As a counselor and life coach, I have always taken a strong stand against having a TV or computer in any child’s or teen’s bedroom, period. Yes, we use this rule in our own house. We had objections at times and that’s fine. It didn’t change our actions.
My reason is twofold. First, I see social isolation, decreased social/emotional skills, decreased interaction with peers, and increased disrespect for authority by children and teens who have electronics in their bedrooms.
Having visual electronic devices in children’s bedrooms decreases the amount of time families spend together, increases the risk of early exposure to pornography and children who act sexually, decreases the number of family dinners, and decreases the amount of family time social game with other young people. The negative impact of this is also evident in the school. These children have a shorter attention span, more often want to get their own way, have lower than average social skills, and often feel socially isolated.
The second reason is to know a thing or two about brain development. He knew that television and computer use do not take advantage of normal brain development and brain stimulation necessary for our young people to be healthy and happy. We now have a lot of research to back that up.
Let’s look at the research summary of Joseph Chilton Pearce, a scholar, scientist, and teacher. He states, “First, if you want smart, successful, healthy children, they need to have positive emotional experiences. This starts in the home through unconditional love, appropriate loving touch, and a safe and secure environment. It then extends into our living environments.” learning. If you want true learning, learning that engages the superior frontal lobes… the intellectual creative brain… the emotional environment has to be positive and supportive. Reptilian brain defenses.” Bottom line: To have a better functioning child, we need to nurture the head and the heart. The heart and brain communicate with each other in an intricate symphony of ganglion cells, neural networks, and neurotransmitters.
Pearce talks about the harmful effects of television and computers on growing brains no matter “TV literally stunts neural growth in children’s developing brains. When young children watch too much, it suppresses their brains’ ability to develop imaginations.” This has to do with the way the brain reacts to radiant light. Children’s brains “shut down” (stop the thought process).
The television industry has countered this by introducing “startle effects” in children’s programming. This makes the brain think there might be an emergency and alerts the brain to pay special attention. This is achieved through dramatic changes in light intensity, sound, and rapidly changing camera angles. According to Pearce, “Every 10 years the television industry ups the ante by making the jump scares bigger, there are now an average of 16 bits of violence every half hour in children’s cartoons. By the time the heart receives any indication of negativity or danger, it falls”. from its usual harmonic mode to an incoherent one, triggering the release of the most powerful hormone in the human body, known as cortisol.
Computer monitors have a similar effect due to radiant light. The researchers assigned students to 3 groups where the same information was presented at a fourth-grade reading level in 3 different media. Group A had a regular sheet of paper; Group B was shown a movie with the page; Group C saw a computer monitor. The students were then tested for information retention.
Group A averaged 85% retention after viewing an article; Group B averaged 25%-30% retention after viewing a movie screen; Group C averaged 3% – 5% retention after viewing a computer monitor. “Computers and television are changing our children’s brains. We must encourage our children to develop the ability to think first, and then give them a computer. Pearce cites Piaget’s developmental research “The first twelve years of life are devoted to put in place the structures of knowledge that allow young people to grasp abstract, metaphorical, and symbolic types of information…the danger is that the computer and television will interrupt that development.”