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

91–100 of 136 posts

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#91

Post by grugagag »

ksdale wrote: post #85
grugagag wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kudos for currating their videos. My nephew who was initially very bright and interested in so many things ended up being captured by minecraft youtube videos for years. He eventually stopped but that time was completely wasted. I used to play chess with him but a soon as he got into youtubing he lost interest into everything else

Is chess better than Minecraft?

Chess is a game based on simple rules that yields complexity but i can't say it is “better” than Minecraft, it’s just something else. Minecraft is not a bad thing, what is bad is sinking countless hours only in this game! What do you come out of it with?

Chess is a game that has a defined purpose. It has a beginning, a middle game and an endgame. One can learn openings, strategies, concentration etc. That translates to some interesting thinking tools that could be used outside of chess.

Minecraft players usually wonder around and kick blocks and collect trinkets without a specific aim. Sure, some users build stuff which I find as cool. And leisurely playing isn't a bad thing.

I have a problem with sinking too much time into just computer games or even more specifically with only one game and even worse, not playing the game but passively watch others play on youtube or twitch. Kids learn things all the time but if they're stuck in a virtual reality that starts to have diminishing returns fast.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#92

Post by jerrysievert »

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 had a cat like that once. he had been playing a cat game on the iPad and managed to get pretty good at it. later, I was doing a project that involved several small touch screens. it became difficult to work on the project when he was around, as he saw images on the screen and started pawing them, trying to get them to move and make sound.

not just kids. cats as well.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#93

Post by ivanhoe »

arendtio wrote: post #64
nelaboras wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition there is a key qualitative element: are all uses equal? Is watching Teletubbies or Paw Patrol equal to nature documentaries? Is playing addictive repetitive games different than those solving puzzles or following a story? Is videoconferencing with grandma the same or better or worse as doing a math training game? The key issue often is the parents' role and guidance. Let your kid aimlessly click through Y…

Exactly what I thought. A few years ago, I was in a hotel where one family gave their kids tablets to watch movies during breakfast. I can hardly imagine that this practice is beneficial for the kids development.

Running around causing total havoc in the hotel's dining room, like we did as kids 30 years ago, might have been beneficial for us, but I'm sure it wasn't helping with my parents' high blood pressure condition. And I'm sure other guests would appreciate more us sitting quietly and looking at the screens if it was possible at that time.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#94

Post by grugagag »

eggy wrote: post #86
grugagag wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats lazy parenting IMO. My 2 yo son was not inteoduced to tablets or phones because there are so many more things they could do. He loves for example snap in puzzles where a lot of faculties develop but almost anything physical is beneficial at this age. There is time for computers and tablets later on, whats the rush?

How about both? I have older children 21 and 22, and I have some new ones, ages 1 and 5. I have always done as much as I can with my children. I also have learned to set them up with an activity and let them go at it without my constant supervision. They don't always look for outside answers, but instead figure it out on their own. I was anti-TV and computer with my older children, but I still allowed it, and they ar…

Since you were anti-tv you probably kept an eye on what they were watching. TV or tablets aren’t the concern themselves, but the content pushed on them. I learned quite a bit from TV back in the 90s, luckily back then I didn’t have access to addictive junk.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#95

Post by jerrysievert »

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.…

for a while I was traveling quite a bit, which meant a lot of rental cars (I drove so many cars in the fleet that I'd often get duplicates that my phone was already set up in).

the most annoying thing that I ran into was a ford running an early version of Microsoft's car dashboard (I think it was sync?) - when a popup came up in front of the speedometer with an "ok" button to dismiss it. it was on the freeway, and it wasn't until I made it to campus that I was able to get it to go away by powering down and powering up the car (rebooting it). it wasn't a touchscreen, so no idea why anyone thought a dialog box was needed, and it was cut off, so I still don't know what it wanted me to do.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#96

Post by ksdale »

grugagag wrote: post #91
ksdale wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is chess better than Minecraft?

Chess is a game based on simple rules that yields complexity but i can't say it is “better” than Minecraft, it’s just something else. Minecraft is not a bad thing, what is bad is sinking countless hours only in this game! What do you come out of it with? Chess is a game that has a defined purpose. It has a beginning, a middle game and an endgame. One can learn openings, strategies, concentration etc. That translates…

What do you come out of chess with?

I've spent a lot of time playing computer games, they sparked a love of history, geography, technology, new kinds of music, they've informed my taste and sense of humor, and helped me be more circumspect when it comes to life "strategy". Without the love of history, I never would have gotten into chess, either, but it is something I enjoy. At any given time, it would have looked an awful lot like sinking countless hours into one game.

Currently, jumping on a Discord call and playing with friends is an excellent substitution for social visit.

Everyone has hobbies, and personally, I don't think the specific hobby matters as much as pursuing something with the possibility of intellectual growth.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#97

Post by elteto »

scaryclam wrote: post #88
finaliteration wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a parent myself who is guilty of this from time to time, I think it’s easy to judge those moments without seeing the full picture. Nowadays parents are expected to attend to kids basically 24/7 and keep them engaged, etc,. Just because you saw that happen at breakfast doesn’t mean it was happening all day, every day. Maybe they were out visiting museums or nature parks for the rest of the day. There are mornings w…

I've seen exactly this with some friends and their kids. If they're at a more adult place to eat the kids are allowed to watch cartoons so they don't get bored and start wanting to leave before the meal's even started. The rest of the time they're limited in their screen time, read books with their parents and go out to all sorts of fun places like nature parks etc. It's lazy to judge parents just because you see a 3…

We improved this by always carrying color pens and a minimal playdoh set (couple of colors and tools). First they paint, then they do playdoh, and then, if the meal isn’t over they watch cartoons.

We have almost completely eliminated devices with this tactic because by the time they are done with those two the meal is almost over. And if it isn’t then we also sometimes tell them that they must just wait or engage in conversation with us.

We are lucky that they like painting and playing with playdoh, though.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#98

Post by kahlonel »

I personally know kids that don't eat their food unless they are in front of a screen (touch or not), because the only thing that captures their attention are colorful blobs. I find it very detrimental to the kids' mental growth because they don't observe things outside of a screen.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#99

Post by closetohome »

enobrev wrote: post #57
Romanulus wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't understand why it's sad. Isn't it an attempt at approaching new things with an understanding of previous interactions? Say you give a child a maraca, and s/he learns that s/he can shake the maraca to make noise. Then you hand a child a block, s/he is going to shake the block to see if it makes noise. The interesting bit and teachable moment is that these things have different features and properties and we in…

Exactly. The counterpart to this is walking up to a touchscreen credit card reader ten years ago and going "uhh..." while looking for physical buttons to push.

Re: Toddlers who use touchscreens show attention differences

#100

Post by gotostatement »

grugagag wrote: post #91
ksdale wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is chess better than Minecraft?

Chess is a game based on simple rules that yields complexity but i can't say it is “better” than Minecraft, it’s just something else. Minecraft is not a bad thing, what is bad is sinking countless hours only in this game! What do you come out of it with? Chess is a game that has a defined purpose. It has a beginning, a middle game and an endgame. One can learn openings, strategies, concentration etc. That translates…

who knows? maybe it's not ours to say. children are drawn to it and maybe we should trust whatever instinct they're following that minecraft feels stimulating
Post reply on HN