Driving kids to distraction

TRYING TO ‘MULTI-TASK’ ON MEDIA CAN BACKFIRE AND ACTUALLY MAKE OUR CHILDREN STRUGGLE FAR MORE WITH THE TASK AT HAND, WRITES PARENTING EXPERT DR JUSTIN COULSON

With the tsunami of technology sweeping up our kids, especially our teens, they are becoming more adept at using multiple media at once. How often have you seen your teen watch Netflix while “hanging out” on Facebook, snapchatting a friend, and doing homework? Media multi-tasking gives us the feeling we’re accomplishing a lot – we think being “busy” is a good thing! But all of this media engagement is having a profoundly negative effect on our kids.

WITH the tsunami of technology sweeping up our kids, especially our teens, they are becoming more adept at using multiple media at once.

How often have you seen your teen watch Netflix while “hanging out” on Facebook, snapchatting a friend, and doing homework?

Media multi-tasking gives us the feeling we’re accomplishing a lot – we think being “busy” is a good thing!

But all of this media engagement is having a profoundly negative effect on our kids.

Almost a third of teens use two or more media simultaneously.

The body can perform multiple tasks – we can pat our tummy and rub our head – but even these physical things are hard and require concentration.

On the other hand, the brain generally can’t deal well with input from multiple sources – even multiple streams of very simple information is too much.

And we only have to look at data on car accidents and smartphone use to see the problem with trying to do multiple complex things at once.

Research in Australia is limited, but in a US study researchers found the risk of an accident increased fivefold when the driver uses a device in the car, six times when texting, 10 times when reading and 12 times when dialling.

The brain goes into overload when trying to manage the complex task of driving a car at the same time as doing other things.

It applies to technology, driving and it applies to children.

Studies show kids who media multi-task have problems remembering information they are receiving, both while they are working on the task, and over the long term. Even though they appear to be busily working, their brains are less efficient.

Most telling of all, teens who media multi-task have less brain density in the neural regions responsible for empathy and cognitive and emotional control.

Our multi-tasking teens literally have fewer brain cells than non-multi-tasking peers.

Not surprisingly, they also have lower IQs.

University of London researchers found multi-tasking leads to an IQ decline of up to 15 points – similar to if we’d stayed up all night.

Media multi-tasking is literally rewiring our teens’ brains – and not for the better.

It’s no surprise when teens text while doing homework,

MOST TELLING OF ALL, TEENS WHO MEDIA MULTI-TASK HAVE LESS BRAIN DENSITY IN THE NEURAL REGIONS RESPONSIBLE FOR EMPATHY AND COGNITIVE AND EMOTIONAL CONTROL

they have problems paying attention.

Media multi-tasking affects their ability to concentrate.

They become unable to decipher what information is important and what is not.

This leads to more errors in their work, and more distractibility.

And the effect doesn’t just stop with them.

Students who multi-tasked in a classroom during a lecture scored lower on exams, but so

did classmates in direct view of them. Media multi-tasking has become so prevalent federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham has called on Aussie schools to ban smartphone use. Media multi-tasking is affecting even those kids who aren’t doing it!

Technoference – or distraction by media – significantly reduces relationship satisfaction. To build meaningful relationships we need to be fully engaged with the other person – listening carefully to their choice of words, watching body language and emotionally responding to them.

This type of deep listening is not possible when a person is distracted. And the distraction is not just limited to that moment – chronic media multitasking affects areas of the brain we use to emotionally connect with people face to face. Ironically, in an effort to be “connected” our teens are losing the ability to connect.

The constant bombardment of information leads to elevated stress levels and can lead to chronic stress. And adolescents who persistently multitask with social media say they feel increasing levels of depression and anxiety.

Without the ability to connect with loved ones, these feelings worsen.

Professor Clifford Nass, an authority on human-computer interaction, says: “People who multi-task all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy … They’re chronically distracted.

“They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand. They’re pretty much mental wrecks.”

In the case of media and our teens, being busy is not better!