Virtual distance is a psychological and emotional sense of detachment that accumulates little by little, at the subconscious or unconscious level, as people trade off time interacting with each other for time spent "screen skating" (swiping, swishing, pinching, tapping and so on).
It is also a measurable phenomenon and can cause some surprising effects. For example, when virtual distance is relatively high, people become distrustful of one another. One result: they keep their ideas to themselves instead of sharing them with others in the workplace - a critical exchange that's necessary for taking risks needed for innovation, collaboration and learning.
Another unintended consequence: people disengage from helping behaviors - leaving others to fend for themselves causing them to feel isolated, often leading to low job satisfaction and organisational commitment.
Virtual distance research underscores that the rules of interaction have changed. It changes the way people feel - about each other, about themselves, and about how they fit into the world around them.
But the demonstrated impacts measured among adults seem comparatively benign when considered against what it might be doing to children.
Virtual distance and the growing child
Kids learn by looking at loved ones closely, watching what they do and listening to how they say things. The actions and behaviors parents model have a profound and lasting impact upon a child's development. For example, the "serve and return" of interactions between children and adults is a key factor in child cognitive development.
If much of what the child notices about the world comes from a small screen where only a shallow representation is available, what do children have to mimic? How much practice do they get developing human capacities crucial to establishing emotional ease and social sensibilities?
Virtual distance is a game-changer when it comes to human relations. When technology is used as an agent for relationships, in some cases it can be beneficial. However when technology is used purposelessly as a default it doesn't just squeeze out sophisticated interpersonal interactions, it changes the nature of what's left.
Purposeful use of technology can support children's learning but when technology becomes either a substitute or a proxy for relationships, language development in children can be held back. Communication becomes the transfer of impersonal information instead of the sharing of a passion. This can have an impact on language development for kids, but it can have affects on other aspects of our lives.
Taking a risk and having a go at that tricky math problem seems more difficult when children are on their own than when with friends. More so sticking with a difficult task (a real gym-buddy is more effective than an app).
These kinds of skills - self discipline, ethical understanding and interpersonal communication, as well as social ability, and critical thinking (among others) - are what UNESCO calls "transversal competencies." And they can be impaired through virtual distance.
When the ripple effects of actions and inactions seem to go no further than the screen, empathy and collaborative skills can be difficult to develop. For example, children seem to have trouble looking into other people's eyes and are less able to hold conversations.
As connectivity increases, connectedness can lose out.
Karen Sobel Lojeski is an assistant professor of technology and society at Stony Brook University.
Martin Westwell is a professor of the science of learning at Flinders University.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
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