Active Media Use vs. Passive Media Use

Anyone interested in the well-being of infants and children might wonder how much screen time is too much? 

Whether a child's time is spent accompanied by an engaged adult in active, not passive, viewing is equally important.

Infants under the age of 18 months should have no screen time, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.  Babies 18-24 months can watch children's content as long as they are accompanied by a parent or caregiver who can reinforce the lessons with questions and learning. After the age of two, a one-hour time of screen time applies. Check out this brief article with guidelines on infant and children's screen time.

Screens Are Not Baby-Sitters

We know infant care is the most demanding of jobs. While some time in front of a screen is great for adult relaxing, it is the last thing a baby needs. They are not ready for screen time. 

Some images on screens move too quickly for young, developing brains and eyes. Also, viewing material created for older audiences is unsuitable for children and may be confusing. 

Supervision of infants and children's viewing is key.  

Children who use media with no time limits or monitoring from parents or teachers miss out on important opportunities and gains in their skills in socialization. They also unknowingly trade passive viewing and learning for more valuable active learning with engagement, exploration and problem-solving experiences in the real world  . 

 

Tiers of Learning

We are always learning. It is parents and caregivers who decide for kids if their learning is passive or active.

Active learning is better than passive learning. Researchers who study the effects of TV viewing on kids report that children who spend their time actively learning in play, sports, doing art projects, building things, visiting museums, and reading make more gains than children who spend time passively learning in front of the TV screen.

TV screen time vs. Internet screen time

They look the same, and there is a lot of overlap, but one very important difference is that TV programs are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. TV stations can lose their broadcast license if standards for programs are disregarded. That is a strong incentive.

No such guard rail exists on streaming sites including YouTube and other social media that enter the home via the Internet. That's why parents and caregivers need to think of the content of TV and the Internet as being distinct and requiring different approaches. 

Interrupt the Hypnosis 

My busy mother must’ve thought TV made a great babysitter. I was quiet and out of her way for hours in front of the TV. That electronic babysitter, however, was a regulated business. 

Today, anything that comes in to the home via the Internet has no regulation. Content is governed only by the principle that more watching on the consumer's part equals more money for the producers. The consumer's health is of no concern to them.

If screen time is monitored for time as recommended, and when children watch along with their caregiver who actively asks and answers questions about what they both are watching and listening to, screen time promotes learning. 

Without these safeguards, the free and easy babysitter may bring more harm to our kids than benefit, and no one can afford that. 

Why Study Media Messages?

We all use them. We all love them. Media messages are important parts of our lives. 

Fish don't ask about water. Birds don't ask about air. We humans have a more evolved and complex brain than any other living creature. Yet, we often react in the same way to our media saturated environment as our brothers with fish and bird brains. 

Media messages, from those in books, to the latest software, are such a welcome presence in our lives (think all the fun we have). While we spend our time being entertained, they may rob us, without our awareness, of our privacy, personal data and, most importantly, precious time.

This is About Money

Media, for all its attractions, is first and foremost an industry. Media takes our attention and time and uses them to make money. 

We are the product, not the images that captured us. Those are bait. Media companies sell our eyes and interests to advertisers, businesses and mailing lists in order to sell us stuff. 

We are entertained in the bargain. The transaction is ingrained and automatic. Each time we browse, stream or listen to music, a podcast or a book we signal our agreement that the transaction is acceptable to us. 

Until we stop, take a moment, and put a pin in it. 

Try This At Home: Five Questions

Asking questions about the media we are immersed in protects our time and how it's used. Over time we become more conscious consumers of media.  

Welcome to media literacy and its gifts. It is an important road to start on whatever our age. The benefits are enormous. With media literacy, we add to our enjoyment of media, we feel more sure about how we use our time and resources, and when we Don the writer/producer hat to create our own media messages, they are more effective because we are media literate.

Why should we improve our awareness of media? Don’t we have enough to do already?

