-it's 'Digital Heroin': how screens turn kids into psychotic junkies-

Hello again fellow above top secretions,

Ive seen digital addiction affect adults and children alike, and now with many brain scans of children we are only beginning to understand the scope of the problem.

The parts of the brain being stimulated are akin to drugs, sex and food.
This is not by mistake IMO.
Think of the children!

Many parents intuitively understand that ubiquitous glowing screens are having a negative effect on kids. We see the aggressive temper tantrums when the devices are taken away and the wandering attention spans when children are not perpetually stimulated by their hyper-arousing devices. Worse, we see children who become bored, apathetic, uninteresting and uninterested when not plugged in.

But it’s even worse than we think.

We now know that those iPads, smartphones and Xboxes are a form of digital drug. Recent brain imaging research is showing that they affect the brain’s frontal cortex — which controls executive functioning, including impulse control — in exactly the same way that coc aine does. Technology is so hyper-arousing that it raises dopamine levels — the feel-good neurotransmitter most involved in the addiction dynamic — as much as sex.

This should worry us. As adults we are allowing the upcoming generation to indulge in behaviours that are unhealthy in every conceivable way. Obesity through inaction and laziness and potentially damaging and dangerous use of technology. This article also explains why I very rarely see anyone under the age of thirty that hasn't got their neck crooked over some kind of device.

Technology can be and is used for good but I am starting to wonder what would happen if someone threw the EM switch. It probably wouldn't be pretty to begin with but it would be interesting to see what we all discover about ourselves.

Too bad all the addicted adults are going to counter the claim with some nonsense to rationalize and defend their own addictions, because addicts will never readily admit that they are in fact addicts.

I started limited my two older sons computer time to two half hour slots a day (after school, and after dinner). In only two weeks he has spent more time outdoors and reluctance to do homework has scaled down significantly.

I personally believe that there is a correlation to my children's behavior now that this activity is a rationed and reward based activity, instead of one where they is entitled to have access to it regardless.

a reply to: dashen

Solution: parent your kids.

a reply to: dashen

I'm a 20-something year old who spent a lot of time on the computer since I was 4.
I'm in IT of course.

I enjoy my job for the most part.
It seems it was unfortunately the future, and the future is here now.
I believe the areas of the brain which develope can easily be modified through content control.

Just my opinion, don't let me detract from the thread. The effect of a screen is like heroin, doesn't matter whats on it

originally posted by: GetHyped
a reply to: dashen

Solution: parent your kids.

The answer to great deal of the problems we see today.

Let's please S&F this thread to the TOP.
Though I don't have children myself I see the negative effects of this daily.
We are becoming physically addicted to technology.

140 characters is even more addictive — And the dopamine system is most powerfully stimulated when the information coming in is small so that it doesn't full satisfy. A short text or twitter (can only be 140 characters!) is ideally suited to send your dopamine system raging

source
Like a bunch of techno junkies!
Always looking for our next fix...
Like me!
Friend me!
Tweet me!
Text me!
Hashtag me!

I thought teaching kids to be addicts (consumers) was the whole point?

Lets begin early, we'll have a 'presents' day; all mysterious, under a tree, wrapped all pretty with bows, don't you open that!

Birthdays and christmas are thing holidays.

Easter is about hiding chocolate, its a candy day.

Thanksgiving and the Stupor bowl are about food and alcohol, thats more for adult children.

Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow you pay.

a reply to: intrptr

So then, the answer is to just shuffle along life celebrating nothing?? I feel like you compared celebration and not addictions. While some of what you mentioned are in fact nothing more than mind control consumption for corporate profits, I think your just a little bit off base.

You just have to put in the extra work and lecture your kids about why the internet is even there in the 1st place and why they shouldn't just " consume " with it and instead " learn " with it.

That's the KEY!

Teach them that the internet is a tool for learning and empowerment, that it's the matrix of learning, ANYTHING they want to learn they can, show them, they will naturally want that, as kids WANT TO LEARN! They just want to learn WHAT THEY WANT TO, give them that option and they will.

Giving your kids the tablets and just showing them it had games and movies is WHY they are addicts, you've shown them that the internet is for just consuming and trolling instead of learning.

Sites like:

Tynker
Code
www.pluralsight.com...

And these show even more,
Lifehacker
MommyPoppins

That's just for coding, there is youtube and lynda and so much more, let them be addicts but learning addicts instead of consumer addicts.

They will thank you for this when they're older and so will you when they have many skills to fall back on when the automation revolution takes effect.

originally posted by: worldstarcountry
a reply to: intrptr

So then, the answer is to just shuffle along life celebrating nothing?? I feel like you compared celebration and not addictions. While some of what you mentioned are in fact nothing more than mind control consumption for corporate profits, I think your just a little bit off base.

Teaching kids to be good consumers is the whole point.

I know, I was around when they first developed video games. Video games don't pay off like slot machines in vegas. But they attract people with the same flashing lights and tinkly sounds to entice the brain to engage and feed quarters into the 'slot'.

Same with TV, movies, advertising, same with any bright, shiny and loud object.

I am agreeing wth the OP and widening the scope of addiction. People think that addiction is only bad when it comes to drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, its a lot more subliminal than that.

