It’s the last thing I check before I go to sleep and the first thing I look at before I’m even out of bed—my email. A mere “beep” from my phone signaling a text message or a new meeting request from work sends me running to it. Wait, it gets worse… if I accidentally leave home without my smartphone I must admit that I feel anxious and out of sorts. Please don’t tell anyone, but I think I have a problem. I think I am addicted to connectivity.

All joking aside, the world is truly a different place when compared with life just five, or even 10, years ago, and that change is in large part due to technology. While our lives have improved in many ways because of these advances, they do not come without a price.

How will our technology-infused culture impact the younger generation that is in many ways defined by technology?

Born Digital

Most Americans have a love affair with their tech devices, and according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll most would say that those devices have made their “lives better and their jobs easier.” Yet, amidst the glow around how technology has made our lives better—mine included—I often forget that there is a generation that did not transition into this era. For “Digital Natives,” or those who were “Born Digital,” there simply is no other way. This creates many new challenges for this unique generation that we have yet to tackle as a society.

Balancing Act

As the first generation of digital natives comes of age, we are beginning to see an interesting pattern emerge among youth—an increasing number of developmental issues that is often overlooked—including: a decline in the ability to multitask; lower reading levels; and a growing inability to focus for an extended period of time. In essence, the younger generation is experiencing what appears to be an inability to balance their online lives with that of their real world lives. Educators, scientists and parents alike are questioning whether or not the digital culture in which this generation was raised is in part to blame.

Children and young adults are not the only ones feeling an impact. In one extreme case Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania tuned out all social media on campus for a week. School Provost Eric Darr noted that “the buzz around the ban has started a much-needed conversation about effective use of social media and how to balance online life with the world offline.”

Where's the Problem?

Several factors that may be contributing to this imbalance include:

• Information Overload:  As the video above suggests, we take in much more information today than ever before. It can be at times overwhelming event for a generation that was raised to produce and consume online information.

Earlier this year, the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a study and concluded that:

“The amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth… Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of seven hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7.5 hours."

The findings are significant because younger people, as well as adults, are particularly affected by consumption of multimedia and exposure to technological devices with “almost 30 percent of those under 45 said the use of these devices made it harder to focus, while less than 10 percent of older users agreed.”

• Multitasking to Nowhere: The younger generation is expected to multitask to an extreme degree. Jumping from Facebook to YouTube to text messages on their cell phones—which some might call a distraction and others a lifeline—all while trying to complete more traditional reading assignments, homework and school work. 

A recent series in the New York Times looked at how technology is impacting the lives of students, and in particular, those still in developmental stages. One piece by Matt Richtel notes that:

“Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cell phones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning… Researchers say the lure of these technologies, while it affects adults too, is particularly powerful for young people. The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks—and less able to sustain attention.”

Rewiring the Next Generation

So what does this all mean?  It's mostly speculation and hypotheses after all... what are the longer term consequences? Some scientists believe that focusing on several things at the same time ultimately changes how we think and behave perhaps to our detriment.

“While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress… scientists are discovering that even after the multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist. In other words, this is also your brain off computers.”

Referencing the Kaiser Family Foundation study once more, the researchers did not go so far as to create a cause and effect relationship between media use and grades, however they did note differences between heavy and light media users when it came to grades. 

“About half (47%) of heavy media users say they usually get fair or poor grades (mostly Cs or lower), compared to about a quarter (23%) of light users. These differences may or may not be influenced by their media use patterns. (Heavy users are the 21% of young people who consume more than 16 hours of media a day, and light users are the 17% of young people who consume less than three hours of media a day.)”

Is this issue a real concern that needs attention?

We’ve only scratched the surface, but I think it’s safe to say that as with anything if you abuse it—even something as ambiguous as technology—it can cause harm. While it’s too early to draw any conclusions about the impact of technology use on the younger generation, we are beginning to see some residual effects that I venture to say are a bit alarming.

What do you think?

Are we making a big deal out of nothing... every generation has had its challenges and unique environmental factors, so why should digital natives be treated any differently? Should parents limit use of devices? Is a ban, even if it’s only temporary like the one implemented by some academic institutions, the right answer?