Fostering a questioning attitude towards media products does not come naturally. An entire army of programmers  exists to keep our attention moving along, not stopping to ask pesky questions. We’re not supposed to stop and inspect media or ask questions about it.

If a media message is a piece of chocolate cake, think of the five questions of media literacy as knowing not only how the cake tastes, but also how the baker made the cake, what is inside it, how long it took to bake it and how and when to serve it. 

Some may be content to have their cake and eat it, without aspiring to know its journey from ingredients to our teeth. Some may be content to know we consumers are the product, not the messages we consume.  

The benefit of asking questions of our media breaks a belief that media messages are akin to magic. We learn that mistakes can happen and the people who create media messages have their own biases and agendas as well as put their pants legs on one at a time. 

Our curiosity about media helps, protects and serves us.  Since our time is limited, it is important to select with awareness and care how we spend whatever time we allot to media.

Questioning Media Messages Is Active

When we passively watch whatever is on the set or find ourselves down another rabbit hole on our phone, we often ask where did all that time go? The five media literacy questions break the spell that media so deftly casts. 

Media Literacy Questions Awaken Us From Slumber  

Dorothy landed in Oz to discover an old man behind a drawn curtain, pulling ropes and sounding otherworldly while putting on a show for his benefit alone. Dorothy and her journey to return home began when she awakened to what she had not known before she drew back the curtain. 

Asking questions around media messages is not something we need to always do, but,  because media messages shape our views and lives, it's something we always need to know how to do.  

Our engagement deepens when we explore the message to uncover assumptions and biases. The practice gets easier, even automatic. 

When we are passive, our minds are unguarded, receptive, and un-questioning. When we ask questions, we shake off our comfort. We lace up our sneakers. This is no longer a sit-down spectator sport. 

Studying a scene in a movie or an image looming over us on a bulletin board can be a way for parents to engage with their kids on values or assumptions. It models to kids that asking questions of media messages is not only allowed but helpful to someone growing up.

Drawing back the curtain to show the hidden sides and angles of any message or story, even one made with multiple millions of dollars, pays us back with even greater riches. Media literacy allows us to thrive, instead of aimlessly wonder as we wander, serving other's interests before our own, in the media rich world that surrounds us.

Consider Technology's Impacts Over Time, Not By Its Bright and Shiny Attractions

Art Quilt by Susie Monday

When You Were Born The Sun Flared

A Day In The Life of A Content Creator

You've probably been where I am. This very day, possibly.  The lure of multi-tasking has me reaching for tasks to do like pieces of chocolate candy to gobble. 

I open a document on the desktop, hear the buzzer on the dryer, jump up and unload and fold clothes, then return to my desk only to notice the unexpected letter announcing my car inspection is now due and I resolve not to be six weeks late, like last year, because it only shortened the time my car's sticker was valid, which was why the notice arrived earlier than I expected. 

What about that document that just opened up on the desktop? What editing idea flew in and left my brain in the turnaround time of a Southwest Airlines jet? 

And why, at this early hour in the day, do I feel exhausted, having only a stack of folded clothes to show for the past 20 minutes of work? How quickly multitasking (like eating candy) becomes an unsettled tummy, feelings of vague anxiety, and tiredness. 

Buzz Buzz Buzz

There goes the dryer buzzer again. I leap for laundry. Maybe your thing is the cellphone, the doorbell or the oven timer. The disruptions of our technology are easily overlooked. Tools like email, texting, remote meeting apps, project management software help us save time and be productive, but if our focus is sliced too thin, how do they impact us negatively?

Most of us know multi-tasking is as seductive as a mirage. Switching focus from one task to another task is both counter productive and draining. 

It's helpful to turn off notifications, leave my cell in another room and use the focus block method, originated by Charlie Gilkey, author of Start Finishing, How to go from Idea to Done. 

Time Is the Overlooked Factor

One reason that multi-tasking with tech tools is tempting, even if we know of the dangers, is that we don't yet know the way technology affects us.  The full impact any technology has on us is only known over time, according to Cal Newport, a Georgetown University, computer, science, professor, and author.  And we're not there yet.

