It is my contention that children have very different perceptions of media depending on developmental level. I’ve noticed that children generally under the age of 7, have a different perception of time. They exhibit an ego-centric schema of time, which will often transfer onto digital media. Then when (if) the child reaches the concrete stage developmentally (i.e. Piaget) they develop the schema that Cyberspace time is simultaneous…they get that Cyberspace is like Minkowski’s theory of “Flat-Space Time” (i.e. special relativity) which was proposed in 1907. One hundred years ago children may never have gotten this concept of special relativity.
Indeed, when we asked children,”If an email was sent from a friend next door and from a friend in China, which would they receive first?” The younger children tended to say next door because it is closer. Whereas, the old children will often say it depends on the server. We got clever responses from children at all developmental levels. Children often help us to see the world in a new way...including digital media.
The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1798) believed that, “Childhood has its own way of seeing, thinking, and feeling, and there is nothing more foolish than the attempt to put ours in their place.”
Image reference: http://www.alibaba.com/catalog/11806231/Men_s_Wind_Up_Photo_Insert_Pocket_Watch.html
Keywords: Child Development, Cyberspace, Flat-Space Time, Minkowski, Piaget, special relativity