New digital divide: Lower-income kids waste more time with their gadgets
When technology first began to infiltrate American childhoods, there were fears of a digital divide; children from lower-income families would not have access to the emerging new technologies because of the cost and thus fall behind their more affluent peers whose families could afford cell phones, computers and video game systems.
However, now that access to cell phones and other electronics is widespread, there are fears of a new divide: Poorer kids are wasting more time on their assorted electronic and computer gadgets than more affluent peers.
“Despite the educational potential of computers, the reality is that their use for education or meaningful content creation is minuscule compared to their use for pure entertainment,” said Vicky Rideout, author of a decade-long Kaiser study on online patterns, in a New York Times story on the issue. “Instead of closing the achievement gap, they’re widening the time-wasting gap.”
Closing the digital divide is not improving the educational outcomes of low-income kids, in part because their families have the least ability to monitor their usage of electronics or limit their time.
These issues are important to understand as we are increasingly urged to expand online education options for students, even elementary-age children. But all children, regardless of income, have come to largely see computer and electronics as entertainment. The challenge is recasting technology as an educational tool.
Here is an excerpt of The New York Times piece:
As access to devices has spread, children in poorer families are spending considerably more time than children from more well-off families using their television and gadgets to watch shows and videos, play games and connect on social networking sites, studies show.
This growing time-wasting gap, policy makers and researchers say, is more a reflection of the ability of parents to monitor and limit how children use technology than of access to it. “I’m not antitechnology at home, but it’s not a savior,” said Laura Robell, the principal at Elmhurst Community Prep, a public middle school in East Oakland, Calif., who has long doubted the value of putting a computer in every home without proper oversight.
“So often we have parents come up to us and say, ‘I have no idea how to monitor Facebook,’ ” she said.
The new divide is such a cause of concern for the Federal Communications Commission that it is considering a proposal to spend $200 million to create a digital literacy corps. This group of hundreds, even thousands, of trainers would fan out to schools and libraries to teach productive uses of computers for parents, students and job seekers.
“Digital literacy is so important,” said Julius Genachowski, chairman of the commission, adding that bridging the digital divide now also means “giving parents and students the tools and know-how to use technology for education and job-skills training.”
F.C.C. officials and other policy makers say they still want to get computing devices into the hands of every American. That gaps remains wide — according to the commission, about 65 percent of all Americans have broadband access at home, but that figure is 40 percent in households with less than $20,000 in annual income. Half of all Hispanics and 41 percent of African-American homes lack broadband.
But “access is not a panacea,” said Danah Boyd, a senior researcher at Microsoft. “Not only does it not solve problems, it mirrors and magnifies existing problems we’ve been ignoring.” Like other researchers and policy makers, Ms. Boyd said the initial push to close the digital divide did not anticipate how computers would be used for entertainment. “We failed to account for this ahead of the curve,” she said.
A study published in 2010 by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that children and teenagers whose parents do not have a college degree spent 90 minutes more per day exposed to media than children from higher socioeconomic families. In 1999, the difference was just 16 minutes. The study found that children of parents who do not have a college degree spend 11.5 hours each day exposed to media from a variety of sources, including television, computer and other gadgets. That is an increase of 4 hours and 40 minutes per day since 1999.
Children of more educated parents, generally understood as a proxy for higher socioeconomic status, also largely use their devices for entertainment. In families in which a parent has a college education or an advanced degree, Kaiser found, children use 10 hours of multimedia a day, a 3.5-hour jump since 1999. (Kaiser double counts time spent multitasking. If a child spends an hour simultaneously watching TV and surfing the Internet, the researchers counted two hours.)
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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63 comments Add your comment
What's Best for Kids?
June 1st, 2012
9:29 am
No technology, no XBox, no iPads, no phones, no computer games at our house. I want my kids to collect rocks and swing. I want for them to play outside and get bug bites. I want for them to be kids. If I could afford it, I would send my kids to the Waldorf School; unfortunately, it’s out of my price range.
Linda Stawski
June 1st, 2012
9:46 am
Thanks to GwinnettParentz for keeping this ship stable and afloat.
Frankie
June 1st, 2012
3:10 pm
@ ron….yes I have distant family members by marriage that have big screen TVs, look at the news as well you see EBT cards being used for everything from liquor to sex to whatever the people who get them want….
Ron F.
