The technology industry has two salient goals…power and money. Big Tech gains power over users by designing its products to be addictive and makes its money by selling user data. Once people are hooked, they can be manipulated and coerced by the tech industry in a variety of ways, primarily to buy whatever it is they are selling. Video games, social media, and pornography are three of the most addictive media content produced by the tech industry that harvest user data, and there are few laws to protect the very young from being targets. The younger the child, the more vulnerable they are to tech industry manipulation and exploitation as their brains are still developing and are not mature enough to resist the lure of addictive devices. Video games, social media and pornography are not only highly addictive, but also negatively impact multiple child developmental domains including physical, mental, social, emotional and cognitive causing life-long harm to developing bodies and brains.
Screen Impact
Multiply all these negative impacts of screens on children times 2.5 billion, and you effectively have a large global population that will grow up easy to manipulate and control, easy to coerce to essentially do whatever it is the technology industry wants. Big Tech has used its persuasive power to infiltrate all levels of government (including the White House), as well as most public and private sectors. The technology industry is now virtually in charge of and controls every person on this planet. This article illustrates how the technology industry exerts its control over us and offers simple and effective solutions to fight back and regain some of what we’ve lost…our self, our family and friends, our spirit.
Just a mere 20 years ago, children were physically and mentally healthy, reasonably well behaved and able to pay attention and learn. With the onset of screen-based technologies, children have never been sicker than they are today. Sedentary, isolated, neglected, and overstimulated, today’s children struggle to survive. The ways in which we are raising and educating children with screens are not sustainable, yet this doesn’t seem to stop parent’s and teachers from pushing these devices on kids. Adults are readily handing children digital devices without supervision, regulation or any proof they are even safe. Adults don’t let children smoke, take drugs, use alcohol, drive a car etc. but do allow them unrestricted use of an equally addictive substance…screens. Adults globally are struggling with their own screen addictions and consequently are not good role models for restricting screen use by children. Spending time wondering about how we got here, to this place where we are harming children daily with screens in homes and at school, is futile. It might be more effective to shift our focus toward what we can do now to address prevalent screen overuse and addiction and strive to repair the damage and reverse the ongoing harm. Admitting we ourselves are addicted to our devices is a necessary first step.
What can you do right now, this very minute? Put your device “away for the day” and you will not only see how you are, but also how liberating and healing it is to go 24 hours without your phone, tablet, TV, laptop etc. If you’re a parent, get a lock box and plan a 24-hour unplug for your whole family…this coming Saturday. If you’re a teacher, plan a week-long unplug for your whole classroom or school. Measure something and journal about your experience. On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy were you when you put away the devices? Did you sleep better, have less conflict, better conversations, feel less depressed or anxious, go outside more, move more, think more clearly, have better attention and learning, were more productive?
Preparatory steps in planning a ‘tech unplug’ might be to consider why you got addicted in the first place. Video games are particularly attractive to those who are curious, like a challenge and are drawn to fighting. Video games satisfy an innate human desire for conflict and aggression but also make us more conflict driven and aggressive, as evidenced by increased mass shootings and domestic violence. Humans are ‘pack animals’ who enjoy socializing and being with each other. The problem with ‘all breath and no depth’ social media design is that it is isolating us from those we love the most and consequently takes us further and further away from what we were seeking, to be ‘social’. Humans scroll and click and keep looking for love in all the wrong places but never find it, perpetuating what the tech industry wants, social media addiction. Pornography satisfies the human need for novelty and eroticism. Masturbating to an endless supply of different and increasingly perverse subjects now trumps real relationships, which are often fraught with disappointment and stress. As pornography is the most potent and intense screen stimuli, it is the most addictive of the big 3. Video gamers are routinely subjected to porn, at increasingly younger ages, making this screen addiction one of the hardest to address. Take the Screen Addiction Trajectory Quiz to see the pervasive effects on your life and what you can do about it.
As the technology industry grows stronger and richer by making users addicted to video games, social media, and porn, so does the pharmaceutical industry. The consumption of drugs including stimulants, sedatives, antidepressants, anti-anxiety, antipsychotics, erectile enhancement, etc. to heal the woes caused by the tech industry has never been higher than today. Prescription of these dangerous drugs as a ‘quick fix’ is rapidly becoming the norm, and the children who get these drugs are younger and younger. Human brains and bodies were not designed for long-term psychotropic drug use, and side effects are frequently misinterpreted as ‘worsening’ or even a ‘new’ mental illness, which then requires more or new drugs. Children are receiving adult diagnoses (depression, anxiety) and adults are receiving child diagnoses (adhd, autism) leading to even more drug use.
We are in a mess. Getting clear on the fact that we all are addicted to some degree to our screens is imperative. Only then, can we take necessary steps toward addressing our own addictions, as well as pointing the liability finger at the technology industry as the causal factor. Just like the tobacco industry, the technology industry needs to step up to the plate and allocate a portion of their profits to repair damage caused by their products. If you work at an institution such as a school, have your IT purchaser approach its tech supplier demanding reparation efforts prior to any further tech purchases. A new playground, fit core centre, gym equipment, books, etc. would effectively reverse damage caused by screens. Financial reparation, not lengthy litigation is a more efficient and effective method toward creating a better and sustainable life for children, free from screen addictions, able to go outside and play again.
United we must stand, because divided we will fall. In this time of uncertainty, finding commonalities that bring us together as a unified force, will serve us well in the future. Talk to your family, friends, coworkers and plan a ‘tech unplug’ together. A common goal we can all adopt is to demand the tech industry take responsibility for past harms. We are consumers of a product that is harming children, so let’s start by not consuming. Do we really need the next tech upgrade? Whether you are a parent, teacher, clinician or worker, speak with your pocketbook by stopping purchase of tech products. Refuse to use. It’s the way forward.
As paediatric occupational therapist working in the area of screen addictions for over 30 years, I have created numerous resources to help families and schools get back on a healthy path. Check out the Resource section on my website www.ReconnectWebinars.com. To book a consultation session, see www.CrisRowan.com.
