Posted on 01/08/2020 6:15:02 PM PST by LS
Instruct your child to watch a PragerU video three times a week.
Phones are turning people into zombies.
A psychology professor who has personal addiction experience is interviewed about cell phones. I had it on in a location where my 11 year old grandson could hear it. My grandson is usually rather open to new ideas, but he was pushed beyond his comfort zone by Dr. Kardaras' findings about how addictive screen time is, the boy went into complete denial about the adictiveness of video games. Dr. Kardaras gives some definitions that put into focus what we have always known about the attention-limiting effects of video. The interview mentions the finding of "Kill-ology" researcher, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, that most school shootings have occurred after intensive exposure to hyper-violent video games, one of which was cited as explicitly depicting school shooting.
most modern people spend a full quarter of their waking hours on their mobile device. I was startled by this number. According to one of the studies, about half the time (1 hour, 56 minutes) is spent on the top five social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube. https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/are-you-on-your-phone-too-much-average-person-spends-this-many-hours-on-it-every-day.html
On average, US gamers are playing for 7 hours and 61 minutes each week. The "26-35-year-old age group [in France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States] is playing for more than 8 hours a week, which is an increase of 25% from last year.""What was a little surprising was that more time is spent playing casual single player games than any other game type." https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2019/03/21/research-report-shows-how-much-time-we-spend-gaming-infographic/#e36c6543e076
To achieve functional efficiency during brain development, the brain prunes or cuts away neuronal tracks to areas of the brain that are not being used. The frontal lobes of the brain are known for executive functions such as attention, memory, and impulse control which are critical for academic success. Because brains develop in conjunction with stimuli in the surrounding environment, media content in high screen users is key regarding brain pruning. Exposure to mindful or educational content results in active or constructive learning, which maintains and strengthens neuronal tracks to frontal lobes
Whereas exposure to mindless or entertainment content such as fast paced and violent video games, constitutes passive or destructive learning which research shows rarely requires use of frontal lobes, resulting in frontal lobe pruning. Again, ‘what you do determines who you become’. Numerous research studies have documented frontal lobe atrophy in children who game over 4-5 hours per day. While brain development has a degree of plasticity or ability to repair damage, over half of the brain is hard wired at age 12, and the majority of the brain is hard wired at age 20 years. Children have the right to a childhood free from violence. Encouraging outdoor play in nature can heal the neurological damage created by overexposure of violent media content.
Children learn social skills from watching and interacting with their parents. If parents rarely communicate with each other or their children, these children fail to learn social skills, and go onto a life strife with communication and behavioral issues. There is a critical period at 6-18 mo. of age for attaining social ability. Infants who spend too much time in front of screens, and too little time interacting with their parents, have increased risk of developing autism and oppositional defiance disorder. Parents model functional (or dysfunctional) relationships, which dictate to a large degree how their child will relate to others. Parents who have good relationships with each other, generally understand how to relate to and meet the needs of their children, who in turn pass these social skills onto their siblings and friends. Children who live in a virtual world for long periods, have great difficulty dealing with problems and demands in the real world.
42% of children have viewed pornography by age ten. Early exposure to porn is linked to hypersexualized behaviors including early entry into sex, sexting (sending sexualized messages and photo’s), high risk sex, and sexual violence. What studies fail to include in their data is that all video games rated Mature contain graphic sexual content and sexualized violence. One of the major “enhancements” in Grand Theft Auto 5 is that the player can not only rape and kill women, but they’ve now added torture scenes. http://movingtolearn.ca/2018/ten-reasons-why-children-under-the-age-of-12-should-not-play-violent-video-games
A worse case scenario (2015): On the eve of his big sister Liz’s high school graduation, nine-year-old Aiden sits with his parents and relatives at a celebration dinner, bored by their “adult” conversation and irritated at all the attention showered upon Liz. He can’t wait to get back to his video game! Before dinner, Mom had (annoyingly) called him away to join the family, and then she got mad when he spent a few minutes getting to the next level and saving his game. So many people in the house make him restless; he squirms uncomfortably and drums his fingers on the table, waiting to be excused.
