Academician Basyuk told how the Internet reduces the intellectual abilities of Russian children

The meeting was started by the President of the Russian Academy of Education, Olga Vasilyeva. She gave an excursion into the history of modern hygiene for children and adolescents, citing, in particular, the teachings of Vladimir Monomakh and the “Honest Mirror of Youth” from the time of Peter the Great as an example.

Not much has changed since then. Children still need care, parental attention, good nutrition, education, exercise and rest. But as it turns out, even our modern civilization does not provide the younger generation with everything they need. Mikhail Piradov, who spoke about the average IQ level (it was tested among Western Europeans), noted that researchers in Russia have also noticed a decrease in the IQ of citizens. He then noted philosophically: “Something is happening on this planet… If a country in such conditions wants to be a leader, it will take significant effort.”

A basic level of

So, in order to understand what to do, we must first understand what we have, starting with the health of the younger generation. In Russia, for a population of 145.578 million there are only 30.328 million children (that is, only 21%).

According to the next speaker, RAS academician Gennady Onishchenko, only 27.9 percent of this amount can be classified as the first health group, that is, children with normal development and level of functioning of systems and organs. And this, as it turned out, is still a good indicator! “In the post-Soviet years (this group) did not reach even 10%,” said the former chief sanitary doctor of the Russian Federation.

The majority of Russian children – 56.3% – belong to the second health group, that is, healthy, but with risk factors for the occurrence of various pathologies. The third group – 13.2% – are children with chronic diseases and congenital malformations, but with preserved functionality. The fourth – 0.6% – are children with significant deviations in their health, and the fifth – 2% – are sick children with significantly reduced functional capabilities.

Of course, a child’s health is established from birth, or even before conception. As Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Leila Namazova-Baranova noted, modern medicine today allocates 1000 days to programming the health of a future person – that is, from the moment of conception to the end of the second year of extrauterine life. “However, we, pediatricians, know that this “window” opens much earlier,” says the academician. “For example, it is known that if an expectant mother takes folic acid six months before the expected pregnancy, the risk of malformations of the nervous system in the unborn child will decrease three times!”

Namazova-Baranova also believes that the “window” for health programming does not close even after two years. Adults should pay special attention to school-age children.

School

As it turned out, the well-being of schoolchildren, among other factors, can worsen during the education process due to overcrowding of classes, multi-shift study schedules, school furniture that is inappropriate for their age, and excessive use of the digital environment. It is at school age that children often develop myopia, digestive diseases, posture and nervous system disorders.

Gennady Onishchenko cited as an example the sanitary and technical condition of Russian educational institutions. It turns out that in the country, 3,680 (2.1%) educational organizations do not have a centralized water supply, 1.4% do not have a heating system (7% of them are heated by simple stoves). In the 21st century, classrooms in 28 (!) subjects of the Russian Federation are heated with wood. Most of these are in the Trans-Baikal Territory, in the Arkhangelsk, Pskov, Tver regions, in Buryatia, as well as in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Irkutsk Region. The largest share of organizations that do not have centralized drainage, water supply and heating systems was found in the Chechen Republic, Transbaikalia and Tyva.

Most schools operate in two shifts in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (94.5%), in Chechnya (64%) and in Tyva (49.7%).

What comes first – obesity or the Internet?

From external reasons associated with the unsatisfactory level of learning conditions, we move on to reasons of an individual nature. The modern standard of living with the addiction of many people to fast food has already led to obesity of 650 million of the adult population of the Earth. Children copy adults – there are already 379 million little fat people in the world.

In Russia, more than 28 million people (24.1% of the total adult population) have an increased body mass index. And among children, according to data cited by Gennady Onishchenko, every third schoolchild suffers from obesity.

Perhaps excess body weight would not be so dangerous for children if they moved more. But a large number of modern students suffer from physical inactivity, which, in turn, goes hand in hand with children’s involvement in cyberspace. According to WHO, among the nearly 4 billion users in the world, 46% are teenagers, and 15% of them are online for four or more hours a day.

The Internet has long entered the lives of even the youngest – according to WHO, 68% of children under three years of age use screen media every day, 5% of preschoolers have profiles on social networks. Of course, the responsibility for the premature involvement of children in the Internet lies with their parents; some of them use the Internet as an animator (55%) or, just think about it, as a tool for organizing food (32%)!

Someone will decide that the harmful effects of the Internet are limited only to physical inactivity and extra pounds. But scientists conducted a study and came to the conclusion that the cognitive functions of children and adolescents also suffer from excessive digital load.

Cognitive abilities

Attention, thinking, speech, memory form the basis of intelligence and are in many ways a necessary condition for the development of a full-fledged personality.

According to Candidate of Medical Sciences Georgy Karkashadze, pregnancy, childbirth, heredity are all the basic level for the development of the above qualities. Next come social factors, such as living conditions in the family and stay in an educational institution. It is in elementary school that many begin to become involved in the uncontrolled use of gadgets, which after some time begin to noticeably affect those same cognitive functions.

Staying stuck for many hours playing computer games or watching videos entails a number of deviations in the areas of cognitive flexibility, working with texts, and understanding them. Such children typically experience a decline in academic performance.

“Unfortunately, despite all this, digital activity is still not regulated,” the scientist notes. “If there are restrictions anywhere, this is only a private initiative.”

But Academician of the Russian Academy of Education Viktor Basyuk looked at digitalization from an unusual angle. “In the last decade, we have seen the entry into the field of education of children formed under the influence of the online community,” says the scientist. “Before our eyes, a generation is growing up whose experience of personal development will be mediated by interaction with powerful artificial intelligence.” According to Basyuk, in this regard, teachers simply need new methods of working with children.

The growing generation, according to Basyuk, is the first that does not rely on “living” everyday experience. The knowledge of these children, often devoid of direct practice, comes down to wandering through information sources. “In the network from the original base, they find numerous branches that provide endless potential for effectiveness,” says the RAO academician. – This can make any cognitive activity meaningless. This is what in most cases explains teachers’ rejection of digitalization. The Internet, in their opinion, should be used in a very measured manner.”

The scientist notes another aspect that teachers would do well to pay attention to. Against the backdrop of children’s long stay in cyberspace, in social networks, where quick reactions are especially valued, they have developed an urgent need for recognition of their success, for the mutual exchange of psychic energy.

How can I help the teacher adjust his work taking this fact into account? It is necessary to develop methods of constant feedback with children, constant dialogue, the scientist believes.

Meanwhile. According to the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology in Russia, 8.4% (47,712) of children had Covid, in 49.9% of cases the new coronavirus infection was mild, in 32.3% it was asymptomatic, in 0.2% of cases the disease was was severe, with deaths occurring in 0.005%.