Newport offers two metaphors about how long it can actually take to figure out the best way to use some technologies in a recent interview for New York Times magazine column, Talk, written by David Marchese (Jan. 2023).

When disruptive technology comes in it takes a long time to figure out the best way to use it. When the automobile was introduced. It took a while before we figured out traffic rules, and understood that it can’t just be cars going wild through the street. 

The next is a study from Stanford economist Paul A. David about the introduction of the electric motor into the factory setting. 

Which should’ve been evident in hindsight, was to put a small motor in every piece of equipment to better control the machine. Yet, in real life, that actually took 20 or 30 years... history tells us that it will probably take a generation to figure out what the best kind of collaborative cognitive work looks like when we have external computational aids connected by high-speed digital network. "It’s going to take a while.“

If you were midway driving to a destination or half finished packing a bag for a vacation, it would be helpful to study a map or review your packing list. 

To grow in our understanding of how a technology like TV, Tik Tok or gaming affects us pro and con, wouldn't it help for us to telescope-out to an expanded scale to recognize that, like cars and motors in factories, it may take years to know its full effect on people? 

Don't Thow Out the Video Game Console
With The Bath Water

Humans are capable of amazing creations. Think of life-saving technologies, medicines and social policies that improve health and educational attainment for more of us, but as the tech world rolls out new products daily, keep in mind the adage "only time will tell." 

We love our tech tools and toys. We can continue to use them, but let's not not be blind to their misuse.  Let's dare to ask the hard questions. The workplace is crawling with computational aids, yet how's that affecting our innovations, productivity and work relationships?  

How far along are we in knowing the impact of smart phone use on family relationships and on children's development? While we wait, let's do something about the girls' whose lives are in danger due to social media.

Over time, we have learned some innovations need to be rethought. Think of the atomic bomb and other weapons. 

Thomas, Midgley, Jr. 100 years ago invented both leaded gasoline, and the first commercial use of chlorofluorocarbons that would create a hole in the ozone layer. It took us 100 years to figure out how damaging these innovations were to become. 

Interruptions and disruptions will always parade before our attention. Protecting our focus may be a powerful way to protect our creativity and contributions to humanity.  In the push for market roll-out and adoption, let's keep in mind what early media theorist Marshall McLuhan observed: All technology contain "unobserved" and "unanticipated" cultural implications  that wash over us and change us without our even knowing." Except over time.

Stories R Us

 Screen-Time vs. In Real Life (IRL)

Does your tech use help or hurt your relationships?

In a technology-rich culture such as ours, relationships with family, co-workers and friends can suffer when we don’t take the time to know each other in real life (IRL) as deeply as we can.  We can easily find ourselves spending more time facing screens than spending face to face time with the people in our lives who we care about most. There's a reason for that.  The entire tech, entertainment and e-commerce industries depend on us staying online.

Time flies. Trust erodes. Screens steal. Whether movies, TV, smart phones, tablets or desktops, screens take our attention, make money for someone else and leave our neglected IRL relationships lacking joy, depth and trust.

Stories Produced For Commercial Consumption 

True, stories produced by professionals for mass audiences to make a profit are entertaining and amazing. They must be compelling in order to earn what they cost to make! There are teams of engineers who work to keep us engaged, captured and delivered to advertisers. 

Stories About Our Lives and Journeys Build Relationships 

Our own stories have an even greater value. They are part of how we know ourselves and let others in to know us, too. Storytelling is our heritage as humans. Long before we drew on cave walls or wrote with the first alphabet, we taught and learned by speaking and storytelling.

 Stories tell others who we are and what we have learned. They contain the past and the present. They are a gift to the listener and the storyteller, who remembers something important and shares it.

 Strengthen Your IRL Connections

There is a great hack for building our IRL relationships, and it is as old as humanity. It is storytelling. 

If you’re new to storytelling, here are a few guiding ideas.

