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Should we blame the media?
The NY Times using nearly all anecdotal evidence based on one child, says the media may be responsible for poor grades and lack of focus. Don Tapscott rebutes this argument and cites much research. This is such an interesting example of how even a respected newspaper like the NY Times can flame the fire. I…
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Race to Nowhere
A documentary called Race To Nowhere is making its way around the schools in my neighborhood. The film was made by a mother who was disturbed by the amount of homework that schools were assigning, as she felt her children were focusing too much on homework and not enough on play. This has been a…
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Digital Media Are a Tool
A recent article by James Fallows in the Atlantic reminded me that digital media are a tool and not an entirely new state of being and behavior. The article says: “Technology, to them, is neither a sedative that dulls our alarm nor a rocket ship that will spirit us away from our problems; it is…
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What do kids really do all day?
Do children really spend less time outdoors or doing sports? Have they stopped reading? Do they only stare at screens all day? The best way to answer this question is to look at what kids actually do all day, and a recent study did just that with a large group of kids, age 6-12. …
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What makes us Happy?
According to Dan Gilbert, the author of Stumbling on Happiness, research indicates that it’s not children. In a recent talk at the APA convention, Dr. Gilbert told the crowd of psychologists and psychiatrists that 20 years of research has shown that people without children are happier than those with children. And people with young children…
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Can Video Games Transform Learning?
A lot of really smart people believe that video games are the key to engaging children in school. The question is can video games really teach useful, transferable subjects? The NY Times magazine just put out an issue discussing this very subject. They profiled a school called Quest to Learn that has a curriculum around…
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Values In America
Thomas Friedman’s op-ed in the NY Times today underscores some of the findings of psychological research for the last few years… namely that young people in the US may be changing. Below are some of the findings from recent studies: Narcissism has gone up 30% The psychologist Twenge has found ample evidence of this through …
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A Virtual Audience 24/7
Peggy Orenstein’s recent NY Times Magazine piece on Twittering brings to the forefront many of the issues that psychologists at the CDMC@LA are concerned about. Due to the myriad of self-presentation tools that digital media such as YouTube, twittering and social networking sites provide, people are often hyper aware of their audience. How will this…
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Kid’s networking… we’re cited in the
Kid’s networking… we’re cited in the NY Times http://tiny.cc/09wdm
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Did you know that the second most popula
Did you know that the second most popular use of mobile phones by teenagers is texting? The first… checking the time!