Money, food, power, 'devices', control, stuff...

The more they can addict children at the earliest possible age, the more they can control their actions and desires after they are 'grown'.

a reply to: dashen

The same can be said of listening to music:

Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll has been a preoccupation of generations of young people since the 1960s, while even even Shakespeare wrote: “If music be the food of love, play on.”

And now scientists have discovered one reason why they seem to go so well together.

For the same chemical system in the brain that produces feelings of pleasure as a result of having sex, taking recreational drugs or eating tasty food is also stimulated by listening to a favourite tune.

Link

So, listening to music is bad for kids, too? No, not exactly. My nephew always spent all his free time listening to music, and at 18 he’s a super-gifted guitar player. There was something constructive to it. For him, as a child, everything was about learning when it came to music.

Likewise, my son spends a good deal of time on his various digital devices. He has a serious interest in coding though, so I try to be careful (read as: lax) in how I monitor his time on them. When I was his age, I would spend hours drawing and painting and my parents encouraged that. When I finally got a Mac, in 1996, I spent hours on Photoshop and Illustrator, every day. I ended up getting my degree in fine art with a concentration in graphic design.

If a child has a constructive passion behind the time they spend on their digital devices then they become amazing educational tools.

So if I got this right cellphones are as bad as heroine the whole world is just functional addicts

Lol this is grate news to me just proves what I allready knew everyone is a hypacrite


So tho if a flow of information stimulates ur brain the same as drug's we should ban them right I mean they said heroin that's gota be bad

OK lets be serious go check out ALL THE OTHER things that do the same thing and ask urself maby this is normal unless u think eating most ordanary food like a grilled cheese sandwich come on if we can compare one of the worst drugs to a grilled cheese sandwich someone must of really wanted drugs to look bad

Maby it's time to relook at why things are addictive and leave the agenda at home this time

a reply to: intrptr

To be fair, "eat, drink, and be merry" is human behavior going back to the earliest moments of human social cognition.

We sit and socialize while we eat. It used to mean we would squat and pick tiny seeds repeatedly. But we've domesticated those little seeds and now have big seeds like corn. But the pleasure of hand to mouth action is still seen in the addiction to smoking, and why quitting smoking can typically bring weight gain. We love hand to mouth behavior, and are made to snack small and often.

The feast...again human behavior. You have to eat those elephants one bit at a time, afterall.

Behavioral addiction is simply using modern comforts to exploit ancient behavioral tendencies. Quite a bit of insight into product design and how it can be improved for actual productivity and function in that statement, if you think about it.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

To be fair, "eat, drink, and be merry" is human behavior going back to the earliest moments of human social cognition.

Before even the corporate spin they put on it for our kids today.

a reply to: Tranceopticalinclined
Indeed. There is not much to add. Especially today, with so much content! Back then, you had to go to a library or buy a book, not to speak,in most cases you didn´t even know where to start searching, let alone what. It was like climbing big steps up a mountain with every gain of knowledge. Compared to today, where you have the internet at your disposal, it´s like using a teleporter to midway, just to decide if you want to "master" this mountain. Information getting wise.

Does this make sense? What you wrote is very true. Kids ask so much questions. I´m not saying they should always ask the internet but it´s much better to say "Hey, I don´t know too. But let´s find out!" than, "I don´t know".

I think Carl Sagan said that in one way or another.

a reply to: dashen

You are confusing psychopathic behavior with socialpathic behavior. There is a fine line between the two.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

To be fair, "eat, drink, and be merry" is human behavior going back to the earliest moments of human social cognition.

Before even the corporate spin they put on it for our kids today.

Our conditioning for scarcity is what drives our consumerism. In fact, it drives it on both sides. We WANT to buy more stuff and have better stuff. We want to hedge against scarcity.

And the greedy people who try to capitalize on our psychological quandry, too, are driven by a desire to hedge against scarcity.

Its what greed is. And their greed capitalizes on our greed.

I've started spending more on things simply to try to buy quality. The kind of quality you spend money repairing, instead of discarding/replacing. I think there's someting to be said for spending money on quality craftsmanship. I do with less things, but the things I have lost much, much longer.

a reply to: Thecakeisalie

I am not confusing anything.
I didn't come up with the headline

I am a bit worried about about my four-year-old and his screen time. During the warmer months I cannot keep him indoors, he wants nothing to do with the 3DS and his kids shows (curious george, peppa pig, disney movies, ninja turtles, power rangers, dragon ball z) he would rather spend the vast majority of his time playing outside with the other children.

Its the harsh winter months that I worry about though. His vocabulary, imagination , and overall intellect is through the roof, and I can attribute that to his games and tv shows. Its the tantrums he throws when I turn the electronics off. They are insane. (He does throw the same level of tantrums when I make him come inside from playing outdoors, or mention taking him to his mom's)

I know it all lies on my shoulders, as a parent, and keeping a good balance in all aspects of my son's childhood without being overly hovering. One thing that helps is taking a break from the screen and having him engage in cooking, cleaning, reading, playing with daddy. Anyone who is a parent knows that kids take an immense amount of physical and mental energy, and sometimes the screen time is the only way to get the adult sht around the house done.