Not being very technologically minded, I used to admire the kids of today for the ease with which they can get around any new piece of technology. And we can all thank technology for the incredible conveniences it has brought us. Indeed, it is very hard for me to imagine how the world spun on its axis before the computer and internet changed how we did business, communicated with one another and learned at school and university.
But what is the cost of all this convenience and easy access to information?
When I started work, the automatic typewriter was still in use (yes, this was years and years ago!!) and at home we used an old manual typewriter whose keys frequently got stuck and whose ink ribbons dried out far too quickly. Those were the days before the photocopier; the days of the telex machine, typex paper and fluid, typewriter rubbers and carbon paper. Those were the days when letters were written in triplicate, the original posted and copies filed. Those were the days when it might take me a couple of hours - and a dozen swear words - to type up a few correction-free pages. When the fax machine replaced the telex machine, I was awestruck. When the word processor appeared, I was intimidated but not so much as when a bulky computer with a mono screen arrived on my desk and I had to sign up for weeks of lessons to learn how to use it. I was still using one of these old fashioned personal computers in 1998 when I wrote up my Master's thesis. My spelling was still excellent in those days because my PC didn't have a spellcheck. Without Google, I had to use the university library to do all my research and I recall completing hundreds of order forms by hand for journal articles to be sent to me from the British Library. In those days, everything took much longer to do and change happened more slowly.
And here I am today, paying bills online while Skypeing, sending or reading emails, checking Facebook, downloading photos or the latest research, reading newspapers from all over the world, listening to music, or learning something new from YouTube clips. Incredible how useful these technologies are. Twenty years ago who could have imagined that we would be living in such a global village with instant communication via TV, computers, the internet, mobile phones, smart phones, and social networking sites?
Nevertheless, adults are often described as old-fashioned when it comes to new technology and many, like me, are still rather backwards in coming forwards to obtain the very latest techno gadget. Kids, on the other hand, are often described as "digital natives." This is not surprising really since schools have embraced the digital age with more than a 'bear hug', including laptop computers, electronic smart boards instead of blackboards, replacing printed books with e-books, and making learners use the internet to carry out research and computers to do their homework.
I recently read that in some schools libraries have been replaced by digital resource centres and children are now described as "knowledge navigators" surfing the net with teachers guiding them at their side.
Apparently books are out-of-date and novels are no longer read from beginning to end by the techno-savvy youth. Teenage clients almost invariably tell me that they most enjoy playing computer games in their leisure time, or chatting on Facebook. I don't hear many young people telling me that they enjoy reading books these days. Everywhere you go, teens are glued to their mobile phones and many of them will tell you that they stay up til the wee hours of the morning texting friends, be it a weekday or the weekend. No wonder kids are so sleep deprived these days.
And loss of sleep is not the only thing that the digital age is costing us. Apparently, too much time on computer games, watching screens and surfing the net impairs the way our brains process information and the way we think. Think about it: Printed texts require one to focus on the words, to concentrate, read carefully and sit quietly. TV and computer screens, on the other hand, are replete with colourful images, graphics, sounds, and movement that is everchanging.
The newspaper article I read recently quoted Susan Greenfield from a brain researcher from Oxford University as saying: "These technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment."
She went on to say: "(The) environment has changed in an unprecedented way, it's bombarding you with boom, bang and bang images, which I call the 'yuck and wow' scenario where every moment you're having something flash up in your face and bombard your ear."
The same article points out that when we read a printed page, our eyes move from left to right following the words, with stops to process meaning, as we move systematically across and down the page. However, according to US researcher, Jakob Nielsen, although reading a computer page is similar to reading a printed page initially, in that our eyes move from left to right in a methodical fashion, after a while our eyes stop reading all the way across the screen and only read the left-hand side, moving vertically instead of horizontally. Perhaps this explains why I frequently tend to forget the details I read in emails; I must be reading them vertically.
Ludger Woessman, an European researcher, says that "the availability of computers at home is negatively related to student performance in maths and reading, and the availability of computers at school is unrelated to student performance." He points out that students can waste time on computers and the internet. Well, that is hardly surprising. How many adults, myself included, testify to wasting huge amounts of time on the computer? And I have spoken to a number of teens who say they use the computer and internet to procrastinate and distract themselves from their assignments, particularly when they are struggling or stressed.
Children learn best by memorising multiplication tables, doing mental arithmetic and learning to recite songs and poems by heart. What's going to happen to children's brain power if they continue to rely on computers and calculators to do the "thinking" for them? I, for one, know what's happened to my spelling and arithmetic skills since spellcheck and the calculator came along.
The article I read stated "one study from Duke University examined the test scores and computer use of 150,000 primary age children and found that those who didn't do well in the tests had high computer use, with most of the time spent socialising and playing games."
And what about the other negative impacts of technology on children? I'm referring to the deficits in social skills that seems to be emerging with the increasing use of social networking, computers and gaming. And the increase in violence and aggression at school can also be blamed to a large extent on the amount of violence and aggression kids are exposed to in the media. And don't get me started on the media's sexualisation of children. I will save that post for another day.
When all is said and done, I am now rather pleased that I am just technologically savvy enough to keep my head above water in today's world. I am even more relieved that I don't have the difficult task of raising and educating kids in this digital world. And although I rather like the wonderful things that technology has brought to my life from now on, I intend to write more letters and fewer emails.