1.    Start by listening. Ask family members or friends a question only they could answer, such as What was the best meal you’ve ever had? Who was your favorite teacher and why? Story themes can include thought provoking questions such as “Don’t believe everything you think”, or the tell about the time you used your wits to get out of real trouble.

2.    Listen to good stories at sites like The Moth. Notice what you like about a story,  how it starts, develops and ends. Is there a lesson learned or is a truth revealed?

3.    What kind of story do you like to listen to or tell?  What gives you a most pleasure or delight? There is no one formula to storytelling.  Just as there are many genres in literature, from comedy and romance to suspense and mystery, you get to decide what kinds of stories you prefer telling and how to tell them. 

     It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

I’ve enjoyed the best stories with family and friends in cars on long drives. The lights are dim, the road hums beneath us, we’re strapped in our seats and we are all ears. There are comfortable silences. One story prompts another person to tell their’s.  

Story Telling is Our Human Heritage

One of my most valued theorists and guides in my field of study, Communication studies pioneer, George Gerbner, connects our humanity to stories succinctly. 

“Indeed, story is the best word I can find to designate the key feature and most distinctive characteristic of human communication. More than any other, Homo Sapiens is the story-telling animal. Unlike any other, Homo Sapiens lives in a world erected, experiences, and conducted largely through many forms and modes of story-telling.”

Pretty Birds, Petticoats and Tex-Mex Magic

  

At the end of countless winter days without sunshine and multiple windy drama and cold weather tantrums, we are pleased to see the cold scurry back north.  Don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out. Any excuse to be outdoors, even at the site of our city’s former waste management system, Mitchell Lake. The 600-acre site is on the south side of San Antonio, no surprise since stuff rolls downhill. Thankfully, our sewage collection is modern and today Mitchell Lake is no longer used for its previous purpose. The Audubon Society and its volunteers operate the site as a refuge for native and migratory birds and for folks like the four of us who enjoy watching them. 

Years ago, the site’s various lakes were full, but today the drought has dried up most. There are still two large ponds with plenty of water. That’s where we hiked to watch the water birds. Duck, geese and several other interesting birds, such as the black necked stilt and the yellow-rumped warbler were some identified by my friends using binoculars. Myself, I’m a lazy bird watcher, happy just to be outdoors calling out, “Pretty bird!!” when someone points out somebody flashy in a treetop. 

We walked around the pond full of mostly ducks and geese and watched as they bickered with each other, steered on the water like bumper cars at a carnival, and dove underwater, when suddenly -- the sound of our steps-- or maybe it was something internal in the flock, set off an alarm. The entire population airlifted from the water like at the start of a race. Feet paddled and wings batted and a loud, whoosh of wing beats clapped over us in a white thundercloud of feathers. I’ve seen this mass movement of birds before in movies or on TV documentaries set an Africa, but I have never been covered underneath one in real life, nor had I ever heard thousands of rasping, folding, flapping feathers. It was a muffled roar, a crackling wave, much louder than I expected. I craned my neck to follow their collective undulation, a creature the length and width of a football field. All the individual pretty birds became something so big and breathtaking. A whale in flight leaping to a new pond. 

The previous day, on a street corner inside the city loop, the line of patrons outside of a Mexican café extended to about 15 people, waiting in various levels of eye- blinking surprise at the sun’s warmth. No one watched us through binoculars to my knowledge. That afternoon it had showered over San Antonio and the sun peeked through retreating clouds. It was glorious to be outdoors. We were giddy with excitement over the Tex-Mex lunch that we knew would deliver carbs and comfort in generous quantities. 

We met friends there who arrived minutes before we did and held our place in line. We hugged and in the style of people made lonesome by the pandemic’s forced separations, I was approached by a man I didn’t know who stood in line behind me. He appeared to be Anglo, well-groomed and in his mid- seventies. He pointed across the busy street to a young woman on the sidewalk. She walked in a confident stride towards a row restaurants and antique stores. She wore a skirt with, no, I’m not kidding you, multiple petticoats. And she was no square dancer. 

