Lawmakers Grapple With How to Re-Engage America’s Tech-Reliant Youth

Emily Cherkin provides disturbing examples of the “digitization” of children.

She talks of occupational therapists who teach toddlers how to turn pages of a book. She’s heard about elementary school children falling out of their chairs because they lacked the core strength to sit for long periods of time. She knows of a child who watched 13,000 YouTube videos on a school-issued laptop over three months when class was in session, a class of middle schoolers who imitate sex noises they hear online, and a teen who showers with his phone, stored in a Ziplock bag, because he can’t bear the brief separation.