Digital Media Lowers Social Skills

Submitted by ub on

In today’s world, digital media use begins at a very early age and takes up a large proportion of the informal learning environment, making it essential to assess the effects of the substantial amount of time children engage with media.

A new study provides evidence that, in five days of being limited to in-person interaction without access to any screen-based or media device for communication, preteens improved on measures of nonverbal emotion understanding, significantly more than a control group.

Preteens spent five days in a nature camp without access to screens and were compared to controls.

Both groups took pre- and post-tests regarding nonverbal emotional cues.

The experimental group’s recognition of cues improved significantly over the control.

Time away from media, with increased social interaction improves nonverbal emotional cues.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214003227