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Is Technology Ruining Our Ability to Read Emotions? Study Says Yes

This article is more than 9 years old.

We’ve all heard it before, “Kids don’t know grammar anymore because all they do is text,” or “Today’s generation misses everything going on around them because they’re staring at their phones.” But a recent research study by UCLA warns the damage of too much screen time may be even worse than many of us imagined . The study, which will be published in the October 2014 issues of Computers in Human Behavior, found that digital media decreased children’s ability to read other people’s emotions.

The researchers provided sixth grade students with a pre-test to establish their baseline abilities to read emotions. The students were shown photographs and videotaped scenes where the audio was silenced. The participants were then asked to infer people’s emotional states based on facial expressions and non-verbal cues.

Half the students were then sent away to a camp where they lacked access to digital media. They spent their time doing traditional camp activities – hiking, archery, and learning about nature. The control group went about their daily activity as usual including their normal access to digital media (which for these students averaged about four and a half hours on the typical school day).

After five days, both groups participated in a post-test. The kids who went to camp showed significant improvements in their abilities to recognize emotions. The control group only showed a slight improvement. The authors concluded that the increased face-to-face interaction improved the campers' social skills.

English: It's an awesome smiley face! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What Could This Mean for Adults?

Although the participants in the study were children, that doesn’t necessarily mean adults are immune to declining social skills. After all, the participants in the study were sixth grade students – probably between the ages of 11 and 13. We’re not talking about preschoolers who are just learning about emotions. These are pre-teens who should already understand the basics about feelings and should already possess a certain amount of sophisticated social skills.

Could too much time behind a screen interfere with adults’ ability to recognize emotions? I think it can. After all, social skills are like other skills in life. You have to practice them to get better. And when our faces are buried in our phones and the majority of our conversations take place behind a screen, it’s bound to have some impact on our ability to socialize in-person effectively.

Clearly, the ability to recognize how someone else is feeling is an essential business skill. Selling a product to someone? You’d better be able to notice if that person is growing disinterested. Trying to work effectively with your employees? You’ll need to recognize when they’re feeling frustrated. Research even shows that social skills may be just as important as intelligence when it comes to achieving success. (See my previous article Research Shows Successful Leaders Aren’t Just Smart – They’re Also Socially Adept).

Obviously our ability to recognize how other people are feeling is an essential skill in our personal lives too. How many marriages breakdown due to a lack of communication? Understanding how to read a partner’s non-verbal cues can greatly influence relationship satisfaction.

Sharpening Those Social Skills

The good news is, the kids in the study experienced improved social skills after only five days away from their electronics. Although most of us don’t have a week long summer camp we can regularly retreat to, perhaps we can practice taking regular days off from our electronics. Removing ourselves from social media, email, and newsfeeds for one day a week could help improve our social skills.

Or what if we just made a conscious choice to add some more face-to-face socialization into our schedules? Maybe socializing with friends in-person rather than over social media or spending more time speaking with our counterparts, rather than networking over LinkedIn could be a step in the right direction.

We all come across people that we think are rather “clueless” when it comes to social skills and recognizing emotions. However, we’re not always that good at recognizing our own shortcomings in the social skill department (See my previous article: Do Your Counterparts See You As A Pushover Or A Jerk? Study Shows You May Be Oblivious). It’s likely that exchanging emoticons for face-to-face contact can help all of us sharpen our social skills .

Amy Morin is a psychotherapist and the author of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do, a bestselling book that is being translated into more than 20 languages..