But honestly, I DID read Catcher in the Rye and Romeo and Juliet and Lord of the Flies, 1984 etc. even though I HATED doing it, didn't like reading them one bit at that time, probably didn't get out of it what I should have, although ironically I do remember a lot about them, because there really wasn't that much else to take up my time. I did it by default, not because I wanted some higher intellectual stimulation. So I think that in the "good old days" students did more academic work simply because they were bored and had not much else to do that was readily available as something to do.
I did grow up in Chicago (emphasis on "in" as in smack dab in the middle, and not the suburbs), and again, did cultural events by default--getting out of doing something else when bored so went to the Art Institute or the downtown library (now gone), or Lincoln Park zoo, or the theater, etc. The good thing was that those experiences have stayed with me even though I might not have appreciated them at the time or gotten as much out of them as I could have/should have. I wonder if the ready availability of electronics would have changed that. Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D. Professor, Psychological Sciences University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> ________________________________ From: drnanjo [[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 8:31 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] texter and gamer, Facebook addict and YouTube potato I can appreciate the concern that there may be a lot of young people who are incapable of reading a complete novel or be as focused on tasks as some adults like but it ignores the kids who are into the Harry Potter books, the Narnia books, and many other book series. How are these kids able to read such thick and complex books if all they can attend to are tweets and text messages? Indeed I wonder too if we simply over-estimate the number of young people in the legendary "olden days" who enjoyed (or did) read complete novels and seek out higher-level intellectual/cultural experiences. It reminds me of the same fixation on "kids were better back then" or "it was better back then" that forgets that "back then" (as recently as the second quarter of the 20th C children still died much more frequently than they do now of easily treated or prevented [vaccination] diseases.) Or that psychologists at that time wrote the same articles about comic books destroying the intellects and moral character of youth that they now write about video games and tweeting and Facebook. for the record I am not objective about Facebook - I have an FB page and I love it. Admittedly I spend a lot of time there. But I think this is the same old same old back again for more rumination. The good old days simply weren't. They never were. Nancy Melucci Long Beach City College -----Original Message----- From: Mike Palij <[email protected]> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) <[email protected]> Cc: Mike Palij <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, Nov 21, 2010 8:20 am Subject: re: [tips] texter and gamer, Facebook addict and YouTube potato On Sun, 21 Nov 2010 07:27:38 -0800, Annette Taylor wrote: >This link was posted on the pod list today so some of you have >probably seen it; but for those of you for whom it is new, it >supports what we have probably all seen in the last decade: >the hypnotic? addictive? lure of the internet for our students >when they should be studying. >http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?pagewanted=1&hp Michael Smith mode on: I was going to read it but it was too long. Does anyone have a tweeter version of the article? Michael Smith mode off. A quote provided in the NY Times news summary email is this: |"Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping |to the next thing. The worry is we're raising a generation of kids in |front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently." |MICHAEL RICH, executive director of the Center on Media |and Child Health, on how digital technology affects children. Now, I may be wrong or I misunderstand my pop neuroscience but isn't Rich's concern unfounded? True, students and young people may find it more reinforcing and/or interesting to engage in various digital media -- especially short form -- but if we believe in the plasticity of the human brain throughout the lifespan, isn't the brain being continually rewired (neurologist Richard Restak, of author of "Receptors", "The Brain", and "The New Brain", says in the latter that the brain is so plastic that parts of it are different after a lecture relative to its state before a lecture)? If experience continually rewires the brain, shouldn't the concern be with behavioral and environmental control to make sure that certain skills are developed and maintained, like reading novels in book form? If "Vishal" can only read 43 pages of Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" in two months (the article is unclear whether he was reading it in paper form or ebook format), might this be more about more poor contingency control (i.e., lack of reinforcing book reading) than a rewired brain that is incapable of handling novel length narratives? I can appreciate the concern that there may be a lot of young people who are incapable of reading a complete novel or be as focused on tasks as some adults like but it ignores the kids who are into the Harry Potter books, the Narnia books, and many other book series. How are these kids able to read such thick and complex books if all they can attend to are tweets and text messages? Too bad the article didn't interview any yeshiva students, especially those in high school which would be the appropriate comparison group. These students also make use of digital media (at the very least, the "modern orthodox") as well as devoted Torah study and the study of other texts. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=12993.aba36cc3760e0b1c6a655f019a68b878&n=T&l=tips&o=6646 or send a blank email to leave-6646-12993.aba36cc3760e0b1c6a655f019a68b...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-6646-12993.aba36cc3760e0b1c6a655f019a68b...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13534.4204dc3a11678c6b1d0be57cfe0a21b0&n=T&l=tips&o=6648 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-6648-13534.4204dc3a11678c6b1d0be57cfe0a2...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-6648-13534.4204dc3a11678c6b1d0be57cfe0a2...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=6649 or send a blank email to leave-6649-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
