Screen addiction is officially a thing. As a mom and clinical psychologist for over 25 years, I recognized and identified it in 2014 when I founded GetKidsInternetSafe from treating hundreds of families in my private practice. Teaching addiction studies at CSUCI also highlighted the similarities between drugs and screen behaviors for me. Like everybody else, I too was having a hard time chasing my kids off our screens. Honestly, even I was getting lost in my research and on Facebook, losing the ability to chill and read a novel. I started to worry about my family. From there, I wrote my book Screen Time in the Mean Time, offered keynotes and presentations, consulted with tech companies, coached families, built and tested my online courses, and created a weekly blog. And, after all that, the World Health Organization finally confirmed what I’ve been screaming from the rooftops. Big tech creates screen products that are manipulatively designed to trigger the pleasure centers of our brains, and we are, in fact, clinically addicted.
Gaming Addiction
Nearly 60% of parents think their teens are addicted to their mobile devices. In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified gaming addiction (IGD)as a mental health disorder. In the last twenty years, the tech revolution has affected every aspect of our lives. Studies have shown that, for some subjects, compulsive screen use impacts the reward and pleasure areas of the brain in the same ways that alcohol, drugs, and other behavioral addictions do. Screen addiction treatment centers have been popping up in Asia for the last decade and are starting to be in the United States as well. Do you worry your child may be showing signs of screen addiction?
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“Remember, when Betty Ford first admitted she was an alcoholic, we didn’t have people believing it was actually a problem until she came around and talked about her own problems with it. This is a place for people to go for help, and that we hope will help everyone around them stop taking Internet addiction so lightly.”
Kimberly Young (founder of The Center for Internet Addiction in 1995)
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Who is to blame?
Parents
Of course, we have some accountability for what happens under our roofs. Pester power breaks us down, and we allow too much screen use even though we know better. We need a break in our overtasked, screen-saturated lives. We can’t entertain our rug rats 24-7.
Kids
They are so persistent! They CRAVE screen use and are master manipulators. Children are vulnerable to screen addiction because their brains are not fully developed, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for impulse control and decision-making. Children who suffer from trauma like bullying, divorce, and abuse, as well as from psychological vulnerabilities like ADHD, anxiety and mood disorders, and autism are particularly vulnerable.
Schools
Schools are increasingly adopting curriculums that require screen use and Internet access during classroom and homework time. Without digital literacy, our kids academically falter. If you are reading this as part of your Social Media Readiness Course, then either your parents or your school are doing an awesome job prepping you to avoid addiction issues down the line.
Big Tech
Screens are programmed to addict us. Big tech, like Google, Amazon, and Facebook, are experts in how to keep us coming back for more. Using secret computer algorithms, our online behavior is studied, collected, and aggregated. This data is used to create and deliver content in the ways our brains will effortlessly absorb it. That translates to targeted ads for clicks and money leaving our bank accounts. Big profit indeed.
The Gaming Industry
The gaming industry made 183 billion dollars last year. Multi-level, high-sensory games, like Fortnite, are intentionally programmed for addictive use. Players are rewarded for staying on and punished for getting off. This keeps kids on-screen, vulnerable to hours of autonomic overarousal. That means they burn too much brain fuel and are left fatigued and in mental brown-out.
The Government
Where is the regulation to protect kids? Are civil liberties really that strong that legislators can’t step in to help parents protect their kids against known harm like online pornography? Or is it that research and treatment organizations can’t compete with rich lobbyists who get direct access to our legislators? Did you know that the advertising budget for Budweiser alone exceeds the entire budget for research on alcoholism and all drugs of addiction?
How common is Internet Gaming Addiction?
Recent studies claim that around 1 – 5% of the US population could be classified as Internet game addicts. It is most common among single young males. Male Internet addiction most typically involves video gaming, cyber-pornography, and online gambling. Women are more likely to show addictive use patterns with social media, texting, and online shopping. IGD commonly cooccurs with depression, anxiety, AD/HD, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, oppositionality, suicidality, and personality disorders.
Other risk factors include living in the city, not living with a biological parent, low parent involvement, parent unemployment, and not having a reliable friend.
Consequences of IGD include skipping school, lower grades, family conflicts, lack of offline sociality, sleep problems, and unresolved developmental problems. These factors, along with emotional problems, often result in the addict lacking the very resources necessary to break out of the addictive cycle.
What do brain studies say?
Brain imaging studies have found brain changes like those seen in subjects with drug addictions. In other words, the more we play video games, the more our brains change and adapt.
Activation pattern changes that result in brain tissue changes are called adaptive neuroplasticity.
More specifically, subjects with video game addiction show a reduction in gray and white brain matter and reduced cortical thickness in various areas of the brain. The more the gamer plays, the more brain changes. Studies have also found evidence of dopamine release and higher activity in the brain’s pleasure center when playing video games. Heavy gamers have significantly more difficulty calming their emotions and making sound decisions than nongamers.
Thank you to CSUCI Intern, Katherine Bryan for contributing to this article. Screen addiction is real and now universally recognized. If you worry you are seeing red flags in your home, remember that screen addiction is preventable!
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
We love our Wi-Fi hotspots for Internet connectivity practically everywhere we go. But do you ever wonder if Wi-Fi radio wave exposure is dangerous? Here’s a quick and dirty GKIS crash course on the magic that is Wi-Fi, and its possible impact on the brain and body.
How Often Are We Exposed to Wi-Fi?
