L’utilisation précoce des écrans est-elle néfaste ? Une première réponse avec la cohorte Elfe

In France, a recent well-documented book by Desmurget (2019) severely condemned all use of screen by preschoolers. Desmurget speaks from a danger of decerebration leading to dumbass children. However, a critical analysis of his argumentation suggests that such a rejection could be an overly radical position. The French longitudinal study, Elfe, was initiated in 2011 on more than 18,000 newborns. Follow-up was intensive in the infancy and pre-school periods, including a telephone interview of the mother (or, if not available, the father) at age 3.5 years. In this interview, the mothers answered many questions about the use of screens (here limited to tablets, computers, and smartphones) by their children. The children were then tested in 2016, when they were in the nursery school (4- to 5-year-olds, 57 months in mean), with a large cognitive test, involving both literacy (n = 35) and numeracy (n = 24) items, and a visual attention test, the Teddy bears cancellation test. In the latter test, the participant is asked to cross out, with the pencil in his/her dominant hand, all the teddy bears (n = 15) distributed on the page among 60 distractors in one minute of time. Moreover, the teachers were asked to rate the children's competence in cognitive (language, maths, sciences) and non-cognitive (physical or musical activities) domains and their social behaviors (helping, sharing, and attention to others) on a 3 or 5-items Likert-scale. Regression analysis of the total cognitive test score on the screen use, adjusted for age, gender, mother's study level, family's income, and number of siblings, showed an association between computer use and cognitive performance in nursery school. Correlations between screen use and, respectively, the cognitive test score, the visual attention test, the teachers’ rating about the performance or behavior of their students was never significantly negative. In fact, some were even significantly positive, albeit low and non-conclusive due to the limitations of the study. The results, both of the regression and correlational analyses, are consistent with our suggestion that Desmurget's position is overly radical but do not exclude that, in the long term, the early use of screen can be the basis of a future addiction.     

On the Meaning of Screens: Towards a Phenomenological Account of Screenness

This paper presents a Heideggerian phenomenological analysis of screens. In a world and an epoch where screens pervade a great many aspects of human experience, we submit that phenomenology, much in a traditional methodological form, can provide an interesting and novel basis for our understanding of screens. We ground our analysis in the ontology of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time [1927/1962], claiming that screens will only show themselves as they are if taken as screens-in-the-world. Thus, the phenomenon of screen is not investigated in its empirical form or conceptually. It is rather taken as a grounding intentional orientation that conditions our engagement with certain surfaces as we comport ourselves towards them “as screens.” In doing this we claim to have opened up the phenomenon of screen in a new and meaningful way.     

Concept learning by monkeys with video picture images and a touch screen.

Two rhesus monkeys were trained in a same/different task to discriminate digitized computer-stored picture stimuli. The pictures were digitized from 35-mm slides and presented in pairs on a computer monitor. The monkeys were required to touch the pictures and then make a choice response to indicate whether the pictures were identical or nonidentical. The response areas and stimuli were located to the sides of the picture stimuli. Responses were defined and monitored by an infrared matrix touch screen. After learning the same/different task, both monkeys showed performance accuracy with novel picture stimuli similar to that with training picture stimuli. This accurate novel-picture transfer indicates that a same/different concept had been learned, a concept similar to the one they had previously demonstrated in a different apparatus with rear-projected slide stimuli and a response lever.     

The buzz trap: Speeded-up lives,distractedness, impulsiveness and decreasing empathy

This paper examines a set of traits and bodily reactions that are often seen in people who suffer stress and anxiety. These include speeded-up metabolisms and less ability to concentrate, regulate emotions as well as reduced empathy. The paper suggests that early trauma and stress give rise to a range of bodily and metabolic changes that affect the very speed of the life-course. It is also suggested that many factors in contemporary society, such as stress, increased reliance on screens and technology and a more consumerist and individualistic lifestyle, might be linked to an increase in such ‘buzzy’ character traits. More hopefully, such developments can be countered by positive experiences such as those provided in psychotherapy, secure attachment relationships, mindfulness and less-stressed social environments.