Perspectives Winter/Spring 2019

NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY | 19 By giving children from the ages of 4 to 16 more opportunities to select activities, we were encouraging them to experience deliberation, decision-making, evaluating a choice, and personal interaction. Child- ren had to look at other children and make decisions. This resulted in some rejection, to which some children were sensitive. However, it also encouraged coping, learning how to deal with adversity, and learning consequences of choices. Unfortunately, around the same time came the development and increased reliance on electronic devices for communication. This allowed for faster communication and reaching more people in less time. The sacrifices, however, would be less face-to- face communication and fewer opportunities to learn how to deal with closer, more personal interaction. Are we straying from one of our basic behaviors, which is social interaction? In doing so, are we creating more reliance on loneliness? If children are becoming more dependent upon, and more comfortable with, less face-to-face social interaction, are they less exposed to role models or examples of social behaviors? We are seeing a rise in depression and in suicidal ideation, which happen to parallel a rise in smartphone use and social media. Is it possible we are entering into an epidemic of social isolation and loneliness? The World Health Organization, as well as national agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are suggesting there is an explosive rise in depression and suicide among the young. One of the observations gleaned from the Facebook Congressio- nal Hearings is that there is an alarming increase in the use of social media, which is creating a decrease in face-to-face interaction. Even in the classroom, relationships appear to be disintegrating. The peer-to-peer relationship, once so comforting, now seems to be a rasping experience. There seems to be less tact and more confrontation in dealing with classroom issues. This lack of tactful, personal interaction is manifested by overt and subtle bullying, by abuses within social media, and by the undertow of innuendo within the classroom. Because of this radical change in behavior, there appear to be two concerns. One is the increased reliance on smartphones and social media, which may bring about loneliness and diminished social interaction. The second is the increase in depression, which crosses paths with loneliness and diminished social interaction. Either of these behavioral pathways may result in internal anger and/or frustration to the degree that an inability to cope means one becomes like a pressure cooker and erupts. The problem then is if the eruption results in violence toward self or violence toward others. If we are designing early education—preschool through first and second grades—to be more academi- cally oriented and challenging, perhaps we should put as much effort and ingenuity into how we might go about releasing stress at that age. Starting with such young, impressionable children, we seem to encourage the use of isolating techniques that can solve their academic needs quickly without the need for personal and/or social interaction. While children can solve their academic problems quickly, they are exposed to socialization that takes less effort, and, in a sense, offers more protection, since they can easily manipu- late smartphones and social media. We are astute enough to design surveys that analyze research, to experiment with results, and to hypothe- size some common threads running through losing face-to-face behavioral skills, early technological dependence, loneliness, depression, and suicidal ideation. Consequently, why can’t we devote similar resources to look into early behavioral development and design programs and/or curriculum that would help children implement behavior beneficial to their future, such as the importance of learning and main- taining the skills of personal and social interactions? Doing so would be a major step in helping them cope with obstacles. † Robert C. Grosz is a professor and course director in the Physician Assistant—Fort Lauderdale Program. Facebook Congressional Hearings report that there is an alarming increase in the use of social media, which is creating a decrease in face-to-face interactions.