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Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

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Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#21

Post by scott00 »

superkuh wrote: post #3

I wonder why this effect was not discovered when screens were first invented and entered the home back in the early 20th century when televisions came about. It really makes me doubt the entire premise as screens have not changed since then. It just seems like another unfounded moral panic like when people blamed books, newspapers, or radio for youth misbehavior. Every generation has it's own. It's weird that we've g…

There was certainly worry about this earlier, though I don't know if there was any research done. My parents limited screen time when I was growing up (born 1985).

I do think there's been a substantial change in child-targeted media over the years. In the days of broadcast only tv, you couldn't turn the tv on at any time of day and expect to find children's programming. The advent of cable and home video players changed that, but not everybody had cable and not everybody chose to buy kids show recordings. Parents could make those decisions occaisionally and then be stuck with them, rather than having to fight a continuous battle of self-control.

Other big changes occurred with the rise of children's programming on youtube and the invention of smartphones. Basically in less than 100 years we've gone from no childrens screen media exising at all to an unlimited quantity available for free in every adult's pocket 24 hours a day.

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#22

Post by miriam_catira »

martinjacobd wrote: post #15
miriam_catira wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This paper is talking about screen use by infants - within the first year of life. Screen interaction can not be the major problem here, it's much more likely to be a lack of interaction with other humans. That's key to infant development, so it shouldn't be a surprise that a lack of stimulus from carers would lead to issues later.

I'm not sure why it would be true that screen time is not a problem for a Of course, a lack of interaction with humans could be a factor too but in our case we were literally playing with it alongside her and she would still get upset if it was taken away.

Not saying that it wouldn't be an issue at older ages as well, since for millenia children learned by watching the other people around them and learning from them, not from screens. That's my essential point - that's utterly essential for infants, even more at that age than later. Not that suddenly it becomes ok!

But if we want to keep the discussion on topic, we should talk about the age group being studied. Beyond that, we want to have a different study.

(edit, grammar because it's really too early in the morning for writing)

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#23

Post by giantg2 »

scott00 wrote: post #12

It seems like they collected 5 screen time data points[0] but only present analysis of the first, collected at 12 months of age. Did I just miss the other analyses? Assuming I didn't, is it too cynical of me to infer that they ran the numbers for the other data points but found no relationship? Suggesting that screen use after age 20 months or so is substanitially less harmful? [0] Quoting from the paper: "When their…

I also didn't see anything about the type of programming consumed. I would think this would play a big role in things like attention.

A lot of the programming for kids is extremely low value - nothing of educational value, poor dialog, poor social skills/manners or violence, etc. There are even problems with the pacing a lot of times where it seems like the show is so fast compared to real life. No wonder you can't pay attention in a slow paced classroom when you're conditioned to have a 10 second attention span. I can even see some of this with my wife. She can't stand any sort of slow burn or intellectual movies, documentaries, etc. She just can't focus for that long if it's not fast paced. You can even see the general difference in pace from older movies or TV shows (like black and white old) and today.

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#24

Post by ProjectArcturis »

scott00 wrote: post #12

It seems like they collected 5 screen time data points[0] but only present analysis of the first, collected at 12 months of age. Did I just miss the other analyses? Assuming I didn't, is it too cynical of me to infer that they ran the numbers for the other data points but found no relationship? Suggesting that screen use after age 20 months or so is substanitially less harmful? [0] Quoting from the paper: "When their…

Not at all cynical. Well, it's cynical but warranted. That's absolutely what they would have done. And because negative results don't get published in important journals, they wrote the paper emphasizing the positive result they did find.

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#25

Post by aliljet »

Having a 4 month old sitting next to me as I write this, I think the prevailing opinion among my more woke friends with kids is, "screens are bad." As I read this, it seems to come to a correlative conclusion that screen time before 12 months causes executive function impairment as the time increases from 1 hour to 4 hours. Being a lay consumer of scientific material, I'm curious to understand if I'm reading this correctly.

And man. Screens. Addiction and disability were never the goal. :(

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#26

Post by raverbashing »

superkuh wrote: post #19
CadmiumYellow wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"screens have not changed since then" What? They've changed massively. The displays are different sizes, they're made of different materials, they're more portable, they're more interactive, the colors are brighter, the resolution is better. Our current generation of screens are ubiquitous in a way that TV was not, and they are qualitatively different. Surely the effect on our brains could be different. Not saying th…

>Have you not noticed changes in your own attention span, memory, and thought processes since the advent of smartphones and tablets? I have never owned a smart phone or tablet. I use a dumb phone (Nokia 6030) and desktop (or laptop) computers. Smartphones and tablets are terrible computers, not because they have magic screen powers to influence your brain but because they have limited volume for heat dissipation/ener…

So you never owned a smartphone or tablet but think they're "terrible computers"?

That sounds like an uninformed opinion. Power dissipation sucks on PCs because they're PCs using x86 basically.

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#27

Post by CadmiumYellow »

superkuh wrote: post #19
CadmiumYellow wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"screens have not changed since then" What? They've changed massively. The displays are different sizes, they're made of different materials, they're more portable, they're more interactive, the colors are brighter, the resolution is better. Our current generation of screens are ubiquitous in a way that TV was not, and they are qualitatively different. Surely the effect on our brains could be different. Not saying th…

>Have you not noticed changes in your own attention span, memory, and thought processes since the advent of smartphones and tablets? I have never owned a smart phone or tablet. I use a dumb phone (Nokia 6030) and desktop (or laptop) computers. Smartphones and tablets are terrible computers, not because they have magic screen powers to influence your brain but because they have limited volume for heat dissipation/ener…

It honestly does feel like they have magic screen powers to influence your brain. You'd likely understand what I'm talking about if you'd ever owned one. The interactivity, the high quality and brightly colored displays, the touch feedback and notifications...these devices are like brain candy. They're extremely pleasurable to use and if you get used to using them often it's very hard to pull yourself away from them.

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#29

Post by nescioquid »

superkuh wrote: post #3

I wonder why this effect was not discovered when screens were first invented and entered the home back in the early 20th century when televisions came about. It really makes me doubt the entire premise as screens have not changed since then. It just seems like another unfounded moral panic like when people blamed books, newspapers, or radio for youth misbehavior. Every generation has it's own. It's weird that we've g…

Cultural attitudes and norms have changed greatly. There would generally be one television in the house and deciding which station to watch was often not an individual decision. People would also think there was something wrong with you if you spent too much time watching television.

Even into the late '90s, I recall people being disgusted and scandalized at rumors that so-and-so spends all day playing computer games. Now that everyone has their own personalized screen wherever they go, attitudes are somewhat different.

Re: Associations between infant screen use, EEG markers, and cognitive outcomes

#30

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

superkuh wrote: post #19
CadmiumYellow wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"screens have not changed since then" What? They've changed massively. The displays are different sizes, they're made of different materials, they're more portable, they're more interactive, the colors are brighter, the resolution is better. Our current generation of screens are ubiquitous in a way that TV was not, and they are qualitatively different. Surely the effect on our brains could be different. Not saying th…

>Have you not noticed changes in your own attention span, memory, and thought processes since the advent of smartphones and tablets? I have never owned a smart phone or tablet. I use a dumb phone (Nokia 6030) and desktop (or laptop) computers. Smartphones and tablets are terrible computers, not because they have magic screen powers to influence your brain but because they have limited volume for heat dissipation/ener…

So you have little experience with what you're talking about, but it doesn't stop you from claiming things about their effects with a high degree of confidence?
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