Use of Electronic Devices Linked to Children Losing Ability to Read Emotions

A new study found that increased use of digital media by children leads to a drop in their social skills.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that sixth graders who spent more than five days without using smartphones, televisions or any other digital screens were way better at reading human emotions as compared to their peers who spend hours engaged in electronic devices.

"Many people are looking at the benefits of digital media in education, and not many are looking at the costs," said Patricia Greenfield, a distinguished professor of psychology in the UCLA College and senior author of the study. "Decreased sensitivity to emotional cues - losing the ability to understand the emotions of other people - is one of the costs. The displacement of in-person social interaction by screen interaction seems to be reducing social skills."

The finding is based on the evaluation of two sets of sixth graders from a Southern California Public School. Nearly 51 children lived together for five days at the Pali Institute, a nature and science camp, and 54 others from school attended the camp later after, the study was conducted.

In the camp, the students were not permitted to use electronic devices. For the first couple of days, the students found it challenging to adhere to the policy. Before the study, the students were evaluated on the basis of their ability to identify emotions of other people in photos and videos. Nearly 48 pictures were shown to students with faces that were happy, sad, angry or scared.

They were also made to view videos of actors interacting with one another and were asked to describe the emotions of the characters. In one scene, the students took a test and submitted it to the teacher; one of the students was confident and excited, while the other is anxious. In the other scene, one student is saddened after being separated from a conversation.

Those in the camp showed drastic improvement, in five days, in their ability to identify facial emotions and other non-verbal cues to emotion as compared to their peers who used media devices. Those who didn't attend the camp had a significantly milder change.

"You can't learn nonverbal emotional cues from a screen in the way you can learn it from face-to-face communication," said lead author Yalda Uhls, a senior researcher with the UCLA's Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles. "If you're not practicing face-to-face communication, you could be losing important social skills."

The study will be published in the October edition of Computers in Human Behavior.