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Glued to the Tube: The Threat of Television Addiction to Today's Family
By Cheryl Pawlowski, PhD
Sourcebooks
304 pp $22.95

Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds and What We Can Do About It
By Jane M. Healy
Touchstone/Simon &Schuster
Paperback 352 pp $14

Just a few pages into her book, Glued to the Tube, researcher Cheryl Pawlowski delivers a creepy anecdote drawn from research in the early 1980s: Asked to draw a picture of her family, a little girl shows them clustered around an oversized television set.

This image of the TV at the virtual head of the dinner table dominates Pawlowski's book, as it does much of our children's world. Overindulgence in TV, she argues, is sapping "the vital emotional and cultural nutrients" that families once provided each other.

These arguments may not be new to many. The appalling statistics about TV viewing barely raise an eyebrow anymore: Children watch an average of three to four hours of television daily. To put it in perspective, that represents up to 1,500 hours a year -- close to twice the 900 hours they spend in school. Those numbers don't include the time spent playing video games and using computers; factor in those sessions, and the total is closer to a whopping five hours a day, by some surveys.

It's not surprising then, that researchers have been moved to take a closer look at how computer use and television viewing affect kids and their families. What's happening, they say, is pretty alarming.

Pawlowski's book, Glued to the Tube, focuses on family relationships and the way the ubiquitous presence of TV alters and often completely undermines them. In Failure to Connect, respected educational psychologist and researcher Jane M. Healy examines how computers increase dependence on technology both at school and at home and affect the development of children's minds. Both writers issue a vociferous call to arms, demanding that parents and teachers rethink how to get children away from the glow of the small screen and into the illuminating world of nature, art, and human interaction.

Pawlowski holds a PhD in media ecology and family communication theory, and it shows. Her book is organized around a list of roles she says are common to most families. Among these are "family manager," (usually Mom); "hero" (usually a big brother or sister), "gender mentor" and "arbitrator," each of which is treated in its own chapter. The problem with this formula is that the book becomes deadeningly predictable; the structure forces her to return again and again to the same point: Blame the TV, blame the media. As soon as we look at the chapter heads and figure out what she's doing, the temptation to skip ahead to her conclusions is almost overwhelming.

And unfortunately, the unwieldy structure of the book, with its repetitive chapters and the tendency -- rooted in the author's academic background -- to pile on an overwhelming weight of detail, will keep most readers from benefiting from her insights.

It's too bad, because within these chapters lie some interesting ideas about how family members relate to each other and the sad way these relationship are changing. Take, for instance, the role Pawlowski terms the "cultural narrator" or family historian, typically a respected elder who passed on traditions and family anecdotes from generation to generation. With television now fulfilling the function they once served, Pawlowski says, "the storytellers, sages, and family historians of yesteryear have given way to a steady stream of TV shows that tell us who we are, what we need, how we should speak, what we should believe in, how we should perform our jobs, and even what constitutes a family."

Interestingly, at one point Pawlowski cites research by Jane Healy and quotes from Healy's previous and perhaps best-known book, Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don't Think and What To Do About It. Paraphrasing Healy's conclusions that excessive TV viewing may cause the alarming increase in attention deficit disorder and learning disabilities, she quotes at length Healy's theory that television viewing inhibits the development of the neural pathways in the brain. It's a refreshing moment of clarity and illustrates the well-deserved level of respect Healy has attained within the worlds of education and of parenting literature alike. It also leads perfectly into the arguments found in Failure to Connect, one of Healy's latest books and quite a compelling read.

Yet Healy's central point is bound to be a controversial one: We are deluding ourselves, she says, in believing that a computer-enhanced education is a better education. In fact, she says, "Just because children -- particularly young ones -- are performing tasks that look technologically sophisticated does not mean they are learning anything important." Our choice to prioritize technology in our schools forces us to curtail and often eliminate other programs such as music and art, which, Healy argues, have much more legitimate value for children.

The strength of Failure to Connect lies in Healy's foundation of research showing that, contrary to what most parents might think, computer use is very similar to television viewing -- it inhibits brain development and quashes creativity. In convincing, case-history style, she quotes teacher after teacher and doctor after doctor as they describe failing students and baffling cases: kids who are a whiz with the mouse but have poor social skills, can't concentrate, and, rather ironically, have problems with all types of communication, including reading. One of the rare readable science writers, Healy delves into the latest research using MRIs, CT scans, and artificial intelligence to explain how the brain develops and why we might be seeing these depressing effects. She even devotes a chapter to health risks associated with computers, from eyestrain to repetitive stress injuries to exposure to electromagnetic fields.

Despite the author's strong point of view, Failure to Connect stops short of being a diatribe. Healy is nothing if not pragmatic. Several sections offer advice on setting up a good technology program, choosing skill-building software, "principles for meaningful technology use," and tips for protecting kids when they go online. Healy's guidelines for Internet use, which she suggests should be posted near the computer, include such common-sense suggestions as, "Give out no personal information about yourself or anyone else to people you don't know." (You may want to add a further admonition to be careful that anything published about you doesn't have names, photos, or personal information that you wouldn't want available to the general public -- certainly something we all need to think about in this age of widely disseminated information.)

Unfortunately, Healy's presentation can be enormously frustrating, since she often introduces important points by inserting little vignettes in which she quotes conversations with educators or doctors. The result is that the reader must take her word for some pretty provocative pronouncements.

For example, she introduces the theory that increased time in front of the computer could cause autism, or autism-like symptoms, by quoting an unnamed doctor: "I'm seeing these kids who've spent hours and hours [in front of the computer] and some of them actually look autistic." Healy then plays devil's advocate herself, interjecting "Are you serious? Surely computer use couldn't make a child autistic." She follows up with another unnamed doctor commenting, "Let's just say 'autistic-like.'" Now, many of us would love to see computer use linked to autism; that would certainly end the argument about early computer use once and for all. But Healy doesn't give us that research, and the anecdotal quality of her presentation frankly undermines her dramatic assertions.

So what's a parent to do? In the end, it comes down to old-fashioned common sense. Most of us, seeing our children in front of the TV with that glazed look in their eyes, feel at least slightly uncomfortable and wonder if this is a healthy way for kids to be spending time. So the discovery that it's not is hardly surprising. Similarly when a child asks to play KidPix on the computer for the 20th time, most parents figure whatever educational value the program once had is probably long gone.

Healy and Pawlowski just want us to heed these instincts. It's the old line our parents gave us: "Don't you want to play outside on such a lovely day?" Only Healy and Pawlowski have given the argument some new and sharper teeth.

-- Melanie Haiken is a freelance writer based in San Rafael, California.

First published January 22, 2001
Last updated September 21, 2008
Copyright © 2001 Consumer Health Interactive

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