“Cheers to the freakin’ weekend.
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Oh let the Jameson sink in I drink to that, yeah yeah
Don’t let the bastards get ya down Turn it around with another round
There’s a party at the bar everybody put your glasses up and I drink to that I drink to that.” Rhianna – Lyrics to “Cheers to That”

Messages about drinking are everywhere you look. Although racy music lyrics are nothing new, the messages in songs have changed from when many of us were younger. For example, a content analysis of song lyrics found that in 1988, 12% of songs referred to either or both alcohol and drugs, compared to 30% in 2008. Moreover, both alcohol and drugs were much more likely to be portrayed positively than negatively, especially in recent decades.
continue reading "Cheers! Messages in media about drinking"

If you haven’t seen the video about the father who shot his child’s laptop after she posted an ungrateful, obnoxious posting on Facebook, it’s worth a look.  As a parent of a teenage daughter who can be rude and selfish, I can relate.  Yet as a person who studies developmental psychology, I know that adolescents often are rude and selfish, and some of this behavior may be beyond their control.  In addition, authoritarian parenting, heavy with rules, strictness, low tolerance and little warmth, is associated with negative outcomes for children.  And it’s pretty clear this dad has a heavy hand.  Moreover, I personally don’t think guns are ever a solution to a problem.  I mean, what is the dad modeling (modeling is one of the most influential ways that people learn due to mirror neurons in all of our brains)?  Get angry and use guns to solve your problem?

But it does show very clearly, one of the problems with allowing children access to these tools.  This girl was acting out against her parent’s rules.  Very normal.  She said something rude about one of their parent’s friends.  Again normal.  But in the past this was contained to inside the home or within a small group of school friends.  In the 21st century?  She chose to post it on Facebook.  What was she thinking?  It seems that her father may have even been a Facebook friend.  Even if he wasn’t, the teenager’s difficulty to connect actions with consequences combined with increased risk taking behavior, made her not think that without a doubt her father would see the post.  And moreover, that the father’s friend would see the post and be hurt by being called a housecleaner.

The most recent Pew report on social networking sites found that most adults witnessed kind behavior on the sites, but the less heralded number is that 49% witnessed mean behavior – and the group surveyed were adults!  That is an astonishingly high number.  A former study on teens and social networking sites reflected a higher number to witness mean behavior — 88%. Think about it — in your day-to-day, face to face daily life how much mean and cruel behavior do you witness?  I would venture to say it is much less than 49%.

These sites give children (and in fact all of us) tools to act out, and if they have poor self-control, to act emotionally.  The teen who acted out on Facebook suffered some pretty serious consequences.  But then her father notched it up a level when he reacted.  His original YouTube video was removed – perhaps he is reconsidering his actions and took it down?  But now it’s too late – his video has been reposted by others and in many many places and will live on.

“The motivation of adolescents is a critical issue – it is, in fact, a problem that must be solved.” (Anderman & Maehr, 1994)

“They agreed that computers had, so far, made surprisingly little impact on schools – far less than in other realms of society such as media and medicine and law.  For that to change, Gates said, computers and mobile devices would have to focus on delivering more personalized lessons and providing motivational feedback.” Conversation between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (Isaacson, 2011)

In America, youth consume an inordinate amount of media, over seven hours a day, seven days a week, outside of the classroom (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010).  As such, it may not be revolutionary to suggest an essential component of 21^st century learning is to teach children how to use digital media safely and productively.  As America falls further behind on the world stage in education, those concerned with youth development opine on fundamental 21^st century capabilities, usually with an emphasis on the use of technology.  For example, the partnership for 21^st Century Skills, an advocacy group comprised of many top leaders in the field of education, suggests that learning and innovation skills must develop in combination with a deep knowledge of information, media and technology (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009).  This spotlight on technological skills is not isolated to the United States; in Europe the OECD directorate of education suggests the framework for learning should be information, communication, ethics and social impact (Ananiadou & Claro, 2009).  The OECD report further highlights the need for information competencies due to the world’s rapid advances in technology, suggesting that young people must gain expertise in digital environments.