“I haven’t seen petticoats since the 1950s!” the man said with true surprise and pleasure. I told him I hadn’t either. But I didn’t tell him that I had not miss petticoats, remembering only the stiff and prickly material biting my tender underside as a child when my mother could still wrestle me inside of such a cage. The line to the restaurant’s front door inched forward. An African American man, mid-50s wearing a derby hat, ambled out of the restaurant onto the sidewalk. 

“I regret to inform you that I have eaten all the enchiladas and flour tortillas! There are none left,” he announced, in a lively, theatrical voice.

 I raised my eyebrows at him in amused disbelief. 

“Oh, is that so?” 

In his formal voice he announced, “I’m afraid I ate them all.” 

He paused for effect. “There are none left. “ 

“You’re a storyteller, huh?” I asked. 

“A raconteur,” he said. I nodded in agreement. 

“You know that’s a storyteller!” His partner, a Mexican American like me rolled her eyes. She, and a teenaged girl waited patiently behind him. This is what a raconteur does, and his family was used to it. ‘We are not amused’ described their expressions.

The Derby hatted gentleman relished having a curbside audience and turned his attention to a pair standing beside us in line, a slender, fit Anglo couple in their mid 60s. 

“Haven’t we met before?” the derby hat wearing raconteur asked. The couple stood still. 

“Wasn’t it Paris, in ’88? “asked the raconteur.  The slender man jumped in feet first. “Why, yes! It was Paris! I was with the CIA then. Deep cover! “

Wife and child gently and expertly pulled the raconteur away.

We giggled at the impromptu performance brought to us courtesy of the warm sun, a break from our collective isolation, or maybe it was just the enchiladas. Beside us two elder hippies, with loads of gray hair, each in hastily made ponytails, their noses deep in yellowed paperback books, did not glance up during this entire intercontinental exchange. Such is the power of a good plot. Or their ability to tune out the world. 

We were called into the café. Soon we were ushered by a trainee waiter to our table where we ordered enchiladas and fideo loco. The bookish couple were seated by the wall near us. They ate enchiladas and continued reading. The Anglo couple who might or might not have been in Paris in ‘88 sat beside us and chatted quietly. The spell cast upon the sidewalk players in the sunshine was over. I keep hoping that it won’t be the last time I fall like a dime down a sidewalk grill into an alternative reality. 

The next day, after birdwatching, I kept thinking about that cloud of feathers above me and how the flock followed a signal to move to a new pond, acting in unison. They, like we, the sidewalk players, stopped in our tracks, noticed the petticoats, laughed at corny jokes, ate our lunches and did what people do who want to be done with a pandemic. We followed a signal, trusted our instincts, our companions, and their chatter. Our identities and histories were set aside, if only for a short time, for the collective comfort of each other’s company.

Batteries Not Included

"Batteries Not Included" is the annoying tag line for battery operated toys advertised on TV. Don't expect batteries to be included with the purchase of your toy. Without batteries, the toy won't work. 

I wonder if modifying the phrase can help us improve our communication. "Attention Not Included" may be a way to rethink how we use technology and how we communicate.  Without directing our attention, communication doesn't work, either. 

About ten years ago, I first noticed the radical change in student behavior in the hallways of my college when smart phones were first adopted.

For decades, college hallways were noisy. While waiting for instructors to unlock classrooms, hallways were filled with students walking by, chatting, standing, sharing notes, making friends and flirting. When smartphones and social media joined the mix, the silence in the usually buzzing hallways was surprising. Instead of interacting, students stood alone, staring at screens in silence. It was spooky. Even spookier is wondering how many lost friendships or romances resulted, or how many drops in grade point averages from notes not shared and study groups not formed? 

Inside the classroom, I noticed the number of engaged, attentive faces drop. To the screens in their hands where TikTok or some other shiny and bright site competed with my students’ flash-resistant teacher for their attention. 

