Week 10 Response

Well, after the group presentation with the young child using an iPad and then Qian’s weekly reading about usability testing for children’s computer games with children as young as kindergarten, it seems that as silly an SNSs for young children are, they’re here and probably here to stay.

I looked into SNSs for kids and there’s one called “Togetherville” that is available for “kids and their grown-ups” meaning that their parents monitor their friends and contacts – no creepers and no real anonymity.  Which is a good thing but the video about it also said “it allows kids to send friendly taunts” for playing games. Does this just allow cyber-bullying and bullying in general to begin at a younger age?

One of the good features of Togetherville is that it filters YouTube for kid-friendly videos, thus eliminating the risk of kids watching something graphic or too adult for them. You never know what a child might accidentally run into while using YouTube.

Togetherville also has games for kids. Although this might be educational, I feel as if it’s just contributing to the  issues of less physical activity in children and according to a top neuroscientist  in England said repeated exposure to such sites with young children can effectively rewire their brains.

(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153583/Social-websites-harm-childrens-brains-Chilling-warning-parents-neuroscientist.html)

Apparently these types of social networking sites are creating even shorter attention spans in children and making them more self-centered. I’ve heard arguments in the past about whether or not ADD/ADHD is real or whether it’s just the massive amount of stimuli children experience nowadays. This research seems to be targeted in that direction. They believe today’s environment of instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter, and text messaging is leading to short and short attention spans.

The article also states that children should be kept away from video games until they are 7. Video games apparently trigger the “fight or flight” reaction instead of developing a child’s reasoning skills. Children no longer have to plan essays or decipher maps with today’s GPS and word processor programs.

Overall, the rise of SNSs in children younger and younger is going to affect their real-world social skills – people are more comfortable in front of a computer instead of communication with real people face-to-face. This can become a very real problem. Or is the future going to be mostly online and in video chat instead of face-to-face?