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Addiction & Rehab
A Day at the First Video Game Rehab Clinic in the US
By Jagger Gravning June 18, 2014
Heavensfield, the name of the five acre, ranch-like estate home to Dr. Hilarie Cash's reSTART, the first in-patient treatment facility devoted exclusively to video game and internet addiction.
The young men who come here, often at the behest of their families, for video game addiction as a primary issue often wind up needing to be treated for porn addiction as a secondary issue. In fact, video game addicts are screened when they arrive at reSTART to determine whether porn addiction is actually the primary problem. The two maladies are linked, not only because you can access them both, video games and naked women, through your computer, but also in how they stimulate and sometimes entrap the brain.
Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption
The Brain on Porn
By Simone Kühn, PhD; Jürgen Gallinat, PhD JAMA Psychiatry. 2014;71(7):827-834. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.93.
Results: We found a significant negative association between reported pornography hours per week and gray matter volume in the right caudate as well as with functional activity during a sexual cue-reactivity paradigm in the left putamen. Functional connectivity of the right caudate to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was negatively associated with hours of pornography consumption.
Detox & Unplugging
Social Media's Vampires: They Text by Night
Vamping Teenagers Are Up All Night Texting
By Laura M Holson July 3, 2014 New York Times
Owen Lanahan's parents demand that his cellphone be stored in the kitchen by 10 p.m., but sometimes he sneaks it into his bedroom. That's because he considers late-night hours his "me" time. Does his mother get upset? "Yeah," he said. "She asks me to go to bed at 10 p.m. If the lights are on she comes in two or three times."
Ms. Lanahan, Owen's mother, said she once got up in the middle of the night for a glass of water and noticed that her son's laptop was missing from the hallway bench. That was the first time she found her son in bed, the sheets pitched like a tent, with his laptop and some music equipment. She even bought Owen an old-style Timex clock so he wouldn't use his cellphone as an alarm.
"All parents are struggling with this," Ms. Lanahan said.
Zack Morris on Tech Etiquette
By David Ryan Polgar
"See, that's the problem. You're always on that stupid phone." -Zack Morris
We all know his brick-phone, but we may have forgotten Zack's guidance on Bayside to put down our phones and connect.
An iPhone app that keeps you off your iPhone
July 14, 2014 on www.purewow.com
Pop quiz: iPhones or hugs?
The apps like a really firm bartender who will totally cut you off.
Need a little more convincing? Consider this factoid: The average American checks her phone 150 times a day. That's more than we've hugged our loved ones in the past month.
Disconnect to Connect
By Christine Gross-Loh July 4, 2014 for www.fearlessparent.org
Last month we returned to Japan, where we used to live, for the summer. After so many months being constantly online, I was in for a shock. Here, I can only use my phone with wi-fi service, and we only have wi-fi in one room of our home. Even there, the signal is spotty. Random email checks, text messages, checking Twitter or FB, looking up a recipe online, or making a Skype call can't ever be done instantly. They now take patience and effort and are sometimes even simply impossible.
Human Trafficking
Children Allegedly Sold By Parents To Buy In-Game Virtual Items
By Daniel George July 15, 2014 for www.gamesided.com
It goes to show that extreme video game addiction to the point of child neglect is not strictly a North American concept; it's a terrible atrocity committed around the world. Sina Games has reported that a couple in China have been accused of selling two of their children to human traffickers, with the intent to use their money for gaming.
Social Media & Mobile Technology
The Third Wheel: The Impact of Twitter Use on Relationship Infidelity and Divorce
Clayton Russell B. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. July 2014, 17(7): 425-430. doi:10.1089/cyber.2013.0570. Published in Volume: 17 Issue 7: July 3, 2014
The purpose of this study was to examine how social networking site (SNS) use, specifically Twitter use, influences negative interpersonal relationship outcomes. This study specifically examined the mediational effect of Twitter-related conflict on the relationship between active Twitter use and negative relationship outcomes, and how this mechanism may be contingent on the length of the romantic relationship.