The average American spends eight hours and forty-one minutes a day on screen devices, with Wi-Fi-dependent mobile devices making up most of that time.[1] The demand for increased Wi-Fi availability and speed has caused nations to vastly increase production, which will ultimately increase mobile device use for all ages.
In India, for example, the government is working on a 1,050 hotspot Wi-Fi program that is estimated to cost $62 billion.[2]
What is Wi-Fi?
Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity, is a wireless technology that uses radio waves to transmit information across a two-way wireless network, information received from the Internet, and from the Wi-Fi-enabled electronic device. Smartphones have adapters that translate data into a radio signal, which is then sent to a decoder, called a router.
Every router has a unique IP address. Once the data is decoded by the router, it is first sent to the Internet through a wired Ethernet connection. Returning data from the Internet will pass through the router a second time for decoding, then on to the smartphone’s wireless adapter.[3] Wi-Fi-enabled devices include smartphones, gaming devices, tablets, printers, appliances, toys, cars, and computers.
Low- and High-Intensity Radiation
There are two kinds of radiation, ionizing and non-ionizing. Ionizing radiation is the high-intensity radiation that is emitted from x-rays and nuclear bombs that is strong enough to penetrate our cells and damage our DNA.
The radiation emitted by Wi-Fi-enabled devices is non-ionizing radiation. It is the same low-intensity radiation that is emitted by the sun. Cancer research has clearly shown that the radiation from the sun can harm you. However, the sun’s radiation is at a vastly higher level than the radiation emitted from our Wi-Fi devices.
Old smartphones used 2G, 3G, and 4G technology (ranging from 800 megahertz (MHz) to 27 gigahertz (GHz). 5G technology ranges from 600 MHz to 39 GHz. Lower radio frequencies penetrate the body more than higher radio frequencies. Current safety standards limit smartphones to a maximum of 1.6 watts per kg, which is not enough to warm the body.[4] If your smartphone gets hot, it’s the battery heating up, not the radiofrequency.
Are Wi-Fi Radio Waves Dangerous?
The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified mobile phones as a “possible carcinogen,” meaning that current research is not conclusive enough to show that cell phone radiation does or does not cause cancer.[5]
A study conducted in 2015 revealed that rats who were exposed to high levels of cell phone radiation were at higher risk for developing brain and heart tumors. However, it’s important to realize that the radiation used in this rat study was much higher than the radiation experienced when on the phone or using Wi-Fi.[6]
Other studies have shown that high levels of Wi-Fi exposure cause hormonal shifts and oxidative stress, which can promote cancer and brain diseases.[6] High exposure to Wi-Fi has also been hypothesized to cause neurodevelopmental issues and reproductive harm in humans, especially among the vulnerable like pregnant women and children.[5]
Security Risks
The ability to connect your device to the Internet via Wi-Fi has allowed us to be more productive on the go. However, utilizing unsecured Wi-Fi sources exposes us to hacking dangers.
If there are a username and password on the network, then you are using a secured network. This network can be hacked but requires more work.
An unsecured network that is free to access without a password, as you would find at your local coffee shop, is riskier. When you connect to an unsecured Wi-Fi network your device’s IP address can be seen, which is how hackers infiltrate your device. Once the hacker has infiltrated your device, they can add malware or steal personal information.
How to Limit Wi-Fi Risk
Employ common-sense safety measures like not sleeping with your phone by your bed, not storing your phone in pockets near your heart or reproductive organs, and keeping routers out of the bedroom. Also, use your headphones or a Bluetooth device if you spend many hours on your mobile phone.
Track and set limits on how many hours you spend using Wi-Fi (time management apps can help).
Use filtering, monitoring, and control apps with kids, especially to turn off phone activity while driving as we suggest in our GKIS Screen Safety Toolkit.
Develop screen-free skills by setting time and blackout day limits, like GKIS #NoTechTuesday and #NoTechThursday as we suggest in our GKIS Connect Family Course.
Only sign on to secure Wi-Fi sources.
Avoid screen fatigue by limiting multitasking.
Turn off Wi-Fi when not in use.
Most of all, disconnect and spend time with the people you love doing things that are fun and rejuvenating.
Thank you to CSUCI Intern, Dylan Smithson for tackling this challenging issue of Wi-Fi dangers. For more information about the specific risks of multitasking, check out Dr. Bennett’s GKIS article, Smartphones During Homework, Multitasking Do’s and Don’ts.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
[1] Madlen D. (2015) Average person now spends more time on their phone and laptop than sleeping, study claims
[2] Matthew H. (2017) The Indian government is spending $62 billion on Wi-Fi hotspots http://www.businessinsider.com/the-indian-government-is-spending-62-billion-on-wi-fi-hotspots-2017-1
[3] What is Wi-Fi and How Does it Work? (Sept. 2017) CCM. http://ccm.net/faq/298-what-is-wifi-and-how-does-it-workAmanda L. (2015) Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015
[6] Yüksel M, Nazıroğlu M, Özkaya MO. (2015) Long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones and Wi-Fi devices decreases plasma prolactin, progesterone, and estrogen levels but increases uterine oxidative stress in pregnant rats and their offspring. Endocrine. 2015 Nov 14.
Rob W. (2012) Internet addiction can cause physical damage to the brain, just like drugs, says researchers http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2085369/Internet-addiction-cause-physical-damage-brain-just-like-drugs-say-researchers.html
Weng, Chuan-Bo et al. (2013) Gray matter and white matter abnormalities in online game addiction European Journal of Radiology , Volume 82, Issue 8, 1308 – 1312
