Wallis, Claudia.  (March06).  "Are Kids too Wired For Their Own Good?: What science tells us about the pluses-and minuses-of doing everything at once."  Time Magazine, vol. 167 (13), pp 48-55.

OVERVIEW

“Today 82% of kids are online by the seventh grade”.  Today’s generation has been dubbed the multitasking generation, or Gen M.  According to a 2005 survey of Americans ages 8 to 18 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, “it’s not that kids are spending 6.5 hours a day using electronic media that was interesting, but rather kids are actually packing 8.5 hours of media exposure in a day”.  With “media multitasking” kids today can listen to iTunes, watch a DVD and IM multiple friends (and possibly text them on their cell phones) all at the same time. 

In 1990 the major medium that adolescents said they couldn’t live without was their radio/CD player.  Since 2004 that medium has, hands down, switched to the computer.  With the new advances in technology kids, and even parents, are losing touch with their families.  The structure of a Family is no longer based around face-to-face interpersonal interactions.  The focus has shifted from the dinner table to the TV/computer screen.  Researchers are showing that dividing one’s attention into multiple small slices has significant implications for the way youth today are able to learn, reason, socialize, do creative work, and understand the world.  This research basically shows that even though we have a word like multitasking, which implies the ability of our brain to carry out multiple tasks at once, it is in reality impossible.  A more accurate word for multitasking would be sequential processing, because that is in fact what our brain is doing.  We order these tasks by immediate priority and switch rapidly from task to task.  What is interesting about the area of the brain that control this sequential processing is tthat it is he last to develop and the first to decline with age.  The ability to multi-process has limits.  When people are performing two or more related tasks, errors increase rapidly and it takes often more than double the time to complete the tasks.  However, today’s youth culture is so influenced by media and technology, their ability to analyze and think critically about visual data and images is unsurpassed by previous generations.  Generation M students have learned to assimilate and learn the uses of technology and can access an enormous world of knowledge, but at what cost?

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION & DISCUSSION

1. How do the ideas of this article and the uses of technology affect you?  Your family?  Your youth group?
2. Are kids too wired for their own good?
3. What are the benefits of using technology?  Do we use them wisely?
4. What should the limits of media multitasking be?
5. Why are our students so afraid of silence?

IMPLICATIONS

Technology has opened up doors to a wonderful world of knowledge for our children and can be a great tool for ministry.  But with this ability to be connected to the world also connects them to things that are very negative influences.  So many adolescents today have no idea how to establish deep, personal, and lasting relationships with the people around them.  Without a moment's silence these kids’ minds have no time to think and reflect on experiences.  Extended thought and concentration is deteriorating in our youth.  They want the short, to the point answer that tells them what they need to know.  We need to provide a way for our youth to learn to strive for understanding and end the cycle of surface learning.  Giving them the short and simple answer will only scratch the surface of what life is really all about. 

Mike Lafferty cCYS