Over the years I noticed more and more students divide their attention between their smartphones and engagement with class materials or the faces of their fellow students in assigned group activities. As a teacher, I had less to work with, and unbeknownst to them, so did the students. 

I missed walking to class in hallways filled with the excitement of the semester's seasons. The shiny beginnings, the friendships formed, the obstacles with schedules, challenging material, work and family overcome. 

When they brought their whole selves to the work at hand, it was not uncommon to see students visibly mature in the space of a semester.  Some students traveled light years across sixteen weeks, cultivating curiosity, the ability to weather difficulties, conflict and sometimes failure with resilience and an appreciation for learning. When they brought their smart phone tethered to them, there was less of them present.

Technology isn't a good or bad thing. It is only a thing, a tool. What we do with it is what matters. I saw many, me included, adopt smartphones without examining the impact on learning or relationships. The importance of communication that is directed and careful was recently brought home to me by reading a book co-written by the guru of gab, Oprah Winfrey.

Check out this excerpt from the book, What Happened To You?

All of us have had the experience of having a conversation with somebody and feeling dismissed when they disengage to look at their phone. And even though we’re adults and we have developed brains and we understand how the world works, it still feels disrespectful.. It’s bad enough to get that message from someone when you are an adult, just imagine if this is a constant message the baby gets when they are creating their “worldview”: I’m not important. The infant’s capability to be empathic and nurturing—their capacity to love—depends upon the nature, quality, and number of loving interactions they experience early in life. A dismissive, disengaged interaction is not building the foundation for a loving person.  

— What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Oprah Winfrey, Bruce D. Perry
https://a.co/6a4xQQB

Interested in changing your unexamined media use? Start by examining your own media habits.Try this. 

Informally test how the presence of technology (such as a smart phone) affects the quality of your conversation with a loved one or work mate. Choose someone whose communication with you could use some recharging of batteries.

Whether they have a smartphone beside them or not, purposefully leave your smartphone in another room. Begin and finish a conversation or activity and then, make note of the engagement levels you perceived in your interactions, both yours and their's. Did you both feel respected and acknowledged? 

After several tries with this experiment with different people in your life, ask yourself if you liked the results. If so, move forward with gentle, respectful curiosity for ways to improve your family and work life. Obstacles and challenges that you identify can, over time, be overcome to improve communication. 

Technology has many up-sides, but its downsides must also be considered. Whether in the college classroom, the conference meeting room or at the family breakfast or dinner table, technology (smart phone in use or even within sight) may hurt communication as easily as it may help. 

It's important to remember, in all things media related, we are the product, not the other way around.  It's the job of media to capture and sell our attention. Algorithms and teams of engineers work 24/7 to improve their odds of reaching and reselling our attention. 

Fortunately, the hack for taking back our time and attention or simply tweaking how we direct our attention is easy, free and available at any time to everyone: Build awareness of how technology affects you and others. Sometimes technology is just what we need, other times, it's exactly what we don't need. Learning when, how and why is worth examining, and offers great promise.

Sign up for my twice-monthly newsletter on technology and communication. 

Dancing Queen

 

Any day you dance is a good day was a great philosophy I adopted years ago. 

Best Spanish dicho: Nadie te quita lo bailado. Rough translation is 'no one can take from you what's already been danced.'

A dear friend, who was once a professional dancer, informed me that the 1950's dance, The Twist, was the dance that released women from men. 

Until The Twist, a man's role was to guide and lead a woman in dance. That changed in The Twist, or as my friend put it, "You didn't even need to look at your partner, you were free to dance as you pleased."

Over the years, not looking at your partner graduated to not even needing a partner. Last night at a local dance with the West-side sound pioneering band, The Royal Jesters, another friend reported she watched local dance legend, Teresa Champion, still polishing her steps on the dance floor, dancing without a partner, at the age of 87. The link shares an ARTS segment I wrote and produced for KLRN about Teresa. 

I wanna be just like Teresa!!! More dance, more joy, more good days!!!