June 1st, 2012
4:11 pm
Frankie: as I’ve said before, get pictures, receipts, and prove it. If they’re abusing the cards, then turn them in for it. I did it to a member of my family who had drug problems and actually traded the card for the substance, and they lost the support. It’s easy to complain, and if you know it for a fact and can prove it, then do something about it. I don’t doubt some use it for all sorts of things, and I hear the rumors of it all the time. As my dad always says, “believe some of what you see and none of what you hear.” But let’s face it, it isn’t fair to judge everyone receiving assistance by those who may be abusing it. I know plenty who genuinely need it and use it for survival. I teach their children every day.
Ole Guy
June 1st, 2012
4:12 pm
Let’s not confuse fact from fiction. The initial “concern” was that lower income kids would be left “in the dust”, as it were, from their more-influencial bretheran, the primary concern being that of accessibility to “them new fangled toys” which only (presumably) rich kids could afford. Now, this “study” seems to put that whole arguement into the dust bin of foolish notions which only serve to help us hide from the painful truths which we choose to ignore. SIMPLY PUT: KIDS…OF ALL INCOME BACKGROUNDS, SIMPLY HAVE WAY WAY TOO MUCH FREEDOM. Here we go again with Ole Guy’s insistance on not recognizing the fact that today’s youth are, somehow, different from those of yesteryear, and, consequently, are not subject to the dictates which the adult world (should be, but doesn’t have the spheroids to) imposes upon the kids who are THEIR ultimate responsibility…NOT the schools, NOT the neighbors, NOT the fairy godmother, but THE GD PARENTS, both of financial means and not of financial means, who allow their kids to do any damn thing thay damn weell please.
I take the train to the airport for my periodic trips; I see kids, rich and poor, with some pretty damn fancy electronic toys which I, despite a reasonable standard of living, could never justify. Oh, I would certainly like to play with these toys, but, AS A RATIONAL ADULT, I could never justify such expense, neither for enjoyment nor for business. Somehow, given my access to comparitively meager tools, AND A PRETTY DAMN GOOD EDUCATION, I am able to somehow function with this mean ole world…yep! At the age of 66, retired, and still able to command a good living, I simply cannot justify that which these damn kids seem to feel is a birthright…one which their adult world seems quite willing to allow.
So, the next time someone starts sweatin’ over nonissues like this, take a look in the mirror. YOU, the adult world, are too damn afraid to monitor these kids’ choices of “toys”…toys which, in the end, offer no educational advantage, and, in fact, only serve as yet another entertainment vehicle while impeding the educational process.
Just like the spineless parents who relent to their kid’s whining and complaining over the “I want candy” crap, they feed the damn kid candy, only to shut em’ up, only to have a fat kid with rotten teeth…the very same shot exists today. HOW do kids get the money to purchase such toys? HOW do these toys escape the parents, AND the schools? They both spinelessly IGNORE these things, letting these kids do whatb they damn well please…THEN they have the spheroids to complain; to even concern over rich kids vs poor kids; access to gadgets, etc, etc, etc. WHAT THE FOO FOOs going on here? Every time I see these arguements; these “concerns”, all I see is yet another means of ignoring the base issue; the base problem: START CONTROLLING YOUR DAMN KIDS, in the home, in the schools.
GOT THE MESSAGE, YOU LAZY SPINELESS PEOPLE!
Question
June 1st, 2012
6:23 pm
Ole Guy, what gives you the right to look around you and decide what other people should be doing with their money when it is not YOUR money? When it really doesn’t concern or affect you at all? Why do you feel the need to “justify that which these damn kids seem to feel is a birthright…one which their adult world seems quite willing to allow” ? It isn’t any of your business at all.
exteacher
June 1st, 2012
11:22 pm
I taught in a Gwinnett county school and was aways slightly appalled at what happened in the 2 computer labs. The teacher often gave an assignment and proceeded to grade papers while students did whatever, Even if there was an assignment the students seldom took the time to learn the concept- they just guessed until the system gave up and told them the answer or lied and said they completed it and wanted to play games, which was the reward for finishing the lesson. They also managed to jump out of the system and land in very inappropriate places. And…it was exactly the group the article was talking about. With few exceptions, zero interest in learning the concept of the activities, just getting through to play the game at the end. Total waste of time, money, and staff. The anger of students when caught was both amazing and over the top. We also used AR tests and rewards- what a total waste of time and resources.
exteacher
June 1st, 2012
11:23 pm
Oh, the article was absolutely dead on correct!
