Internet
"Study: Parents on Smartphones Often Ignore Kids" - Psychology Today (March 2014) and Pediatrics (March 2014)
"Multiple studies have shown atrophy (shrinkage or loss of tissue volume) in gray matter areas (where “processing” occurs) in internet/gaming addiction..." - Psychology Today (Feb 2014)
"Small private hospital in Central London, residential rehab courses for screen-addiction for children, the youngest patient so far, four-years-old …" - Raw Story (Jan 2014)
"Why my early experience in the pro-ana world led to my social media abstinence" - Psychology Today (Nov 2013)
"The Circle" scared me into going off social media -- and finally being alone with my thoughts" - Salon (Oct 2013)
"Pennsylvania psychiatric hospital first to offer 'digital detox' for patients suffering from severe internet addiction" - Daily Mail (Sept 2013)
"Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare ministry announced they would soon be opening up “internet fasting camps” for youths who engaged in excessive electronics use. Officials decided to take action after a study suggested that over a half a million children were suffering significant consequences from being tied to their screens, from depression and inattention to not eating, drinking or sleeping." - Psychology Today (Sept 2013) and New York Post (August 2013)
"Time spent on gadgets could be hampering kids' ability to connect to each other and the "real" world" - Salon (August 2013)
"Loneliness has doubled: 40 percent of adults in two recent surveys said they were lonely, up from 20 percent in the 1980s. All of our Internet interactions aren’t helping and may be making loneliness worse. A recent study of Facebook users found that the amount of time you spend on the social network is inversely related to how happy you feel throughout the day." - Slate (August 2013)
"Instagram is even more depressing than Facebook. Here’s why." - Slate (July 2013)
"Social Media, Facebook & Twitter Use May Harm Grades of College Freshman" - Psych Central (April 2013)
"A U.K. child psychologist has developed a digital detox program that treats teens and children as young as four -- weaning them off the technology dependency that he says often results in tantrums, agitation and even violence." - CTV (April 2013)
"Is Internet vigilanteism in Jodi Arias case a sign of things to come?" - Psychology Today (April 2013)
"Other research has found that young people who engage in cyberbullying have less empathy (defined as sharing another person’s emotional state) than students not involved in cyberbullying (Steffgen, Konig, Pfetsch, & Melzer, 2010)." - Psychology Today (April 2013)
"Designing Family Contracts For Technology Use" - Psychology Today (Jan 2013)
"Screen-free Holiday Challenge" - Psychology Today (Dec 2012)
"The (Non)Violent World of YouTube: Content Trends in Web Video" - Wiley Online Library (Oct 2012)
"In Lisa’s case, unfortunately, her “breaks” now spanned not just hours but entire weekends. In fact, somewhere along the line, without even realizing it, she’d joined the ranks of people I call the cybercelibate—those of us who shut out not only friendship, but even romance and physical intimacy, in favor of the rush that comes with online connection and gaming thrills. Having thrown herself into multiplayer gaming (or twitter, her other favorite haunt, where she used a pseudonym), she wasn’t spending any time with people outside of work. And as harmless as her choice might have seemed at the time, it had deep and enduring psychological consequences. " - Psychology Today (Oct 2012)
"Internet addiction even worries Silicon Valley" - Raw Story (July 2012)
"In other words, the average American spends about as much time watching TV on any given day as they spend on Facebook in an entire month. What’s more, the Nielsen data covers the entire U.S. population, whereas “only” about half the U.S. population is on Facebook. Indeed, the average American, as measured by Nielsen in the third quarter of 2011, spends only about 25 hours per month on the Internet altogether, meaning TV is still beating the interactive medium quite handily in terms of time spent." - Media Post (June 2012)
"WE live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection. At home, families sit together, texting and reading e-mail. At work executives text during board meetings. We text (and shop and go on Facebook) during classes and when we’re on dates. My students tell me about an important new skill: it involves maintaining eye contact with someone while you text someone else; it’s hard, but it can be done." - The New York Times (April 2012)
"A college student observes how technology thwarts relationships. " - Psychology Today (March 2012)
"Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?" - TED Talk (Feb 2012)
"So some parental conditions for car use may be: don't drive and drink or drug; don't drive and talk on the cell phone; don't exceed the speed limits. And just as parents have a need to know where the teenager travels in the car, they need to know where he travels on the Internet." - Psychology Today (Feb 2012)
"Last year, Rio de Janeiro saw the birth of a new type of battle in the streets of the favelas: the "Small Step Battle.” In this battle, hundreds of kids and teenagers from the poor parts of Rio are fighting with a major weapon: dance steps. Everyday, kids are posting videos of themselves performing creative and often very difficult 'funk' dance steps on YouTube. These videos are now a fever: some have millions of viewers." - DML Central (Feb 2012)
"What’s the perfect Cyber diet for your kid?" - Psychology Today (Jan 2012)
"Teenage Wasteland: A Clinician's Front-Line Look at Generation V, The Virtual Generation" - Psychology Today (August 2011)
"Turkle is concerned that teenagers' reliance on their phones and social media may leave them unable to converse effectively, to develop empathy and – just as importantly – cope with being alone or with awkward social situations by "bailing out" via their cell phones." - Guardian (July 2011)
