‘Kids lose more than just books when school is on a screen’
Sarah Schneider Kavanagh and Katie A. Danielson at The Washington Post
Parents “don’t realize how different many aspects of elementary school have become,” say Sarah Schneider Kavanagh and Katie A. Danielson. Screens “organize the school day,” and “these technological changes in elementary classrooms might look like progress.” But “attention span in particular is weakened when schools prioritize constant stimulation over intellectual endurance.” As “technology becomes more powerful, distinctly human capacities become more valuable, not less.” Children “need a place designed for other aims, such as conversation instead of consumption.”
‘The New York-ification of media keeps growing, warts and all’
Justin Fox at Bloomberg
The “nation’s media capital is in many ways far less central to the national conversation than it used to be,” says Justin Fox. But in the “production of certain kinds of media — journalism in particular — New York is more dominant than ever.” The “New York-ification of media has for the most part continued to grow.” The “journalists who remain are increasingly concentrated in a city that, while wonderful, is utterly different from most of the rest of the country.”
‘The box office just rejected Hollywood’s AI bet’
Peter Zerzan at Newsweek
This year’s “box office has become a referendum on how films are made,” says Peter Zerzan. After “years of pandemic disruption, writers’ strikes and uncertainty, theatrical exhibition is finally recovering.” Americans “were told that AI would become the dominant form of visual storytelling.” But “instead, audiences are buying tickets to films that demanded extraordinary effort to make.” They “are discussing performances, practical effects and directorial choices rather than marveling at how efficiently a computer assembled images.”
‘Clinical trials aren’t the only way to know if flu shots work’
Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena at Time
It is “correct to note that observational studies of annual flu shots suffer from various statistical biases,” say Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena. Randomized trials “have earned their reputation as the ‘gold standard’ because they address a real statistical problem,” and “true randomized controlled trials remain the most rigorous form of evidence.” But this “can be drawn from the data we already have.” The “efficacy of flu shots in children is just one of thousands of questions we could answer this way.”