Ole Guy
June 2nd, 2012
3:39 pm
Question, you know, you’re absolutely right. We should all learn to accept and embracingly allow the moronic behavior of others. We should all be content to view the self-serving, idiotic, and absolutely mindless behavior of others as…none of our business. We, as tax payers, are all funding the educations of youth; unless we plan to die in our 20s, we all come to expect that the education which youth receives, or fails to receive, provides a direct reflection on our lives, particularly in our so-called declining years. Of course, for those of us who genuinly care, these issues which directly impact on the quality of that education…well, these issues ARE our business. When the younger gens seem to focus more on the entertainment value of these technological marvels (which earlier gens, through the higher levels of 50s/60s education, were able to provide), rather than direct this power more toward educational pursuits, WE, WHO CARE, SPEAK UP, while those who seem content to ride the coatails of success, without any apparent interest in maintaining that success, will simply retort, “IT AIN’T NO CONCERN OF MINE”.
Question, I don’t mean to badmouth your inputs, but your apparent attitudes DISGUST HELL OUTA ME! Rhetorically speaking, if your neighbors’ barn, was ablaze, you’d probably take the very same approach…IT AIN’T NONA MY BUSINESS, LET SOMEONE ELSE TAKE CARE OF IT. If it was your barn, you’d wonder why your neighbors don’t take an interest in your problem.
With all respect, Question…GO TO HECK!
All the educational issues, which receive much input of varying quality within these blogs, are, in effect, none of our business.
Question
June 2nd, 2012
4:12 pm
@ Ole Guy. This is what you wrote: “At the age of 66, retired, and still able to command a good living, I simply cannot justify that which these damn kids seem to feel is a birthright…one which their adult world seems quite willing to allow.”
Why should you feel the need to “justify” the “fancy electronic toys” that these strangers “on the train to the airport” possess? Never mind our educational system– I was referring only to your behavior on the train.
And just as a word of advice…that’s not very prudent behavior on public transportation. Especially when you’re 66 and retired.
Ole Guy
June 2nd, 2012
4:43 pm
Question, once again, I do not wish to cast unkind words upon you, however…HAVE YOU BEEN SMOKIN’ LOCO WEED? I honestly want to/wish I could follow your arguement(s). My “behavior,” onboard an airport-bound train, is not indicated anywhere in my comments. It is, I believe, my observations to which you refer. Yes indeed, as a rather successful engineer, and winner of many accolades with my chosen fields of endeavour, I find it rather incredulous that I…and untold millions of my generational contemporaries…were able to meet the challenges du jour without benefit of the types of technological toys which, by today’s youth, go completely mis-used, abused, and employed only for entertainment value. I am further…incensed, if you will…over the notion that these “toys” seem to be enjoyed, predominantly, by those who neither afford…both financially and, more importantly, psychologically…nor should even be allowed to have, in their possession such toys.
While, at the beach, it would not be an unusual sight to see grown adults enjoying a brew at the local bar, we would probably gasp (if we chose to make it our business) at the sight of kids’ recreation of Animal House at the very same locale.
Let’s put this arguement into more-precise language…WITH PRIVILEGE GOES RESPONSIBILITY. Once the kid has demonstrated the responsibility of mastering basic material, he/she is more-than-welcomed to “enjoy” the marvels of technology, both as an assist in academic pursuits, and for entertainment value.
Question
June 2nd, 2012
7:39 pm
Wow. Just wow. You’re riding a train to the airport and spot “kids” who evidently have Android smartphones or maybe iPads (can’t be laptops for they’re too easily stolen); and you’re “incensed” because you can’t “justify” having one for yourself–which of course the “kids” are going to notice immediately. And now you’re stating they “should not even be allowed to have, in their possession such toys.” Your “behavior” is pretty easy to guess
Seriously, if you don’t watch out, you’re going to get mugged by some edgy teen-agers who don’t like being judged by self-righteous 60+ year old strangers on a Marta train.
New Digital Divide? « You Make It Happen
June 5th, 2012
10:17 am
[...] week, I read New digital divide: Lower-income kids waste more time with their gadgets by Maureen Downey of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and instantly became frustrated. The post [...]