OPINION:
In 2007, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs announced the launch of the first iPhone (smartphone), a hand-held device that would radically change the way we think as well as interact with one another.
Within a few years, with smartphones operating on the Android system also entering the market, the digital revolution was in full bloom. Today it is nearly impossible to do anything without owning a smartphone, regardless of one’s economic status.
Want to go to a baseball game or a movie? You can get your ticket only by downloading it to your smartphone. Printed tickets are no longer available.
Need to get your new printer up and running? You must download an app to your smartphone to activate it.
While there are many advantages to smartphones — for instance, GPS systems, so you no longer drive while unfolding or trying to follow an unwieldy map to find your destination or being able to text a friend to tell them you are running late — there are a lot of disadvantages — mainly the toll they have taken on our mental and emotional health.
This is particularly true when it comes to children, as Justin Coulson points out in a recent article for the Institute for Family Studies.
Citing a recent Australian study that tracked screen time and how affected children between 12 months and 36 months old — the very early part of a child’s development — he reports that for every minute a toddler spends watching a screen, there is a significant decline in their language development as they have less exposure to meaningful human interaction.
A Japanese study showed that toddlers who spend significant time on smartphones also have lower developmental scores.
He writes: “By age three, the cumulative effect is staggering. Imagine a child’s world diminished by over 1,100 adult words per day, over 840 fewer opportunities to express themselves, and nearly 200 missed changes to engage in the back-and-forth of conversation.”
Compounding this problem is that parents often have their heads buried in their smartphones and are not talking with or reading to their children, key elements that help a child’s socialization, language and critical thinking skills.
Thus, smartphones are making us all a bit dumber, particularly our children.
How can we reverse the damage?
First of all, as parents, we need to stop looking at smartphones as a digital babysitter that will entertain our children while we do other things.
Children crave relationship and interaction, especially with their mother, father and siblings. Without it, they struggle to grow beyond their finite world. Without it, they are like a plant kept in a dark room. They slowly wither away and never reach the potential of the plant that is exposed to light.
Thus, by not allowing them into our world, we are denying them the ability to flourish and thrive in the greater world.
We also need to read to our children so they can grasp language and expand their imagination. One study cited by Mr. Coulson found that parents who read one picture book with their children every day provide their children with exposure to an estimated 78,000 words each a year. These children enter school well ahead of their peers who have not had this experience.
And it means we need to quit burying our heads in our screens while ignoring the cognitive and relational needs of our children. This requires sacrifice — which sadly has become unfashionable but is critical to our well-being of all of us, regardless of age.
By pursuing the gratification of the moment offered on our digital screens, we are neglecting the long-term investments that we, as parents, need to make in our children for them to be successful in life.
Perhaps it is time for people of all ages to put down their smartphones — except for essential purposes — and start interacting with one another again — and particularly with our young children. By doing so, we will hopefully regain what we have lost, and our society and future generations will be healthier as a result.
• Timothy Goeglein was special assistant to President George W. Bush and deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison from 2001 to 2008. He now serves as vice president of external and government relations for Focus on the Family.
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