What Is Technology Doing to Us?
In the last few weeks, we’ve written about techniques for How to Peel Your Kids Off the Screen as well as 10 Screen-Free Ways to Have Fun With Your Kids. Then recently, this alarming article was brought to our attention, and we felt compelled to revisit the topic of technology with a focus on the effects technology can have on us and our children.
The whole article is definitely worth a read, long though it is. To summarize, the article basically asserts that, although we used to laugh when people suggested the Internet was bad for us, new research is showing that increased screen-time can lead to addiction, and in fact, one brain scan study found that “digitized minds can scan like those of drug addicts”! Here are a few powerful snippets:
- A Stanford study of iPhone users found that 94 percent of participants “admitted some level of compulsion” to their phones. In addition, 10 percent of users ”feel ‘fully addicted’ to [their] phone[s]… while 3 percent won’t let anyone else touch their phone.”
- In one study of the different brain scans of internet “newbies” and experienced users, the novices were asked to go home and spend five hours (total!) on the internet before their next brain scan. A week later, their brains were already rewired.
- Next year, when the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders is released, Internet Addiction Disorder will be included as a mental disorder under further study.
The Korean government, however, is already funding treatment centers for its addiction-riddled populace (see more below). - “Last year, when MTV polled its 13- to 30-year-old viewers on their Web habits, most felt ‘defined’ by what they put online, ‘exhausted’ by always having to be putting it out there, and utterly unable to look away for fear of missing out.”
Over and over again, the author uncovers research showing that not only is it possible to be medically addicted to the digital realm, but screen addiction can be incredibly destructive. Increasingly shocking news stories related to widespread internet obsession (and attempts to rehabilitate addicts) in South Korea illustrate what can happen when screen use reaches the utter extreme.
In the United States, our virtual culture has not (yet?) reached the levels seen in South Korea (though David Walsh suggests that the US is only two years behind South Korea ). But that does not mean that we are totally immune to the effects of technology, as the author points out in the passage that perhaps hits closest to home:
Don’t kid yourself: the gap between ‘Internet addict’ and John Q. Public is thin to nonexistent. One of the early flags for addiction was spending more than 38 hours a week online. By that definition, we are all addicts now, many of us by Wednesday afternoon, Tuesday if it’s a busy week.
So what can we do?
The point here is not to beat ourselves up, throw our screens out the nearest window, or move to Amish country. The point here is to ask ourselves this question: What kind of a life am I modeling for my children? Am I engaged — truly and whole-heartedly — in the HERE and NOW? Or am I perennially distracted by whatever screen is blipping and beeping at the time? Are you setting the kind of example that will best prepare your kids for success and a long, happy, healthy life?
Consider what technology use adds to your life, and be honest about the parts that are making a negative contribution. Our kids need our full and undivided attention, and they need our wise guidance as they learn to navigate the real world — and the digital one.
For further reading on the (good and bad) effects of technology and techniques for addressing this issue in your family, check out these resources:
- How to Peel Your Kids Off the Screen
- On passing values to your kids: Pass the Peas, Pass the Faith
- See “MediaWise” at National Institute on Media and the Family.
- 10 Screen-Free Ways to Have Fun With Your Kids!
- Research to help you distinguish between “good” and “bad” video games.
- Read the full article referenced in this tip.