Finally, he is allowed to escape the dinner table, and he settles into a corner of the living room couch to play his Nintendo DS. For the next hour or so, he is completely oblivious to the company in the house. Although he’s already played much longer than his mother likes, she lets him continue, knowing these family situations are a little overwhelming for him. And besides, the game keeps him occupied. What’s the harm? she thinks. It’s just for today.
However, in the meantime, a perfect storm is brewing. As the play continues, Aiden’s brain and psyche become overstimulated and excited — on fire! His nervous system shifts into high gear and settles there while he attempts to master different situations, strategizing, surviving, accumulating weapons, and defending his turf. His heart rate increases from 80 to over 100 beats per minute, and his blood pressure rises from a normal 90/60 to 140/90 — he’s ready to do battle, except that he’s just sitting on the couch, not moving much more than his eyes and thumbs.
The DS screen virtually locks his eyes into position and sends signal after signal: “It’s bright daylight out, nowhere near time for bed!” Levels of the feel-good chemical dopamine rise in his brain, sustaining his interest, keeping him focused on the task at hand, and elevating his mood. The intense visual stimulation and activity flood his brain, which adapts to the heightened level of stimulation by shutting off other parts it considers nonessential....
“All right, that’s it. Time to start getting ready for bed. Get your pajamas on and you can have a snack before you go to bed,” she says, pulling the DS out of Aiden’s hands and turning it off in one fell swoop...
The following morning, the fight in Aiden has subsided, but the aftermath leaves him in a fog, listless, weepy, and exhausted. He experiences an increased craving for sweets while cortisol, the stress hormone, drives his blood sugar up and down erratically. It will take weeks before his body, brain, and mind return to some sense of balance.
Because chronic stress effectively "short circuits" the frontal lobe, a hyperaroused and mentally depleted child will have trouble paying attention, managing emotions, suppressing impulses, following directions, tolerating frustration, accessing creativity and compassion, and executing tasks. All of these effects are compounded by screen-time disrupting the body clock and hindering deep sleep. In fact, the effects on sleep alone can explain many of the mood, cognitive and behavior issues associated with screens, and also explain how screen effects can build over time, making them easy to miss. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-wealth/201609/is-your-childs-brain-video-games
A common theory is that playing violent video games increases aggression in young people. Various studies claim to support this hypothesis.[6][25] Other studies find no link.[26][27] Debate among scholars on both sides remains contentious, and there is argument about whether consensus exists regarding the effects of violent video games on aggression.[28][29] .
In 2011, a thirty-year study of 14,000 college students, published by the University of Michigan which measured overall empathy levels in students, found that these had dropped by 40% since the 1980s. The biggest drop came after the year 2000, which the authors speculated was due to multiple factors, including increased societal emphasis on selfishness, changes in parenting practices, increased isolation due to time spent with information technology, and greater immersion in all forms of violent and/or narcissistic media including, but not limited to, news, television and video games. The authors did not provide data on media effects, but referenced various research of the topics.[54]
One study from Morgan Tear and Mark Nielsen in 2013 concluded that violent video games did not reduce or increase prosocial behavior, failing to replicated previous studies in this area.[27] In 2016, a preregistered study of violent video game effects concluded that violent video games did not influence aggression in players.[20] The preregistered nature of the study removed the potential for the scholars to "nudge" the results of the study in favor of the hypothesis and suggests that preregistration of future studies may help clarify results in the field.
In 2008, records held by the US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and Office of Justice Programs indicated that arrests for violent crime in the US had decreased since the early 1990s in both children and adults.[88][89][90] This decrease occurred despite increasing sales of violent video games and increases in graphically violent content in those games.[91][92]..Studies of mass shootings have, likewise, provided no evidence for links with violent video games. A 2002 report from the US Secret Service found that school shooters appeared to consume relatively low levels of violent media.[98]
A 2011 study by the Center for European Economic Research[102] found that violent video games may be reducing crime. This is possibly because the time spent playing games reduces time spent engaged in more antisocial activities. Other recent studies by Patrick Markey[103] and Scott Cunningham[104] have come to similar conclusions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_controversies#Negative_effects_of_video_games
A comprehensive study from the Journal of Health Psychology shows that gaming disorders are linked to greater levels of loneliness, anxiety, depression, sleeping problems, social problems and many other psychological-social problems.
