/lit/ - Literature

>>21197558
I’m very worried about those kids. What you have to understand is that the neurodevelopment and brain growth that happens at that age is crucial and absolutely will determine a ton of things in your life that you can’t really change. (For example ADHD occurrence is very strongly correlated to delayed learning to walk/not enough crawling in babies. Furthermore babies who crawled and walked earlier have been shown to have better memories on average as they grow older) These kids won’t simply be able to be better through will power. If this digital childhood does have negative long term effects they will never be able to fully overcome them. The brain for young children is like a sponge that solidifies over time. Once something is in there it’s baked in there.
Forgetting even about them being raised on a tablet we should consider the effects of lockdown on them. The face has 100s of potential nuanced positions to communicate emotions and the brain has a very sophisticated (and poorly understood) mechanism for recognising what they mean. However it is believed that understanding these emotions develops very early in childhood. (Babies react very strongly to people pulling faces at them for instance). These kids not only spent almost 2 years disconnected from others but they also had to deal with masks and face coverings.
“Learning” online does not allow them to exercise or socialise with others. The problems here are self explanatory.
Gen X and early millennials have seriously dropped the ball. I’m very pessimistic here. The best outcome I can imagine is that these fucked up kids will serve as an EXAMPLE for what future generations should never do.
Either they will be fine and all of this is overblown or they will be impulsive, unable to focus, unable to socialise properly, unable to adequately read emotions among other things. It has the potential to be REALLY fucking bad because it’s the perfect storm. Lockdowns mixed with being raised on mobile devices.
And it saddens me to know that these kids will never get a “thank you” from the older generations for being sacrificed. It was the older generations that benefited overwhelmingly and children who suffered disproportionately. That will never be acknowledged.
I just pray that these kids will be given loads of assistance and help from adults and schools. They will need it.