Yes Johnny, Spongebob probably does rot your brain.
October 24, 2011
There was some news recently of the research in the journal Pediatrics that cartoons like Spongebob are detrimental to the performance of cognitive tasks. Granted, the study was small, but it did indicate that watching certain kinds of TV are not good for kids.
It is good that there is research to tell us these sort of things, otherwise they remain at the level of nagging teacher suggestions to stop watching too much TV.
What is more concerning to me is the logic used in the commentary that was included in the journal along with the above research, since it relies on a developing notion that the ‘digital generation’ are somehow going to come out of this influx of stimuli okay, since they are used to dealing with multiple stimuli and are able to adapt to their new environment.
I have heard other people, including administrators and teachers, who buy into the logic that students are developing multitasking skills that enable them to complete tasks with greater distractions.
This is not what the research says. And the simple fact that there need to be laws against texting and driving suggest that there need to be some major qualifications to any claim of the adaptivity of the new generations.
What Christakis relies on is the absurd scientific position, that, since there is not enough solid research out there, we should be careful of being naysayers of the changing times. But the consequence of this position is that society then runs a giant, uncontrolled experiment about the influence of media on child development.
I am not so sure I would be as pessimistic as Mark Bauerlein, who in his book, The Dumbest Generation takes the hell in the handbasket approach to the influx of technology.
And I am pretty sure that the American education system will continue to produce successful and intelligent individuals. Those kids whose success is at stake are the same kids who have always been at risk. Now they just have another reason for failing. Technology has the benefit of empowering people to unprecedented levels, but it is precisely those nagging teachers and parents who take responsibility for this technology who are able to give that opportunity to everyone.
