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.
That was just some rather quick work. Back ground is that of a dairy worker, gas station manager, but later (1986) working in full-time evangelical ministry, who now often does posts online, and does research (w/ multiple browsers and tabs), and physically also tries to fix (for free) more things than I break, glory to God.
More excepts,
Strong research has been coming in over the last several years, suggesting that looking at screens for hours a day can have some serious health and mental health consequences. Even some of the developers of these products have admitted guilt about their creations, and confessed that they don’t even let their kids use them. A couple of recent studies highlight the connection, and an infographic below expands on it.
One new study finds that time spent on screens is linked to not-so-great shifts in brain connectivity, while reading is linked to more beneficial changes.
Another recent study found...changes were seen in the reward circuits of the brain, in the ratio of the neurotransmitter GABA to other neurotransmitters.
But what may be even more important than looking at the brain is looking at the behavior and the psychology of kids who use screens. Researcher Jean Twenge’s famous work has shown strong links between time spent on screens and depression and suicidality in teens https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2018/04/16/how-too-much-screen-time-affects-kids-bodies-and-brains/#1da3e3321549 2018
“It’s not how long we’re using screens that really matters; it’s how we’re using them and what’s happening in our brains in response,” says Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children’s Hospital, associate professor of pediatrics at HMS, and associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The growing human brain is constantly building neural connections while pruning away less-used ones, and digital media use plays an active role in that process, according to Rich. Much of what happens on screen provides “impoverished” stimulation of the developing brain compared to reality, he says. Children need a diverse menu of online and offline experiences, including the chance to let their minds wander.
“Virtually all games and social media work on what’s called a variable reward system, which is exactly what you get when you go to Mohegan Sun and pull a lever on a slot machine. It balances the hope that you’re going to make it big with a little bit of frustration, and unlike the slot machine, a sense of skill needed to improve.” A young person’s brain lacks a fully developed self-control system to help them with stopping this kind of obsessive behavior. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/screen-time-brain 2019
Stephen Johnson 10 December, 2018: The National Institutes of Health recently began a $300-million study to examine the effects of screen time on developing brains.
The first batch of results from the study, which was highlighted by CBS's 60 Minutes on Sunday, shows that kids who spent more than two hours per day on screens scored lower on language and thinking tests.
Alarmingly, kids who spent more than seven hours per day on electronic devices showed premature thinning of the cortex, which Dr. Gaya Dowling of the National Institutes of Health described as a "maturational process" that typically happens later in development. https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/screen-time-nih-study-60-minutes
Researchers have found an imbalance in the brain chemistry of young people addicted to smartphones and the internet, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
The researchers performed MRS exams on the addicted youth prior to and following behavioral therapy and a single MRS study on the control patients to measure levels of gamma aminobutyric acid, or GABA, a neurotransmitter in the brain that inhibits or slows down brain signals, and glutamate-glutamine (Glx), a neurotransmitter that causes neurons to become more electrically excited. Previous studies have found GABA to be involved in vision and motor control and the regulation of various brain functions, including anxiety.
The good news is GABA to Glx ratios in the addicted youth significantly decreased or normalized after cognitive behavioral therapy. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171130090041.htm [2017]
Hope this helps, by the grace of God.
