Reality Bytes! Lies, lies, lies.
No lack of studies out there on youth behaviour! I attended a multi-disciplinary lecture about ‘issues’ affecting youth the other day at McGill University and if I were to sum up an overarching theme that united the four presentations it would be: ‘don’t be so hard on youth, learn from them!’
One of the lectures covered youth & physical activity with a strong emphasis on youth with ADHD. In ADHD we know that ‘activity’ is the major issue in question, fundamentally behaviour associated with movement skills, but it is not well understood. A study that examined the usefulness of drugs for youth with ADHD versus those who are not taking them determined that very little difference in movement skills was detected. Perhaps we need to consider how our interaction with youth with ADHD needs to alter. Read Dr.William Harvey’s study here.
Do children lie? Of course they do! Don’t you?! Hence, lecture #2. A review of Dr. Victoria Talwar’s research on children’s truth and lie-telling behaviour. How was this done? Through a study on ‘peeking’! Lying is a natural behaviour that evolves and becomes more elaborate by the time a child reaches eight years of age; very little of it is seen under the age of three.
It has been observed that if you simply ask a child to promise to tell the truth in a situation (i.e. in court) there is a higher probability that they will stick to their promise.
Remember: “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything” (Mark Twain)
In a study that examined children that live with corporal punishment versus those that do not, the abused children seem to have more strategic lying behaviours and at a younger age.
What struck me about Dr. Andrew Large’s research on youth and the web is his Bonded Design, a user-centered method of involving youth in the design of websites for their peers. He emphasised how much youth prefer to browse rather than do research online. The History Trek site, that youth helped design, makes browsing a reality when research is needed.
Lastly, Dr Shaheen Shariff shared her work on Cyber-bullying, a topic we will be featuring on CITIZENShift soon.
Have you ever noticed how the media often portrays youth as ‘out of control’ when they use technology and the internet? Are they really the ones to blame for the tragic stories we hear about internet bullying? Why aren’t certain corporations held accountable for turning a blind eye to the ‘bully’ marketing methods that they impose on this young generation? The problem is that there are no concrete policies in place to deal with issues such as these in the cyber world.
Dr. Shaheen’s new book shed’s a wealth of light on the old issue of bullying within the new media landscape. A must read for educators, parents and concerned media professionals.
Category : Uncategorized
Tags: ADHD, cyberbullying, honesty, lying, media, physical activity, punishment, websites for youth
