Technology is Zombifying

I read an article tonight that really disturbed me.  Because of the technology boom, it seems in the past 10 years increased "screen time" use has become very prevalent.  As a teacher I've seen the a difference in the way children are "wired" now in comparison to how they behaved in the past.  I can even see the difference in those children who use more screen time at home now verses those that don't.  Their attention spans, focus, way of thinking, behavior, and social interactions seem to be affected by screen time use- and usually not in a positive way.  I've struggled too many times with my own children as I've tried to set sensible boundaries  I've seen firsthand how the Internet and gaming has become an addiction not only for my kids, but for their cousins, their friends, and (I feel  like it's safe to say) most kids in general.  It's not just a problem for kids, but for adults as well. I'll be the first to admit I am easily addicted to and can pass many hours on the Internet. I'm now in a heavy inner debate with the pros and cons of freeing my family from the negative effects of screen time.  Is it healthy and realistic to get rid of all screen time?  Is there a way to set up manageable boundaries without being a hovering, and nagging parent?  Am I able to keep control of their time with busyness of life and six kids?

 

 I listed below some quotes that were eye openers and really stuck out to me in this article.  It seems to sum up a lot of how I already feel about technology.  

Here is a link to the full article
http://www.newsweek.com/internet-making-us-crazy-what-new-research-says-65593

In 2008 Gary Small, the head of UCLA’s Memory and Aging Research Center, was the first to document changes in the brain as a result of even moderate Internet use. He rounded up 24 people, half of them experienced Web users, half of them newbies, and he passed them each through a brain scanner. The difference was striking, with the Web users displaying fundamentally altered prefrontal cortexes.

The brains of Internet addicts, it turns out, look like the brains of drug and alcohol addicts. In a study published in January, Chinese researchers found “abnormal white matter”—essentially extra nerve cells built for speed—in the areas charged with attention, control, and executive function. A parallel study found similar changes in the brains of videogame addicts. And both studies come on the heels of other Chinese results that link Internet addiction to “structural abnormalities in gray matter,” namely shrinkage of 10 to 20 percent in the area of the brain responsible for processing of speech, memory, motor control, emotion, sensory, and other information. And worse, the shrinkage never stopped: the more time online, the more the brain showed signs of “atrophy.”

The latest Net-and-depression study may be the saddest one of all. With consent of the subjects, Missouri State University tracked the real-time Web habits of 216 kids, 30 percent of whom showed signs of depression. The results, published last month, found that the depressed kids were the most intense Web users, chewing up more hours of email, chat, videogames, and file sharing.

 Children describe mothers and fathers unavailable in profound ways, present and yet not there at all.

Texting has become like blinking.

The current incarnation of the Internet—portable, social, accelerated, and all-pervasive—may be making us not just dumber or lonelier but more depressed and anxious, prone to obsessive-compulsive and attention-deficit disorders, even outright psychotic. Our digitized minds can scan like those of drug addicts, and normal people are breaking down in sad and seemingly new ways.

Computers are like electronic cocaine (All types of technology-I think-would fit in that statement)

But the research is now making it clear that the Internet is not “just” another delivery system. It is creating a whole new mental environment, a digital state of nature where the human mind becomes a spinning instrument panel, and few people will survive unscathed.

“This is an issue as important and unprecedented as climate change,” says Susan Greenfield, a pharmacology professor at Oxford University who is working on a book about how digital culture is rewiring us—and not for the better. “We could create the most wonderful world for our kids but that’s not going to happen if we’re in denial and people sleepwalk into these technologies and end up glassy-eyed zombies.”

We may appear to be choosing to use this technology, but in fact we are being dragged to it by the potential of short-term rewards.

A 1998 Carnegie Mellon study found that Web use over a two-year period was linked to blue moods, loneliness, and the loss of real-world friends.

Web use often displaces sleep, exercise, and face-to-face exchanges.

And all of us, since the relationship with the Internet began, have tended to accept it as is, without much conscious thought about how we want it to be or what we want to avoid. Those days of complacency should end. The Internet is still ours to shape. Our minds are in the balance.