A major reason that well-respected educators and academics propose providing young people with digital tools is the belief they will inspire and excite them about academic learning (Prensky, 2006; Gee, James Paul, 2004; Barab et al., 2007).  In research funded by the MacArthur Foundation, Ito and colleagues (2009) conducted an ethnographic study resulting in 23 case studies of youth’s engagement with digital tools and networks; their conclusions were that the learning opportunities are enormous (Ito et al., 2009).  Yet in an examination of over half a million students in North Carolina, Vigdor and Ladd (2010) found that students who obtained access to a home computer tended to score lower on subsequent reading and math tests. The authors suggest that children who gain access to digital media at home end up using them for recreation and may become distracted from learning; in addition, in households with less parental supervision, the negative effects of computer ownership were greater (Vigdor & Ladd, 2010).  Indeed, Ito et al.’s ethnographic work seems to confirm this interpretation; their finding was that only 20% used media for interest driven learning, the remaining 80% used media to socialize and “hang out.”

Nevertheless, the reality is that in today’s world, digital media are an essential tool, and children who become skilled in their use will likely gain a competitive advantage in the work force (Vockley, 2011).  And although some argue that digital media should not be integrated into learning environments (Richtel, 2011), the likelihood is that the majority of American schools will invest in a technological infrastructure in the coming decade (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009).  As Vigdor and Ladd’s data suggests, technology in and of itself is not the silver bullet for motivating children to love learning; handing a child a laptop or iPad will not guarantee they will use it for creative and innovative learning.  As such, it will be important to guide youth who access digital media to focus on scholarship; accordingly, we must develop children’s learning strategies in order to help them resist thousands of distractions available with these tools. Perhaps, therefore, the question should be framed not “if” but “how” best to introduce digital media as a tool for learning.

Once technology is fully integrated into our children’s learning environments, they will be expected to use initiative and attention to direct themselves to use it for scholarship, often without adult supervision. In other words, they will be expected to show enormous willpower and self motivation.  Self-regulated learners proactively direct their strategies to achieve self-set goals (Zimmerman, 2002). A good self-regulator will pay attention to task, persist when it becomes difficult, demonstrate flexibility and be confident that additional effort will lead to positive outcomes (Schunk, 2005).As such, self-regulation is an essential life skill that may need to go hand in hand with the introduction of digital media in a learning environment.  Guiding youth to develop strong self-regulation skills (SRS) may be more important than ever.

Despite recent concerns of parents that homework serves little purpose and can be too stressful for children (i.e. see post on the film RACE TO NOWHERE), most research finds that self regulation skills and homework activities are related.  Hundreds of studies in a variety of contexts, not only in the classroom, but also in healthcare and other arenas, found similar positive outcomes for better self-regulated learners (Duckworth et al, 2009).   A good self regulator will pay attention to task, persist when it becomes difficult, demonstrate flexibility, be motivated and confident that additional effort will lead to positive outcomes.  Sounds pretty good right, even for adults!

Teachers know homework contributes to self-regulation skills, and that is why even a little homework at a young age can be helpful.  As a parent, I invested a lot of time in making sure my young children did their homework first thing, at the kitchen table when they came home from school, beginning in kindergarten when the academic value of the work was questionable.  And today, when they come home from school and are motivated to do their homework without my staying on top of them every minute, I am extremely grateful that I put in the time when they were younger. Now the stakes are higher, and they SELF-regulate.  Much better than MOMMY-regulate.

The activities that students conduct during homework such as motivating themselves, setting goals, and inhibiting distractions are all components of self-regulation.  As such, teaching effective homework practices may be a relatively simple means of developing self-regulation.  Investing greater effort in homework is also associated with higher achievement with effect sizes ranging from .39 to .97.   In studies with middle school children, students with better skills in SRL while completing homework ahieved higer academic performance (Zimmerman, 2008).

And really… do any of you want to be sitting in your child’s dorm room when they go to college telling them to get back to work?

A version of this article, co-authored with Dr Adi Jaffe, first appeared in Psychology Today online.

1 in 3 people consider the Internet to be as important as air, water, food and shelter. Given how intensely people feel about this technology, is it any wonder that some psychologists are convinced that Internet addiction is a real pathology?  True, claiming that people are as addicted to the Internet as they are to air, food, or water is obviously a non-starter; it’s pretty clear that the actual role of technology is far less compulsory in terms of human survival.

But does this kind of dependence, compulsory or otherwise, qualify as an addiction? 

continue reading "Internet addiction — Societal Problem?"