A basic human rule-of-thumb is that we can’t do multiple things at the same time with the same focus and quality as we can if we did only one thing at a time. A contemporary example of this is happening right now as it applies to social development in young people — specifically, what invaluable life experiences that lead to important social skill development are kids missing when they spend the bulk of their time engaged in autonomous tech-activities like gaming, or playing on their phone? And if we can agree that kids today are missing out on important social experiences because of autonomous technology usage, it is important to next explore the overall human development impact, as well as whether there will ever be future opportunities to make up for lost experiences?
Imprinting and critical periods of development
Have you ever watched ducklings walk in sequence behind their mother? Aside from it being quite cute to observe, it also serves as evidence of the importance of ducklings learning early in their lives the value of following mom. Even more interesting, scientists have learned that this process, called imprinting, is a time-sensitive experience for ducks to attach — and once passed, can never be recovered in quite the same way. When ducklings fail to properly imprint, many adverse things can happen, including:
- failing to develop normal social and mating behaviors,
- attaching to inappropriate objects (including people and other animals that are not ducks), and
- struggling to function normally as adults since they never developed in the same, normative ways as other ducklings.
For humans, psychologists have learned that we experience a similar sensitive period where we are prime to learn invaluable life skills. Just like ducklings, there are windows in development where the human brain is especially receptive to certain experiences, including language development, attachment, social skills, and emotional development.
We know that when kids fail to fully develop during these sensitive periods, unwanted consequences often follow. For example, if language is not developed during a sensitive period, some kids never fully develop grammar, and often struggle with communication long-term. When attachment fails to develop during a sensitive period, kids can be later challenged with trust issues, emotional regulation, and social functioning. Lastly, when kids miss out on social interactions (i.e. playing video games alone for chunks of their teen years) there is evidence that kids lag behind on reading facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, conflict resolution, and empathy.
While there is little debate on the significance of human sensitive periods and the impact on life skills development, there are still questions whether humans can later make up for these periods when they are missed? Social skills are not simply downloaded form the internet, but they develop during important life periods where kids can trial-and-error things, make mistakes, and learn from others. If, however, kids glom on to their phones and play hours and hours of video games through their formative years, serious concerns arise that they may never be able to recapture what was missed in terms of life skill development.
Early research on sensitive periods and human development show that when early experiences are limited, social skills may eventually develop later, but less efficiently. Individuals may also show social awkwardness, difficulty reading cues, emotional dysregulation, and weaker communication skills. While it appears as though the brain can still learn social skills, it is no longer operating in its most optimal learning window, leaving individuals less developed than they would be had they maximized sensitive periods during development.
Final thoughts
There is definitely a developmental cost to missing invaluable life experiences during sensitive periods, and increasingly more kids today are becoming vulnerable to developmental issues due to high-volume usage of technology (i.e. smart phones and gaming). In essence, many young people are currently growing into adulthood with limited experience reading body language, verbal communication, and self-regulation largely due to choosing technology over real life human interactions. As we continue to interface with technology (including artificial intelligence), it is important for parents and teachers to realize the potential psychological damage that can occur when kids replace real-life interactions with stationary phone and video screens.
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