Is this evolution in action and what should we think about it anyway?

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Felon
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I admit to having no idea as to how to react to this article. What do you folks think about it?

Rising numbers of infants lack the motor skills needed to play with building blocks because of an “addiction” to tablet computers and smartphones, according to teachers.

Many children aged just three or four can “swipe a screen” but have little or no dexterity in their fingers after spending hours glued to iPads, it was claimed.

Members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers also warned how some older children were unable to complete traditional pen and paper exams because their memory had been eroded by overexposure to screen-based technology.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/educatio...oy-building-blocks-due-to-iPad-addiction.html
 
No, anecdotal evidence is not evolution.
 
Owen Glyndwr said:
No, anecdotal evidence is not evolution.
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It's also not definitive proof of an existing problem. The words "study" and "research" are missing from the article (and the comments, though I suppose that's to be expected).
 
We'll see, I guess, if kids knowing how to use tablets end up being more functional as adults than kids who don't. In the meantime, I can agree that having reduced motor skills is putting a dampening on plasticity that we'd like to be there.
 
Actual material toys and creations with them (eg plastic blocks and so on) very likely help the small child to form a more stable impression of creating things in the material environment.
Playing on a computer increases other skills for the child, surely, but nothing remains to be seen when the computer screen goes blank. Abstract is cool, but i have to suppose that those very young children do actually need a more obviously existent in their physical place effect and result of their game and the creativity which went into it.
 
Evolution can only ever be driven by selection of some sort, be it natural or sexual.

There is no natural or sexual selection happening here, so this won't impact human evolution from a biological perspective. Unless you do a study and conclude that girls prefer guys who always carry a tablet around or something over guys who have good reasoning skills. But even so, in our society most people reproduce, so you probably wouldn't even get selection then.
 
warpus said:
Evolution can only ever be driven by selection of some sort, be it natural or sexual.

There is no natural or sexual selection happening here, so this won't impact human evolution from a biological perspective. Unless you do a study and conclude that girls prefer guys who always carry a tablet around or something over guys who have good reasoning skills. But even so, in our society most people reproduce, so you probably wouldn't even get selection then.
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I think it's a little more complex than that. Your epigenome (methylation pattern) is actively affected by the life you live, and some elements of that are transmitted to subsequent generations.

Here's a teaser:
epigenetic traits can be passed down from generation to generation, said Randy Jirtle, a visiting professor at McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For example, a study published in 2005 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that pregnant women who witnessed the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center passed on higher levels of a stress hormone, called cortisol, to their babies.

Other studies investigated the ways abuse, famine and trauma could leave "scars" on DNA, in the form of epigenetic markers.
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Source: http://www.livescience.com/37135-dna-epigenetics-disease-research.html

For a better understanding, consider listening to this excerpt from RadioLab:
http://www.radiolab.org/story/251885-you-are-what-your-grandpa-eats/

Seriously, give it a listen. It's really interesting.
 
There's also memetic and technological evolution. Raising a generation of tablet users (vs. kids who build stuff with blocks) means that they'll be buying and creating a different set of technological innovations and tools.
 
I remember reading about how kids in Japan (and maybe Best Korea and China?) are given a completely different set of toys than western kids. Small delicate needles, thread, paper crafts - things that encourage close focusing and extremely precise digital manipulation. Think about netsuke, or calligraphy, decorative arts that are highly prized in their culture. Their infant and baby toys reflect that. Here we use blocks, wheels, balls, things that encourage a very different skillset and coordination.
 
peter grimes said:
I remember reading about how kids in Japan (and maybe Best Korea and China?) are given a completely different set of toys than western kids. Small delicate needles, thread, paper crafts - things that encourage close focusing and extremely precise digital manipulation. Think about netsuke, or calligraphy, decorative arts that are highly prized in their culture. Their infant and baby toys reflect that. Here we use blocks, wheels, balls, things that encourage a very different skillset and coordination.
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And how. Loved watching the kiddo scoot under the wagon at his parent's house this weekend so he could try and figure out how the axle works. Now if only we could reconcile his interest in the big tractors. He wants to be in them, but only with Mom or Grandma. The second Papa or Dad gets close to getting in the cab mortal terror sets in. I think he's figured out which ones make the tractor loud. :(
 
Well, I am not sold that it isn't an evolutionary process. Selection is a process. At middle age I was able to attract women that were far more attractive themselves than the types I was involved with in my 20s. This was because I had achieved a level of financial success and social standing. So like many men I could well have sired a second family and thus further propagated my genes (which had proved reasonably adaptive) to a greater extent than would have been otherwise observed at a younger age.

So I see these twitchy kids as being adaptive and possibly in my mind the leading edge of a new wave of humanity. And I don't know how we can judge the degree to which they should be trained in the traditional regimes.

I still have my slide rule, which was part of my curriculum. And I learned to use it well. But never chose to do so outside of class as I had a calculator in my knapsack.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out. I can't help but think of that Korean gamer who, when his wife was away, became so immersed in his gaming world that he allowed his infant son to starve to death.

And I also remember a sci-fi movie I saw years ago in which future human had evolved into giant brains in a jar in tandem with a servant class. Are we headed in such a direction?
 
We might be, but unless you can get those females to breed with you, the point is moot. It would then select for middle-aged, successful, men who were willing to breed with women who wanted to breed. All those who don't want to breed get selected out.

The place where I'm thinking there might be class-based selection is regarding poverty and early pregnancy. Poverty is showing some true genetics effects, and poverty can certainly correlate with early pregnancy
 
peter grimes said:
I think it's a little more complex than that. Your epigenome (methylation pattern) is actively affected by the life you live, and some elements of that are transmitted to subsequent generations.
Click to expand...

That's some pretty interesting stuff..

Here's to science proving me wrong yet again!
 
Kyriakos said:
Actual material toys and creations with them (eg plastic blocks and so on) very likely help the small child to form a more stable impression of creating things in the material environment.
Playing on a computer increases other skills for the child, surely, but nothing remains to be seen when the computer screen goes blank. Abstract is cool, but i have to suppose that those very young children do actually need a more obviously existent in their physical place effect and result of their game and the creativity which went into it.
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Exactly. There are benefits to both types of activities which is why my wife and I allow our daughter to do both. She has 4 or 5 different sets of blocks to play with as well as an activity block that has a bunch of different activities that make her use her motor skills. We also got her an InnoTab 3 for Christmas with games for it that force her to use her brain and develop her problem-solving skills.

We also try to introduce our daughter to new technologies to help her later in life. Let's face it, barring some apocalyptic event, technology isn't going anywhere anytime soon and is only going to become a bigger part of our professional and personal lives. So any human that doesn't develop an affinity (or at least familiarity) for such technology is going to be left behind and is going to have a hard time finding and keeping employment.
 
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