‘This is your brain on devices’: Media accounts of young children’s use of digital technologies and implications for parents and teachers

Contemporary children are growing up in a post-typographic era, where mobile electronic devices and digital texts are increasingly present. For parents and educators, shifts into new digital practices and new text forms can create a sense of uncertainty. In response to parent and teacher interest, p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inContemporary issues in early childhood Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 268 - 281
Main Authors Laidlaw, Linda, O’Mara, Joanne, Wong, Suzanna So Har
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.09.2021
Subjects
Child Development
Children
Counties
Critical Literacy
Deception
Educational Benefits
Faculty Development
Fear
Foreign Countries
Handheld Devices
Information Sources
Information Technology
Innovation
Language Acquisition
Learning Processes
Literacy
Longitudinal Studies
News Reporting
Parent Attitudes
Parenting Styles
Preschool Children
Risk
Social Media
Teaching Methods
Technological Literacy
Telecommunications
Canada
early childhood
Children and technologies
digital literacy
social media
digital devices
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Summary:Contemporary children are growing up in a post-typographic era, where mobile electronic devices and digital texts are increasingly present. For parents and educators, shifts into new digital practices and new text forms can create a sense of uncertainty. In response to parent and teacher interest, popular media have frequently focused on topics relating to young children and shifting digital practices. This study addresses popular media accounts of children and digital technologies over five years (2013–2018), looking in particular at the emergence of mobile devices and their impact on children’s changing literacy practices. The authors collected popular media articles over this time period and analysed them for the ways in which children and digital technologies were represented and these media called on teachers and parents to respond. The authors provide an overview of their findings and address key themes from the articles, sharing influential examples and addressing the implications and influences of media perspectives. Finally, the authors examine the implications of popular media accounts in relation to informing parent beliefs and approaches, and curriculum responses.
ISSN:1463-9491
1463-9491
DOI:10.1177/1463949119867400