Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
While the Internet and all those Internet-connected gadgets allow us to find information quickly and make us feel like we know … everything; and email and texting let us stay in some level of constant contact, the volume of information and incessant multitasking is diminishing the intellect and impairing the human brain says researcher, author, blogger Nicholas Carr. He appeared today on the CBC Radio program The Current.
In a June 19, 2010, blog entry, Nicholas Carr notes a major study by the National Bureau of Economic Research revealing what happens when a child receives a computer. Their findings are a feast for reflection but not good news. The analysis shows that home computers have “‘modest but statistically significant negative impact’ on academic performance as measured by math and reading test scores.
Fifth to eighth grade students who obtain access to home computers “‘tend to score between 1 percent and 1.3 percent of a standard deviation lower on their subsequent math and reading tests.…
“‘The introduction of high-speed internet service’” similarly links to “‘significantly lower math and reading test scores in the middle grades.…
“Students in ZIP [U.S. Postal Service’s Zone Improvement Plan] codes that transition from no broadband service to limited service from three or fewer providers post a statistically significant decline in math test scores. The estimated decline is a relatively strong 2.6 percent of a standard deviation. The impact on reading test scores is more modest and statistically insignificant.
“Students in ZIP codes that move beyond the four-ISP [Internet Service Provider var. IAP, Internet Access Provider] threshold also exhibit modest declines in test scores. The effects are statistically significant, equivalent to 1.4 percent of a standard deviation in math and 1.6 percent of a standard deviation in reading....
“Access to computers and broadband is, on balance, not good for kids.…
“The introduction of broadband internet [was shown to be] associated with widening racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps” ─ thus attempting to close the ‘digital divide’ by subsidizing PC purchases may end up widening the divide in academic performance between rich and poor.…
“The negative consequences of computer use could be tempered if students began to use computers more for homework and less for goofing off but there is no evidence of this happening.”
What to do?
The study’s authors acknowledge that their data collection ended in 2005 before the generation of Face book and Twitter and, in recent years, opportunities to goof off with computers (including the explosion of phone texting) have expanded quickly.
While there is nothing wrong with kids goofing off, the problem is “the growing amount of time dedicated to goofing off on computers and the net that is crowding out time that otherwise might go to studying (or requiring more multitasking while studying).”
Books are better
A taste for books “flows from generation to generation largely of its own accord, little affected by education, occupational status, or other aspects of class.” What has been shown to pay off in school performance, in brainpower and function, in depth comprehension and critical thinking rises from a long parental tradition of giving infants toy books to play with in the bath. Reading stories to little children at bedtime and giving books as presents to older children; talking, explaining, imagining, fantasizing, constantly playing with words. Children of these parents learn the words, master the skills, and buy the books.
Sources and notes
Nicholas Carr is author of The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to Our Brains. He appeared this week on CBC Radio’s The Current program.
Rough Type, Nicholas Carr’s blog, http://www.roughtype.com/
CBC Radio The Current, July 2, 2010, http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2010/07/july-2-2010.html
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