Sedentary behavior, such as playing video games excessively, increases your risk for health problems. These health problems exacerbate the psychological problems caused by playing video games. If you have health problems because of poor diet or exercise the best thing to do is go to the gym. It doesn’t matter what you look like—just get in there and do something.
If you want to counteract the negative effects of playing video games, try playing music. Instead of deactivating parts of the brain, music has been shown to improve cognitive function. According to another recent study, learning to play music can improve verbal memory and reading ability.
Developing skills can create a lasting sense of accomplishment. Playing video games gives you a temporary feeling of pleasure that will fade unless you keep playing. If you look down one day and realize you are overweight, it’s simply because you’ve committed yourself to a screen.
If you use video games for social interaction this could still be unhealthy. Studies show that face-to-face human interaction is more likely to reduce depression than conversations over the phone or by writing. If you have friends online, try to get together with them IRL and see what it’s like. Maybe you can play basketball or go on a hike together. https://georgiastatesignal.com/video-games-are-bad-for-you/
> All: I’m starting a new book on the impact of cell phones, tablets, etc. on “da yuths” especially, looking at depression, despair, isolation, declining social skills, etc.
I have a story that happened just a few weeks ago at the pool where I go to walk a few times a week. The lifeguard was an absolute sweetheart with no signs of “depression, despair, isolation, declining social skills”. I would guess that she was in her late teens or early 20’s.
She was leaving her job to start college. When I asked her what courses she was going to be taking she said that she was going to learn to be a welder. The course happens to be taught by Lincoln Electric, one of the premiere manufactures of welding equipment on the planet. I dare say that, even at 67 years of age I wouldn’t mind taking it myself. Somebody attempting to take such a course without a high degree of intellectual skills would probably not even have been accepted.
She gave me a very nice Christmas/going away card. Her language skills and composition were excellent, her handwriting was a composite of printing with a little cursive mixed in. It looked like was written by somebody in first grade. I can only assume assume texting and keyboarding negated the necessity of putting pen to paper over the course of her lifetime, thus denying her a chance of learning how to write and practicing these skills.
You’re ruining all the fun of the “let’s complan about how kids today are worse than they were when I was a kid “, crowd. (Which is just about everyone on FR)
. A full 89% of college students now report feeling "phantom" phone vibrations, imagining their phone is summoning them to attention when it hasn't actually buzzed.
cientists have known for years what people often won't admit to themselves: humans can't really multi-task. This is true for almost all of us: about 97.5% of the population. The other 2.5% have freakish abilities; scientists call them "super taskers," because they can actually successfully do more than one thing at once...Our brains can only process so much information at a time, about 60 bits per second.
Last year, psychologists and computer scientists found an unusual and potentially troubling connection: the more tapping, clicking and social media posting and scrolling people do, the "noisier" their brain signals become.
Checking Facebook has been proven to make young adults depressed. Researchers who've studied college students' emotional well-being find a direct link: the more often people check Facebook, the more miserable they are. But the incessant, misery-inducing phone checking doesn't just stop there. Games like Fortnite or apps like Twitter can be addictive, in the sense that they will leave your brain craving another hit. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-your-smartphone-is-doing-to-your-brain-and-it-isnt-good-2018-3
A lot of the concern around the health and safety risks of mobile phones centres on the radiation emitted. Mobile phones release radiofrequency energy, or radio waves, that can be absorbed by bodily tissues. In the past, studies have linked heavy mobile phone use to certain brain tumors. But according to Martin Röösli, head of the Environmental Exposures and Health Unit at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, the type of radiation emitted by a mobile phone is nothing to be alarmed about.
But that doesn't mean mobile phone radiation has no effect on the brain at all. Previous research has found evidence that it can change our brainwaves. And now, a new study co-authored by Röösli has found a link between mobile phone use and adverse effects on young people's memory retention. ..
The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, found that one year's worth of exposure to mobile phone radiation could have a negative effect on the development of memory performance in specific brain regions in adolescents. Here ‘exposure' almost exclusively refers to phone calls.
