think the iMac for signing vendors/guests into the building is a touchscreen even though I know iMac isn’t touch sensitive.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#37

Post by Romanulus »

dx87 wrote: post #31
lordnacho wrote: post #17

One interesting thing I noticed is my kids who have grown up with touchscreens think that everything is a touchscreen. One of them even tried to swipe one of those adverts that's made of a big flatscreen. What confuses them is that some flatscreens aren't touchscreens, eg my macbook, while most of the smaller screens like phones and tablets are. Overall I'd say it's pretty hard to stay conservative about exposing the…

> One interesting thing I noticed is my kids who have grown up with touchscreens think that everything is a touchscreen I've talked to teachers who said that they've started seeing young children with picture books doing the zoom in/out pinching motion on pages.

Ouch... that's kind of bleakly sad. Reminds me of the video of a very inebriated old Polish man doing a breathalizer test who mistakenly takes a swig of the device (instead of blowing into it) and then promptly falling over. We are drunk on information.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#38

Post by whoknos99 »

crmrc114 wrote: post #14

So, per this page: "The study followed them over the next 2.5 years, bringing them into the lab at 18 months and 3.5 years. At the 18-month and 3.5-year visits, toddlers took part in a computer task in which they were trained to search for a red apple amongst a varying number of either blue apples (easy search), or blue apples and red apple slices (difficult search). An eye tracker monitored their gaze and visually r…

Huh my kids both get tablet almost daily and have since they were toddlers.

As toddlers they also started growing food, hiking, learning counting through dice toss, at kids music groups, putting away their toys, cleaning the house, and playing with way too many building and science-y toys.

Cognitive research has shown for decades hands on depth in a variety of contexts enables people. It’s the market economics narrative enabling economic horders that’s making it so both parents need to work and kids get neglected that’s keeping them stupid.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#39

Post by randomdata »

vmception wrote: post #22
lordnacho wrote: post #17

One interesting thing I noticed is my kids who have grown up with touchscreens think that everything is a touchscreen. One of them even tried to swipe one of those adverts that's made of a big flatscreen. What confuses them is that some flatscreens aren't touchscreens, eg my macbook, while most of the smaller screens like phones and tablets are. Overall I'd say it's pretty hard to stay conservative about exposing the…

> I noticed my kids who have grown up with touchscreens think that everything is a touchscreen. eh I'm in my 30s and am angry at car dashboards that clearly have GUI buttons on them but can only be used by the corresponding physical button on the side, or in some random other place nearby. Be nice if they did both if use while driving and not looking at that interface is the concern. I want to sink all of those cars.…

The car I have allows both touching the elements on the screen as well as using physical knobs and levers to control the same elements. When it was new, I found myself reaching for the screen, but now that it has some age on it, the physical controls win every time. Which leads me to believe that touch is better for discoverability, but not general use. Which kind of mirrors my experience using computers with physical input devices versus touchscreen tablets/phones.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#40

Post by juliend2 »

dx87 wrote: post #31
lordnacho wrote: post #17

One interesting thing I noticed is my kids who have grown up with touchscreens think that everything is a touchscreen. One of them even tried to swipe one of those adverts that's made of a big flatscreen. What confuses them is that some flatscreens aren't touchscreens, eg my macbook, while most of the smaller screens like phones and tablets are. Overall I'd say it's pretty hard to stay conservative about exposing the…

> One interesting thing I noticed is my kids who have grown up with touchscreens think that everything is a touchscreen I've talked to teachers who said that they've started seeing young children with picture books doing the zoom in/out pinching motion on pages.

They are just envisioning the future that is ahead of them.

I remember the laugh of a guy in 2008 when I scrolled with my fingers on his blackberry's screen. Now I own a Blackberry KeyOne and it is a reality.

Post reply on HN