Kids and Screens: A Reason to Scream

I am walking through the forest with some 6th graders when one exclaims, Wait, these spruce don't look anything like the ones on Minecraft! Minecraft, for anyone who does not know, is a video game where you can venture through a virtual forest to gain resources to build various structures. I get a lot of kids comparing real plants and animals to what they have seen in their video games. It is fascinating that the comparison is not from a textbook or photograph, but rather a virtual land that can be visited without ever taking a step outdoors.

All phones are taken from kids as soon as they arrive on campus, although some slip through the cracks. I am sitting under a pine tree with a 12 year old girl with flaming red hair. She holds a pinecone in her hand, rubbing her thumb over its rigid surface. I don't want to go home. She says to me. Why not? I ask. Because then I'll be inside on my iPad. I like being outside. She says, her head ducked. Can't you still go outside even though you have an iPad? I ask. She shrugs. I guess.

After a week, I have multiple kids reveal that they loved this time without their phones. One group that turned very positive about going without their phones was given their devices back at breakfast time during departure day. Almost every head was bent downwards that morning, and what used to be a chorus of rambunctious voices was a lull of occasional whispers. Their phone vacation was forgotten, and they were back to being absorbed in the all-stimulating world that is a smartphone.

Phones can be fantastic for a variety of reasons - maps, translation, staying in contact, pictures... etc. We know that they also have a lot of negative drawbacks such as addiction, negative body positivity, etc. Many of these negatives are brought on mainly by social media apps that are on these phones. People of all ages can feel these negative and positive effects. However, I believe that smartphones with social media are disproportionately effecting younger populations. Adults can certainly become addicted to their phones, we see it all the time. Children, however, are more susceptible to addiction.

Children are seeing the world with fresh eyes, and are in a state of constant absorption. They are like small sponges, soaking up as much as they can so that they can understand the world and build the scaffolding in which they learn what it means to be alive. Smartphones are like a big pool to their sponge minds. When exposed to this pool, they naturally try to soak up as much as they can. What they are missing is the ocean. The pool is nothing but an imitation of the ocean, ladened with chemicals and lacking the dangers and reality that is the vast sea. They see plastic toy fish rather than living tropical ones. They see a smooth floor rather than rocks, sunken ships, and coral.

When in this state of an oversaturated sponge, there is not much room left for self-creation of experience. It is like all is already done, and all kids have to do is sit there and absorb. Even in world-building games, one does not have to dig into the earth or run to catch an animal, all that is needed is thumbs and consciousness. Also, empty space is so important when it comes to mental health and sense of self. When every moment is filled, there is no room for one to simply exist. People can easily hide from their fears when no room is made for them to sit fully with themselves. In one group during a meditation, students were brought to tears from the silence they were pushed to endure. They were not used to existing in such a space of nothingness.

Lots of kids are learning what is reality based on what they find on their smartphones. Crafting one's reality through a created space is an oxymoron. Smartphones can be an excellent resource to supplement one's life, but not to build a life. Builders, such as children, are not set up to mentally handle something as all-encompassing as a smartphone. Instead of using it as a resource, they use it as a lifeline. Most adults are not even close to finishing their scaffolding of how they view the world or themselves, but that also means that children are even that much more behind. Most adults at least have some level of self-regulation, which children often lack in, naturally so.

Oftentimes the argument that "technology is destroying youngsters minds" is viewed as non-progressive and not very forward-thinking. However, there is so much validity behind these fears. Of course there can be an extreme in this view, as in everything, but I have seen the effects that smartphones have on children firsthand in my work. One effect that makes my heart fall is the lack of excitement for natural phenomena because it is often not as stimulating as a virtual world. One must work harder to be captivated by the little things in nature when on a daily basis they are stimulated by flashing lights, wild graphics, and impressive world building topped with fantastical animals. It's like eating a bunch of skittles then eating a strawberry and thinking the natural strawberry tastes bitter by comparison. We lose our taste for the natural sweetness in life. It can be hard for youngsters to find joy in finding and identifying a moose footprint when they ride tigers with wings online.

This is not to say that all kids don't care about animal tracks anymore, because many do. I'm just exploring the very real concern that perhaps all of what smartphones offer can be a detriment to the way kids interact with the world. There is validity in human creation, for whatever is created is a part of who we are as a species. To live solely within the realm of human creation is to not acknowledge that the world is made up of so many components outside of mankind. Taking a hike in the wilderness and seeing trees that are not in pixels, or are not creating a house, is to see the world in its raw form. Anything else is ignorance and a lack of connection to our life-force that is mother nature herself.

There are so many factors that go into whether someone is exposed to raw nature, and some of it has to do with privilege and/or a lack of education and community support. When one is given the choice on whether or not to give their pre-teen a smartphone, I hope that enough research is out there that make parents think about the matter with a little more purpose. I want to see every kid's face light up when watching a falcon cut through the air with its sharp wings, and not having to compete with a virtual unreality.