"Sweden and the US are two countries in which increased leisure use of computers by children leads to poorer reading ability." - Science Daily (May 2011)
"With that said, a recent international study (more than 1000 students from ten countries across five continents) that asked students to disconnect from technology for 24 hours revealed results and insights that were startling, disturbing, sobering, and just a little bit hopeful. Just to give you a little taste of the findings, the adjectives most frequently associated with this period of disconnection were addiction, failure, boredom, confusion, distress, loneliness, anxiety, and depression; not one feel-good descriptor in the bunch. On a positive note, about 25 percent of the sample actually saw the benefits of unplugging." - Psychology Today (April 2011)
"Sleep and the Internet Addict" - Psychology Today (Sept 2011)
"Study: 'Hyper-Texting' Teens More Likely to Have Had Sex, Tried Drugs" - Time (Nov 2010)
"How Alcohol Companies Launched a Digital Campaign Against America's Kids" - Alternet (May 2010)
"Ever find yourself sitting down at the computer just for a second to find out what other movie you saw that actress in, only to look up and realize the search has led to an hour of Googling? Thank dopamine. Our internal sense of time is believed to be controlled by the dopamine system. People with hyperactivity disorder have a shortage of dopamine in their brains, which a recent study suggests may be at the root of the problem. For them even small stretches of time seem to drag." - Slate (Aug 2009)
"Over the course of 16 months, researchers monitored the children's time spent on the Internet, along with other areas such as academic performance—measured by GPA and standardized test scores. Across both genders, academic performance was higher for students who spent more time on the Web than those who spent less time. The effects remained consistent throughout the course of the study... Jackson, however, does not suggest a "more is better" policy when it comes to time spent on the Web. The students in her study averaged only 30 minutes a day of Internet use. "Excessive time online is likely to detract from other activities that contribute to good academic performance, as well as social and emotional development," she stresses." - Psychology Today (Oct 2007)
"This updated policy statement provides further evidence that media—both foreground and background—have potentially negative effects and no known positive effects for children younger than 2 years. Thus, the AAP reaffirms its recommendation to discourage media use in this age group. This statement also discourages the use of background television intended for adults when a young child is in the room." - AAP Policy Statement (Nov 2011) and Press Release (Nov 2011) and MedPageToday (Oct 2011) and The New York Times (Oct 2011) and Science Daily (Oct 2011) and Live Science (Oct 2011)
"For those under 2 years, screen time (e.g., TV, computer, electronic games) is not recommended. For children 2-4 years, screen time should be limited to under one hour per day; less is better." - Canadian Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines and Sedentary Behaviour Research Network (July 2011)
"Child care settings limiting screen time, including television, cell phone, or digital media, for preschoolers (aged two-five) to less than 30 minutes per day for children in half-day programs or less than one hour per day for those in full-day programs. Health care providers counseling parents and children’s caregivers to permit no more than a total of two hours per day of screen time, including television, cell phone, or digital media, for preschoolers, including time spent in child care settings and early childhood education programs." - Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (June 2011)
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Texting
"Klein Murdock wondered whether young adults experiencing stress in their relationships who, in turn, engaged in high levels of texting, would be at risk of some of the classic stress syndrome symptoms of burnout, low levels of psychological well-being, and poor sleep quality." - Psychology Today (Oct 2013)
"Kids who send text messages or use the Internet right before bed may suffer poorer sleep at night as well as mood and cognitive problems during the day, according to results of a pilot study." - MedPage Today (Nov 2010)
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Facebook
"Facebook makes teenagers depressed, anxious and unable to sleep, study finds" - Independent (Sept 2015)
""That these effects could be discerned after only 20 minutes of typical Facebook use in a laboratory setting raises concerns about how the use of the site throughout the day may impact eating disorder risk," the researchers concluded." - Mother Jones (March 2014)
"Is Facebook a particularly powerful medium to spread racist messages? That’s the disturbing implication of a newly published study. “Frequent users are particularly disposed to be influenced by negative racial messages,” psychologists Shannon Rauch and Kimberley Schanz write in the journal Computers in Human Behavior. They argue these heavy users log onto the site in search of social inclusion rather than information — and as such, they’re prone to express agreement with the material they see without thinking about it too deeply. This combination of “a need to connect and an ethos of shallow processing” creates an atmosphere conducive to the spread of racist thoughts." - Salon (March 2013) and Pacific Standard (March 2013)
"The reality is that our own lives are slowly slipping into the makeup of today’s reality television shows. Carefully crafted or scripted, our high highs and low lows are broadcast loudly to the world." - Psychology Today (Sept 2012)
"Facebook Wants Your Kids" - Psychology Today (June 2012)
