Mobile use can make your kid less creative and more analytical

According to a new study, pre-schoolers who frequently use a smartphone may grow up to be less artistic or social. Read on to know more.

Many kids nowadays are addicted to mobile phones. How many times have you come across a toddler glued to a smartphone screen while eating? This is a trend that is catching on and the blame lies entirely on parents. After all, it is the easy way out if your kid is throwing a tantrum or needs some entertainment. But this can have serious implications. A new study from Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE) in Budapest, Hungary says that the use of digital devices changes how children perceive the world. Researchers found that pre-schoolers who frequently use tablet or mobile devices often tend to miss the forest for the trees. People can be different in whether they typically see the forest or the trees, but the dominant attentional mode is focusing first on the whole, and then on the details. This is the same with children. Or so it has been until now.

Less focus on the big picture

Children using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets differ in this skill as they tend to focus more on the details and less on the big picture. This is what the study found. The journal Computers in Human Behavior published this study. According to researchers, focusing on the global picture helps us in perceiving the world in meaningful, coherent patterns, and not just as a bunch of unrelated spots. We automatically process the global pattern even if we intend to pay attention only to the details, they say.

Just 6 minutes of a video game can change focus

For the purpose of the study, the researchers recruited pre-schoolers regardless of whether they use mobile devices or not. They investigated if a short game on tablet causes detail-focused attention in short term. After studying them, they found that just 6 minutes of playing with a balloon-shooting video game was enough to induce a detail-focused attentional style in a consecutive task. In contrast, children who played with a non-digital game (a whack-a-mole game) showed the typical global focus.

Effects may not be bad, but they are different, say experts

The results showed that the type of experiences children meet matters much, because at this age the brain is very plastic. So, such massive early exposure may have a significant long-term effect. The atypical attention style in mobile user children is not necessarily bad, but different for sure, and this cannot be ignored. These children probably need a new way of presenting educational material.

It may boost analytical thinking

As the researchers pointed out, people who pay attention to details are more skilfull at analytic thinking, but less creative and have weaker social skills. Therefore, it is possible that -- if there will be no change in this trend -- among children of the new generation there will be more scientific thinker and less artistic or social ones, and this will probably change the world we live in.

(With inputs from IANS)