14
Wednesday, August 22, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Digital engagement affects families
attention and keeping it, over
and over: marketers call it
“engagement.”
Research shows disturbing
trends that link digital engage-
ment to social and mental
health problems (see previous
articles in this series). Emma
Norton observes its effects at
her Sisters workplace:
“On a typical school holi-
day you can see seats and
corners full of kids glued to
screens,” she reports. “Very
rarely are they communicat-
ing with each other or running
around in the big grassy area
outside.” The parents are often
physically active, while their
kids “zone out on screens — a
big juxtaposition.”
Enter Emma’s child Max,
who is “totally left out of the
‘fun’ and it makes me sad. The
potential peers do not look up
or say hello, even though they
usually know each other… no
one is free to chit-chat or play.
So my kid awkwardly hangs
with peers and looks over
their shoulders, hangs with the
staff, or reads.”
Today’s software and hard-
ware are designed to engage
users constantly—and make
them feel anxious if they
step offline. “It became this
kind of puppet-master effect,
where all of these products are
By T. Lee Brown
Correspondent
The Norton family spends
most of their free time play-
ing or working in the great
outdoors near Sisters. They
watch a few TV shows and
play some video games, but
place limits on screen time.
It sounds like good old-fash-
ioned common sense: People
need fresh air and healthy
activity, right?
Common sense has taken a
hit in recent years, especially
since online devices became
handheld. Smartphones, tab-
lets, and ubiquitous wi-fi hold
children, parents, and every-
one else in their sway. It’s no
accident, either. Welcome to
the Attention Economy of the
21st century. To function, it
requires what marketers call
“engagement.”
From the smallest startup
to the Googliest mega-corpo-
ration, attention-related com-
panies earn revenue through
advertising. Ads are noth-
ing new. What’s new is the
slot-machine-style, addictive
technology serving up today’s
ads. What’s new is convincing
people to pay folding money
for the honor of carrying a
brainwashing device on their
person 24/7. Grabbing their
puppet-mastering all these dif-
ferent users,” admitted Tristan
Harris, formerly a product
designer at Google, in a recent
interview. “That was really
bad.”
Harris and other promi-
nent Silicon Valley technolo-
gists have begun to speak out
against the Frankenstein they
helped create. Tim Cook, CEO
of Apple, says he puts bound-
aries on the kids in his life:
“There are some things that
I won’t allow; I don’t want
them on a social network.”
Virtual reality pioneer Jaron
Lanier has been a deep thinker
in the industry for decades.
His current thinking can be
summed up in the title of his
latest book, “Ten Arguments
for Deleting Your Social
Media Accounts Right Now.”
“For the sake of child
sleep, health, and family bal-
ance, it’s time to rethink user
engagement as the primary
goal of child technology
design,” asserts Dr. Jenny
Radesky, writing for the
American Academy of Pediat-
rics. Until that happens, every-
day folks struggle to regain
balance between real and digi-
tal life.
Peer pressure affects adults
as well as kids. “Aside from a
core group of like-thinking
PHOTO BY T. LEE BROWN
Sisters kids model the Phone Zombie look.
mom friends,” Emma says, “I
often feel alone in the struggle
of how to parent screen-time.”
The issue follows Max to
Sisters Elementary School and
even on the bus ride home.
“My kiddo’s school does not
allow toys on the bus, but
they allow screens,” she notes.
“Um, what? How does this
even make sense? It’s crazy.”
Temporarily calming kids
with devices has been likened
to giving them drugs. Audry
Van Houweling, founder of
She Soars Psychiatry in Sis-
ters, refers to them as digital
pacifiers.
“It’s heartbreaking for my
kid to feel left out,” Emma
laments. On the other hand,
Emma recently noticed that
Max is learning while the
other kids are absorbed in their
devices. Max develops con-
versational skills by chatting
with adult patrons who stop
to say hi, while the others lose
out on the “unknown, missed
opportunity” of playing, learn-
ing to have conversations, and
meeting new people. In the
long run, Max has an advan-
tage. For now? Responsible
device use is tough on child
and parent alike. (See “Tech-
niques for happier screen
time” on page 15.)
This is part five in The
Nugget’s series on digital
media, nature, and kids. If you
are affected by screen-time
issues or have found healthy
solutions, please share your
story by emailing freelance
writer tiffany@plazm.com.
Names and details changed
to preserve anonymity.
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