Are texting, multitasking teens losing empathy skills? Some differing views
Gary Small (photo by Justin Snider)
Psychiatrist Dr. Gary Small recently expressed a sentiment that may have crossed the minds of parents and educators who see how much time teenagers spend chatting online and texting: He worries they may not be learning empathy skills.
The digital world has rewired teen brains and made them less able to recognize and share feelings of happiness, sadness or anger, said the UCLA professor of psychiatry and aging, who has also studied adolescent brains.
“The teenage brain is not fully formed,” Small said, speaking at a Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media seminar on digital learning in Santa Monica, Calif., last month. “I’m concerned that kids aren’t learning empathy skills. They’re not learning complex reasoning skills.”