Word: childrened
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Christakis reports that when babies get caught up with what's playing on television, their parents are equally likely to get distracted, which limits their exchanges with their kids. It's a three-way interaction, with TV affecting both children and their parents, and the parents' detachment further impairing their children. For the first time, Christakis' group even quantified exactly the degree to which TV-viewing can cripple parent-child communication: for every hour a television was turned on, babies heard 770 fewer words from an adult, the new study found. Conversational exchanges between baby and parent dropped...
...document each "vocal event," Christakis outfitted 329 babies and children, ages 2 months to 4 years, with pager-sized recorders on their chests that recorded every audible sound either the baby or any adult made over a 16-hour period. Each child wore the monitor for one randomly assigned day a month for up to two years. In addition, the recorder captured sound from a television whenever it was turned on within earshot of the baby. Specially designed software then coded all audible sounds made or heard when the TV was both...
Christakis argues that regardless of what is playing on the screen - whether it's baby-friendly content or shows geared toward adults - television by nature is a passive medium that hampers rich social interaction. Even when parents and children interacted actively while watching TV together, the net effect of having it turned on, for a few minutes or hours, was a drop in vocalizations. On average, the study found, when the TV is switched on, youngsters spend more time in silence and solitude than they do in active social interaction. "At minimum, the findings should give parents pause," says Christakis...
...people - enough skilled workers to sustain a thriving economy. Without improved roads, sewers and electricity, the companies who are betting on India's growth will eventually look for better returns elsewhere. In the absence of better opportunities, Indians will continue to seek the security of government jobs for their children, making it that much more difficult to reform India's bloated bureaucracy. Without public-sector reform, India won't be able to build the modern intelligence, police and emergency services it needs to cope with 21st century terrorism...
...good news is that Indian voters are starting to raise their expectations. In rural West Bengal last fall, I met a man whose biggest complaint was that his village had no electricity. His children had no light to study under in the evenings, and he had to buy expensive diesel for a generator to charge his mobile phone. He wasn't simply deprived; he was angry because he knew exactly what he was missing. Cell phones and cable television have brought not just political advertising to poor and rural areas but also new aspirations and a more acute awareness...