B.C. kids under-reporting cyberbullying, survey says
By Elaine O'Connor July 11, 2014 in The Province
90% of parents surveyed thought their kids would tell them if they were cyberbullied, yet only 8% of youth do so.
Think your teen is just sexting?
By Rob Goodier July 3, 2014 in The Globe and Mail
Youth who sent or received sexually explicit photos or text messages, were 3-7 times more likely to be sexually active, and 30% said the last time they had sex, it was unprotected.
U.K. researchers to study whether cellphones affect brain development
By Kate Kelland May 20, 2014
British researchers are launching the largest study in the world to investigate whether using mobile phones and other wireless gadgets might affect children's brain development.
Educational Technology
Tech CEOs Request Billions For School Wi-Fi
Blake Neff July 8, 2014 for Daily Caller News Foundation.
A group of tech leaders is urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to spend billions expanding access to wireless Internet in the nation's schools and libraries.
The group of 41 leaders, which includes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Star Wars director George Lucas sent a letter to the FCC on Monday encouraging them to ratify a proposed plan by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler that would allocate $5 billion to expand the government's E-Rate program to put Wi-Fi in as many schools as possible.
Some groups say the entire endeavor is misguided, however.
"Expanding the E-Rate Program, spending more money on technology, will almost certainly have very little if any effect on educational outcomes," Neal McCluskey, an education analyst with the Cato Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Step Away From The Keyboard: How Our Hands Affect Our Brains
Does it matter whether you type, print, or write in cursive?
By Nancy Darling July 4, 2014 for www.psychologytoday.com
One of the advantages of moving away from the keyboard and doing something that requires greater flexibility in how we use our hands is that it also requires greater flexibility in how we use our brains. This, in turn, requires our brains to develop in new ways.
Texting helps, not hinders children's grammar and spelling, study says
Compiled by Nicole Shepard June 28, 2014
Children and teenagers using "text speak" while texting score higher on spelling and grammar tests than those who don't, a study says.
Why you should take notes by hand - not on a laptop
By Joseph Stromberg June 4, 2014
Walk into a college lecture these days and you'll see legions of students sitting behind glowing screens, pecking away at keyboards.
It's not just because internet-connected laptops are so distracting. It's because even if students aren't distracted, the act of taking notes on a computer actually seems to interfere with their ability to remember information.
Refuse to Use Movement
Refuse to Use is a world-wide Movement by responsible and futuristic thinking parents and teachers to ban all school-based technology for children under 12 years of age, and bring back tried and true methods of teaching.
Tools & Techniques
The Billy Goats Gruff in My Living Room
By Stephen Spitalny July 12, 2014 for Chamakanda Blogs
Stories can be powerful tools for teaching, healing and transformation. When there is a behavior in your young child that you would like to see changed, an effective tool can be a story that portrays the challenge and an outcome you'd like to see.
Increase strength and mood
By Erik Peper June 22, 2014 for www.peperperspective.com
Body posture is part of our nonverbal communication; it sometimes projects how we feel. We may collapse when we receive bad news or jump up with joy when we achieve our goal. More and more we sit collapsed for many hours with our spine in flexion. We crane our heads forward to read text messages, a tablet, a computer screen or watch TV. Our bodies collapse when we think hopeless, helpless, powerless thoughts, or when we are exhausted. We tend to slouch and feel "down" when depressed.
Miscellaneous
This Is The Personality Trait That Most Often Predicts Success
By Drake Baer April 30, 2014
The only major personality trait that consistently leads to success is conscientiousness.
"It's emerging as one of the primary dimensions of successful functioning across the lifespan," Paul Tough writes in "How Children Succeed" "It really goes cradle to grave in terms of how people do."
The sleep diet - try it, it really works!
By Drs. Oz And Roizen July 11, 2014 in The Province
70% of school aged kids get eight or less hours of sleep a night, while they need several hours more. Guess what they are doing instead of sleeping?
Transit Police eye mental-health strategy
By Frank Luba July 15, 2014 in The Province
Over the past one year, B.C. Transit Police report a 20% increase in calls regarding problems related to persons with mental health issues. Problems cited were in the Disturbed Person or Attempted Suicide categories.
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