{"id":801,"date":"2016-10-02T08:10:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-02T13:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/?p=801"},"modified":"2016-10-02T08:10:54","modified_gmt":"2016-10-02T13:10:54","slug":"its-digital-heroin-how-screens-turn-kids-into-psychotic-junkies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/its-digital-heroin-how-screens-turn-kids-into-psychotic-junkies\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s ‘digital heroin’: How screens turn kids into psychotic junkies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Susan* bought her 6-year-old son John an iPad when he was in first grade. \u201cI thought, \u2018Why not let him get a jump on things?\u2019 \u201d she told me during a therapy session. John\u2019s school had begun<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source: It’s ‘digital heroin’: How screens turn kids into psychotic junkie<\/a><\/em>August 27, 2016 |<\/span> 7:54pm<\/p>\n

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We now know that those iPads, smartphones and Xboxes are a form of digital drug. Recent brain imaging research is showing that they affect the brain\u2019s frontal cortex \u2014 which controls executive functioning, including impulse control \u2014 in exactly the same way that cocaine does. Technology is so hyper-arousing that it raises dopamine levels \u2014 the feel-good neurotransmitter most involved in the addiction dynamic \u2014 as much as sex.<\/p>\n

This addictive effect is why Dr. Peter Whybrow, director of neuroscience at UCLA, calls screens \u201celectronic cocaine\u201d and Chinese researchers call them \u201cdigital heroin.\u201d In fact, Dr. Andrew Doan, the head of addiction research for the Pentagon and the US Navy \u2014 who has been researching video game addiction \u2014 calls video games and screen technologies \u201cdigital pharmakeia\u201d (Greek for drug).<\/p>\n

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Susan* bought her 6-year-old son John an iPad when he was in first grade. \u201cI thought, \u2018Why not let him get a jump on things?\u2019 \u201d she told me during a therapy session. John\u2019s school had begun Source: It’s ‘digital heroin’: How screens turn kids into psychotic junkieAugust 27, 2016 | 7:54pm   We now … Continue reading It’s ‘digital heroin’: How screens turn kids into psychotic junkies<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":803,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions\/803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}