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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

#31

Post by version_five »

CadmiumYellow wrote: post #27
superkuh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

  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.
Also anecdotally, my (infant) son is absolutely mesmerized by the sight of a phone screen. I don't let him see it generally, but if he casually spots a screen, it's like it's the only thing in the world.

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

#33

Post by scott00 »

stevenwoo wrote: post #16
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…

They compared children starting at 12-18 months and ending at 9 years of age. This study would have been unreasonable as far as I understand it until screens got small enough to put in a crib or only include parents who hold their child in their lap while watching television or have a television adjacent to a crib.

99% of kids can sit without support at 9.2 months.[0] 97% can crawl by 12 months.[0]

Kids in the 12-18 month range don't stay in the crib or a lap all day.

[0] https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/child-growth/c...

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

#35

Post by H1Supreme »

CadmiumYellow wrote: post #17
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…

"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…

An anecdotal comment on screens: When I got my first flat-screen HD TV, and watched actual HD content on it, I had a visceral reaction to the higher resolution. I could remember seeing the lines/pores on people's faces, and it was honestly jarring. I almost plugged my old tube TV back in.

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

#36

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#37

Post by CadmiumYellow »

version_five wrote: post #31
CadmiumYellow wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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. Also anecdotally, my (infant) son is absolutely mesmerized by the sight of a phone screen. I don't let him see it generally, but if he casually spots a screen, it's like it's the only thing in the world.

That's so freaky to think about! I don't have kids but I've noticed a lot of the same things in myself. If I turn the display grayscale it's like it instantly loses 80% of its allure, which has me convinced that the bright colors are a huge part of why these devices are so mesmerizing to our lizard brains. I'd imagine that that has an extra strong pull for little kids who are already drawn to bright colors!

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

#38

Post by in_cahoots »

medler wrote: post #7

A brief summary of what this study was about: - screen time was reported by parents at 12 months - television was the only screen time experienced by the vast majority of subjects (they explain that this was around 2010, before handheld devices were ubiquitous) - they found that at 9 years old, the children who had had more screen time at 12 months had worse attention and executive functioning at 9 years - EEG correl…

I was surprised at the 2 hour number too, but then I remembered that there are a ton of stay at home moms or parents on parental leave who have the tv on all day for background noise. Being home alone all day can be isolating, and for some people the ‘company’ of a tv breaks up that isolation.

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

#39

Post by Fatnino »

version_five wrote: post #31
CadmiumYellow wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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. Also anecdotally, my (infant) son is absolutely mesmerized by the sight of a phone screen. I don't let him see it generally, but if he casually spots a screen, it's like it's the only thing in the world.

It was exactly like this for me as a kid in the 80s. Any time there was a screen it would grab my attention.

Of course we are talking about tube TV, something others in this thread are dismissing as not the same thing as smartphones.

I think the real reason is because it actually was the most interesting thing in the doctors waiting room. Does anyone really expect a dog-eared puzzle missing 40% of its pieces to hold a kids attention better than sesame street?

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

#40

Post by korse »

One of my mom's credentials is a degree in early childhood development.

She and her peers from that life were pretty set (since the mid-70's) that putting children younger than 12 or so in front of 'screen media' had negative affects on social and cognitive development.

The rationale, as far as I understood it, is that young kids are voracious learners and screen media at it's best is a shallow and hyper focused projection of the day-to-day reality experienced by humans.

Thus, any time spent on screen media equates to lost training time/data which is always a negative if you are trying to build a general purpose human being.

Books which required effort to comprehend were fine, but interaction with peers, older humans and the outside world was preferable to all else.

EEG readings to prove things about executive function may suck, but the conclusion still seems somewhat intuitive.

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