MFA in Emergent Media | Fall 2017 semester | Technology as a Disruptive Force
Assignment: Research and create an annotated bibliography on a topic related to technology's societal impacts.
Full document available for download.
Research Question:
What are the different approaches to and effects of screen-based technology use by young children (primarily from birth through age 5)?
Research Statement:
As a parent of two young children under age 5, I have personally struggled with questions about how to introduce and use technology, which technologies are appropriate, and when is the right time developmentally for my child. Oftentimes, I notice a fear-mongering anecdote rising to the top that technology and children are perceived as the “big bad wolf” - out to turn them into zombies with attention issues and violent afflictions. This sounds similar to the reactions during my childhood about television and its programming. Surely, decades and major leaps in technology later, there is new research and new guidelines to help parents raising digitally-native children, where you can now substitute the concerns about television with the concerns about interactive screen-based mobile devices. My intent is to build a body of research related to the impact and effects of technology use by children, childhood development and psychology, the educators’ perspectives, and parent and teacher advice, in order to draw my own conclusions and help inform my parental decision-making and perhaps those of others as well.