"Consider this: One of my Facebook “friends” is a colleague who I really like. I only see him at conferences—at most once a year and often a lot less—and I have always found it a treat to get the chance to spend some time with him. He is interesting, funny, and a little bit enigmatic. Every time I meet him, I see a little bit of a different side to him, and unfailingly discover something new. But on Facebook, he is just an ordinary guy. It’s not that his posts are particularly annoying or mundane—sometimes they are cute or even touching or intellectually stimulating (e.g., something about his kids or an article that he found thought provoking). But, perhaps by revealing too much about himself, he’s become just an ordinary Joe. In a real-life conversation, his confession of being moved by his son’s latest exploits could be a singular or memorable moment, but the same confession on Facebook renders him no different from the other 5.6 billion parents in the world. When condensed into two-liners and posted for the whole world to see, our thoughts and feelings cease to be so special." - Psychology Today (May 2012)
"A study this year by psychology students at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga., found that the more time young people spend on Facebook, the more likely they are to have lower grades and weaker study habits. Heavy Facebook users show signs of being more gregarious, but they are also more likely to be anxious, hostile or depressed. Almost a quarter of today's teens check Facebook more than 10 times a day, according to a 2009 survey by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that monitors media's impact on families." - Psychology Today (Feb 2012)
"Facebook and Twitter 'more addictive than tobacco and alcohol'" - The Telegraph (Feb 2012) and Psychology Today (Feb 2012)
"Research over the past several years shows that heavy users of social media tend to be less happy than non-users. But a new academic study now suggests that social media tools like Facebook can also affect how we perceive the happiness of others." - Voice of America (Feb 2012)
"The more you invest in competing with your Facebook friends and trying to improve your virtual identity, the less your true self--the one you are left with when there's no Facebook or electricity--thrives and succeeds.
Which is why I made a decision to pull myself out of my own miserable situation. I quit Facebook.
(Disclaimer: I'm not completely off the network. I need it for my job, but I don't make any pictures or relevant information public. I usually post interesting articles or pictures from around the web, never anything about my personal life. I have also unsubscribed from every friend and acquaintance on my newsfeed.)
Since then, my life has changed in unspeakable ways. The feeling I have is something akin to a former addict who can now boast she has been sober for two months and counting." - Psychology Today (Dec 2011)
"A Facebook Profile for Your Toddler. Really? " - Psychology Today (Oct 2011)
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Internet Porn
"In fact, according to the results of two large-scale surveys in Japan, one in 2008, the other in 2010, the issue is not only more prevalent than one might expect, but growing. For instance, the 2008 survey found that 17.5 percent of males aged 16 to 19 stated they had no interest in or an outright aversion to sex with another person. Two years later, this percentage had more than doubled, to 36.1 percent. For males aged 20 to 24 the percentage increase was similar, up from 11.8 percent in 2008 to 21.5 percent in 2010. This rising disinterest in real-world physical intimacy coincides directly with the online porn explosion, which began in earnest right around 2008. So it appears the new reality for at least some young men is that, thanks to online porn, they are less motivated than their predecessors to seek traditional forms of in-the-flesh sexuality. And why would we expect any different when online porn guarantees young males exactly what they’re looking for in terms of intensity, distraction, control, and a nonexistent risk of rejection?" - Psychology Today (Jan 2014)
"Here in the states, urologists and psychiatrists have begun to raise the alarm about Internet porn's effects on sexual performance. " - Huffington Post (Sept 2013)
"Internet Porn: Its Problems, Perils, and Pitfalls" - Psychology Today (June 2012)
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Behavioral Addiction
"The reason a behavioral addictions like gambling and potentially others, will be recognized is because the research results (including neurological evidence) are now irrefutable. It turns out that there is a "pleasure pathway" in the brain that lights up when we experience pleasure. The body releases a combination of neurochemicals, including dopamine and the opiates, which are picked up by receptors in the brain and elsewhere in the body. These chemicals make us feel good. If a lot is released and picked up, we call it feeling "high". This high occurs through the ingestion of certain psychotropic chemicals, like alcohol, and also through behaviors and thoughts. When we "fall in love" we are high on these neurochemicals. When we enjoy playing video games or get caught up in gambling, we experience a similar euphoria. These highs are not something to be worried about, in moderation. The addiction begins to take hold, however, when we do it too much. Then the brain is forced to withdraw neuro-receptors in an effort to restore balance. This is what we call tolerance, and we no longer get the high from the same level of activity or drug use. Now, we need more. And if we go without, we go into withdrawal. In the case of behavioral addictions, that withdrawal involves primarily psychological symptoms (irritability, restlessness, poor concentration, increased anxiety and depression, etc)." - Psychology Today (Nov 2011)
"Dopamine Makes You Addicted To Seeking Information" - The W Blog (Nov 2009)
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