"80 percent of the absorbed radiation comes from holding the phone to the head," Röösli noted. Interestingly, they found the brain's memory function was more vulnerable to the negative impact of radiation when the phone was held to the right hand side of the head. That's where the areas of the brain related to memory are located.
"Basically what we saw was the higher the absorption of radiation [by the brain] the more likely the development of memory in one year wasn't as good as those who didn't absorb as much," Röösli told DW. The researchers also emphasised that more research needs to be done to rule out other factors, including puberty, which could impact both mobile phone use and cognition.
https://www.dw.com/en/is-your-mobile-phone-damaging-your-brain/a-45020000As for other smartphone uses – sending text messages, taking photos, using apps –these involved "almost no [radiation] exposure to the brain." https://www.dw.com/en/is-your-mobile-phone-damaging-your-brain/a-45020000
Hope this helps.
I just read a book about it that was written in 2011...The Shallows. Don’t recall the author. The problem has gotten worse since then.
I went to his talk, and the main thing he spoke about was how the internet has extended the age of being an adult and “knowing who oneself is”.
Back in the day of Jesus, people were raised in small family groups/ tribes with little to no outside influence. All their lives they learned what it meant to be part of their small tribe and their values. So, when a female or male had their first bodily experience related to sex (menstruation for the female) - they were an adult. Goes with the idea of Mary being 12 or 13 or whatever when she gave birth.
By the time of the Middle Ages or whatever, with more people living in cities, exposed to other world influences, the idea of “who one is” was not so easy. Hmm - maybe I could work in a mill rather than be a farmer like everyone else in my family. I don't recall the exact number - but say age 16 for a male now was considered to be an adult.
He showed various statistics from various sources showing how the age of “adulthood” increased gradually. The 60’s and 70’s showed a bit higher, but still around 18 or 19 iirc.
And I don't recall the exact numbers - but he had them.
When he first came out with the book the statistics showed male adulthood at 24 to 26 years old - this was perhaps around 2010 or so. When he gave the talk he went through the book and had revised it. He at first thought that well, it had been 5 years, I should just see what has happened (I probably saw him in 2014??) He said something like “Now, you don't have to believe me - but this is what OTHER researchers have found. Average age of adulthood for a male is now 28 to 32 years old. Hard to believe. Until one thinks about some of the 30 year olds you meet!” (Pretty sure it was 28 to 32 years for men. Women was mid to upper 20’s).
The idea being, that the internet has opened up an infinite number of viewpoints to consider to help figure out “who you are”. The current epidemic of young females thinking they are males is perhaps the worst example. (Up 4,500 percent in ten years!)
Notice the elites send their kids to expensive private schools where electronics are severely limited.
My son was a good honors student till he got involved in PS3 Modern Warefare games in 2008, playing w/ people all over the country. One of his partners went semi pro. They made youtube videos w/ strategies that were highly viewed.
The point is he got addicted, playing all the time, school suffered, Adrenalin rush made him not able to sleep. His sleep schedule is still messed up and he has symptoms of Tinnitus like rock musicians from the bomb burst in a head set w/ microphones. He struggles to focus as it added to his ADHD or caused it, as you get so much stimuli from everywhere.
He graduated in the bottom third of his HS class and flunked out of college in 18 months. Was not prepared for college at all. Has troubling being on time for work today.
Gaming destroyed the kid in 5 years. I know I could have been a better parent and threw it out the window, but that led to fights with wife and you give up after awhile and ended up divorced with this gaming issue as a contributing factor but not 100% of it.
Yeah, I believe it. I have those numbers from four major studies cited in “IGen” by Dr. Jean Twenge. You can go to her website and the four studies/appendix are available for free download.
Just ordered this. I saw it right before you posted.
Brute force control...
You can control the games by blocking certain computers and game systems from the Internet via your router. That way, you can forcibly control how much time he is gaming without actually removing the computer or gaming system. Maybe by blocking access, he cannot get involved in the game and lose interest (after a lot of angry yelling of course).
One other thing to worry about is porn. Access to it is very easy if you have access to the Internet. We use a service that costs a small yearly fee of $20 — OpenDNS. You can block certain content, specific websites, ... maybe even gaming.
