Week 6
Sue Palmer: Toxic Childhood
The Electronic village
Sue Palmer claims that families are moving into ‘Marshall McLuhan’s
electronic global village’ (Palmer, 2006: 233). She explains that we are surrounded by this analogy of an
electronic village every second of the day. Arguably this particular article
tends to thread through the themes of suffocation and repression within the
modern childhood.
Why should teachers care about digital
literacy and childhood within the digital age? A question that could be answered
with reference to the United Nations Rights of the child; for instance article
3 states that ‘the best interests of the child must be a top priority in all
actions concerning children’ (United Nations, 1989). This includes education;
children are living in a digital age therefore digital literacy could be a way
of accessing the curriculum because it has relevance in the real world. However
Sue Palmer argues that the society we have created has a detrimental impact on
children’s development.
On the other hand many argue for the benefits of living in a digital
world, communication has been extended, social networking has allowed people to
communicate instantly regardless of where they are within the world. Marshall
McLuhan’s utopian view of media technology as the ‘extensions of man’ supports
the idea of integrating new technologies within society (McDonald, 2006: 505).
However Palmer states that this utopian vision depends on everybody within
society following the same democratic principles, and tends to disregard the
more conventional principles of family security, first hand experiences, real
friends and one-to- one interactions (Palmer, 2006).
A study into children’s use of popular culture in the home was carried
out via parent questionnaires. It became evident that parents were
overwhelmingly positive about the role of television in their children’s lives.
In the interviews, the majority of parents expressed positive attitudes,
commenting on the high quality of children’s programmes compared to those
around when they were children and outlining the benefits they felt television
brought their children (Marsh, 2005).
Marsh (2005) also reported that the mean time a child is spends engaged
in screen use is on average 2hours and 6 minutes per day. Which does not seem
like an excessive amount compared to the average adult’s engagement with such
mediums; therefore perhaps teachers and parents are unnecessarily worrying themselves
with the possible negative impacts of an electronic village. However the
findings of the study were based on reports from the parents, therefore may not
be representative. Furthermore Sue Palmer investigated the impact of parenting/
family changes on the development of the child. Regarding the movement of the television
into the child’s bedroom, she refers to this as ‘The electronic babysitter’ (Palmer,
2006). Consequently parents aren’t always aware of the amount of time children spend
watching TV, or which programmes they chose to engage in.
It is evident that for children need to grow and learn in an interactive
environment. Palmer identifies Dr Marian Cleeves Diamonds study which concludes
that in order to learn, ‘It is important to interact with the objects, to explore,
to investigate, both physically and mentally.’ (Diamond, 1999 in Palmer, 2006).
She highlights further evidence for the correlation between mental health
problems and the increase exposure to the electronic village. As there is
evidence to suggest that with each additional hour of TV per day watched before
the age of four, the risk of developing attention deficit problems increase.
Consequently the reality of life cannot match the higher level of stimulation
found on such mediums (Palmer, 2006). Ultimately the attention span of children
is inevitably shorter, and Sue Palmer believes that this is due to the over
exposure of sedentary mediums (TV) and underuse of real experiences.
Despite this, engagement with such digital literacy within the classroom
could result in talking points amongst pupils and teachers. This is a method I
have observed often within the classroom and tends to engage pupils attention.
However the chosen digital literacy and topic has an educational purpose. Hence
why teachers should be aware of what is appropriate for children, and inform
children of the dangers in order for them to make responsible decisions on what
they engage in. There is also the issue of children being ‘bombarded with daily
violent ideas, explicit sexual references and bad language’ (Palmer, 2006). Ultimately
It takes village to raise a child, a village that should be aware of the modern
societies impact on childhood and ways in which children can be protected. As
well as a society that embrace new innovations with the intention of benefiting
those involved.
Diamond, CM. & Hopson, J. (1999) Magic
trees of the mind, How to Nuture you
Child’s Intelligence, Creativity and healthy Emotions from birth through
Adolescence. USA:Penguin in Palmer,
S. (2006) Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We
Can Do About It London: Orien (Chapter 9)
Marsh, J., Brooks, G., Hughes, J., Ritchie, L., Roberts, S and Wright, K
(2005) Digital beginnings: Young
children’s use of popular culture, media and new technologies. Sheffield:
University of Sheffield
Palmer, S. (2006) Toxic Childhood:
How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We
Can Do About It London: Orien (Chapter 9)
United Nations Child (1989) Convention on the
Rights of the: UNCRC [Online] http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Publicationpdfs/UNCRC_summary.pdf
(Accessed 18/02/14)
Watch this for a greater understanding of Sue Palmer’s views on the
impact of technology on the developing child:
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