Latest Techno Moral Panic: Texting Is 'Rewiring Young Brains'
from the mmm-hmm dept
There have been a whole series of alarmist studies that get lots of press lately, with titles about how social networks or other technologies are somehow negatively impacting people's brains. Nearly all of these didn't hold up under much scrutiny, as they almost all took things out of context or greatly extrapolated a finding and misinterpreted the results. The latest to add to the pile? A report claiming that texting may be "rewiring young brains." The evidence? Kids who used mobile phones a lot finished a variety of tests much faster, but tended to be "less accurate." That's about it. From there, the guy who did the study concludes that it must be the fact that many mobile phones use "predictive texting" that's training kids to be fast, but inaccurate, assuming something else will come in and fix the mess. Now, perhaps that's true, but it seems like the study doesn't actually show that at all. Also, it's not clear from the report what sort of mistakes are being made. The article talks about spelling mistakes, which are common in texting, but the real question is whether or not that really matters? It may very well depend on context. In a text message, a spelling mistake isn't a big deal. In a resume, it's a different story. But where on that spectrum did these tests land? But more importantly, even if we grant the premise that kids who text a lot are a lot sloppier on certain tests... how do you go from that to immediately concluding that their brains are being wired differently? It sounds a lot more like what they've been trained to do, rather than any serious neurological shift.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: accuracy, moral panic, speed, technopanic, texting
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Emotionally hysterical and your breath smells of cigarettes and snatch.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
did you even click ?
on the other hand... the article is only a fine exemple of sensionalist journalism... everything from quoting experts unrelated to the study to quoting very short and meaningless phrases from the authors of the study.... but eh... this sells here in Canada...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: did you even click ?
What is good and what is bad or what determines a smart child and what is a dullard seems to be a fashion of the pop-psychology of the times.
I can see no harm done with the popularization of writing. The odd contractions used may not be grammatically correct but they are inventive and involved more gray matter than watching television. Yes, this is ill conceived, sensationalist drivel.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: did you even click ?
The IQ test that you took had two important aspects:
1) Test for the intelligence indicated by being able to answer the questions "correctly"
2) Test for the intelligence indicated by observing the allotted time and completing the test, whether or not you were entirely sure of the answers.
You see, tests have shown that those individuals who are "careful" and "studious" are sometimes covering for a low IQ. The time limit is designed to "smoke out" those losers.
Kind Regards,
The IQ Test Gods
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: did you even click ?
IQ tests don't "smoke out losers", they divide people based on a set of chosen criteria. An IQ score is essentially arbitrary. It measures something, but since the majority of people have only a foggy notion of what that something is (smart-ness? i guess?) it's pretty meaningless.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: did you even click ?
I guess "Flipper" is one of those Mensa members. IQ 166, same job as a government file clerk for 17 years, and expert at Dungeons and Dragons.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: did you even click ?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Grrrrrrrrrrrr....
Brought to you by Elsevier?
Great, so the major media groups that brought us the "No harm has been found in overmedicating your children (and thanks for the loan Rockefeller-owned Chase Bank, who has members on the Boards of NIH, WHO, Merck, Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, etc. etc etc.) is now going to tell us that texting is REWIRING BRAINS?
Again, let me see if I have this straight: physical injested drug no problem, activity rewiring brain.
Alright, I've had enough. Here's the deal, if you believe one once of what comes out of any large corporate media outlet without doing multiple fact-checking searches, then you have no interest in truth or knowledge. I usually try to see two sides to every issue, but this time.....no. You might think that there is information coming out of major news....you're wrong. End of story. No room for debate, no room for discussion. It's owned, and I don't mean by commercials. I mean literally owned through CEOs and banks reps on boards by what probably amounts to the collective membership of the CFR and Trilateral Commission.
Mike, please tell me you're looking into that chapter in the book I suggested. It documents the evidence that most/all major media in this country is owned by 7 companies.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Grrrrrrrrrrrr....
I agree, much of what is presented as news and scientific fact is simply corporate propaganda.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Grrrrrrrrrrrr....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Grrrrrrrrrrrr....
1. Rise of the Fourth Reich (the one I recommended to Mike): excellent history of Allied financing of Red Russia and Nazi Germany, and the parallels between 1930's Germany and America today
2. Rule By Secrecy: A look at how groups of the wealthy elite, namely the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderburgers have so pervaded American government as to have effectively taken away choice.
Both are by Jim Marrs, who wrote one of the two books Oliver Stone's JFK was based on, and all of his books include extensive bibliographies for the purpose of sourcing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Grrrrrrrrrrrr....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Texting is just a cover for inferior education.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Honestly, an bit of daily reading is all it takes until you are in late high school English and actually need to know the formal terms for these things -- and then understanding those terms comes easily since they describe things you are already instinctively aware of.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Living causes the rewiring of brains. Else, everybody would be the exact same person every moment of every day, never learning, never growing, never changing.
My brain is wired differently now than it was when I started writing this comment.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
WONT' SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
In fact I would much rather text than have that cell phone held up next to my head. Or I could talk on speakerphone, that's better too. I do not want that radiation blasting near my head because the changes it may cause to my brain aren't part of the natural adaptive processes of my brain (since any changes the external radiation causes are not initiated by the natural processes of my brain but by the artificial processes of the phone. BTW, I know that this is controversial). So in a sense texting is good for us in that it takes away from having a phone blasting radiation right next to our head (just don't do it while driving).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Predictive text no good for English; try ergonomic keypads instead
completion); see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_completion#Examples_of_word_completion_in_general_text_editin g
But consider the ergonomic possibilities of recognising letter frequencies in different languages (see http://www.kirby98.fsnet.co.uk/fq.htm )
[ link to this | view in chronology ]