Good luck. I don't know what to say. You are in a tough situation. I do believe that maturity is a factor and so hopefully, once he is a little older, things will work out.
Helps? My gosh, you just about wrote the book for me.
Thank you very much. These studies are invaluable. Can I ask what your background is? I mean, you have already on your own researched this a ton.
Yes, I am seeing he is a major researcher in this area.
Thanks. No, I expect there is a ton out there.
When I wrote “A Patriot’s History of the United States,” there were a good 20 college US History textbooks-—but none put things together the way I did with Mike Allen. It’s a gift. I think I can bring that same historical scope, synthesis, and common sense language to this topic that maybe others don’t have.
No, no one can cut off the internet completely. But I hope by the end of the book to make suggestions-—doable, practical suggestions, as to how we can (especially as parents) better discipline our kids to USE the tech rather than letting the tech enslave them.
I disagree. I think we are reaching a critical mass where the next gen parents are gonna get concerned.
There was an article a while ago on FR that was about an article that had science based reasons the porn epidemic post 2006 or so is particularly bad for society.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3801661/posts
https://amgreatness.com/2019/12/15/a-science-based-case-for-ending-the-porn-epidemic/
Freegards
I sympathize with you. Both my sons’ lives were largely ruined by internet gaming in the Nineties and Two Thousands. They were both in a very good college prep private school which we spent big bucks to send them to, both eventually flunked out and ended up in “remedial” private schools where kids with learning problems or who otherwise couldn’t make it in the good private schools end up. The older one did end up going to college and has somewhat turned his life around, but his gaming addiction seriously limited his life options. Our younger one is still living with us, never got beyond the first year of college, and is working multiple menial service jobs now.
My wife and I fought constantly over our kids’ computer use for playing games like Soldier of Fortune and World of Warcraft, and came close to divorce over the issue. She thought it was fine, I said they were screwing up their lives if they didn’t get off the computer. I was always the “bad guy” because I was “too controlling” over our kids’ computer activities. My wife and I basically didn’t speak to each other for several years, although we didn’t split up and still lived together. One of the counselors that we got sent to actually told me that I should divorce my wife, because otherwise it was going to be nothing but misery for me because of the kids’ computer problems. I told him there was no way I could be that irresponsible, I had to tough it out. I was generally the only one who would go to counseling, because my wife and kids would always say the counselors were exaggerating and then would stop coming to the sessions.
They would play these games all night against teams from around the world. One time I heard people on the speakers speaking some strange language and I asked them who they were. They told me they were “kids from Czechoslovakia” who were playing the games with them. Czechoslovakia I could believe, but they sure didn’t sound like kids.
One time I physically took the computer modem away so they couldn’t use the computers. I had to work late the next day and didn’t get home until sometime after 11 p.m. The kids were gone. I asked my wife where the kids were. She told me she took them to an all-night internet cafe in a bad part of town. They told her they would take the bus home after they were finished playing computer games. I said to my wife, “do you understand the bus doesn’t run after 10 p.m., there’s no way for them to get home.” So I then took the car and drove to the internet cafe, where there were all sorts of druggies and prostitutes walking around outside. I physically had to drag my kids back home.
Another time my older son went into a deep depression and tried to kill himself. He blocked the door to his room and I had to break the door down. We then had to remove all sharp objects from our home because he might use them to kill himself or hurt us. That’s when he also flunked out of school. That depression lasted for several years, until he went to college and fortunately started to turn his life around there.
This is basically how I spent my kids’ teenage years, dealing with this.
What was bad was the culture then. The concept of “computer addiction” was laughed at back then, and if you started making an issue out of computers not being good for your kids, you were the one made fun of for being out of touch with modern times. People thought I was the one with problems for opposing the computer use. But I still look at my kids. My older son was fantastic playing the classical guitar and had a fantastic teacher and school (one time Pepe Romero even came to the class to give them a lesson). He gave that up to play computer games. My younger son was a good athlete in both baseball and basketball. He also gave that up as well for computer games. I look at my kids and realize they have no memories of growing up, or interacting one-on-one with other kids in their teens. They, like their friends, spent all their waking hours playing computer games.
So yeah, I have pretty strong opinions about this whole subject.
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