Digital Addiction: Stronger Than Heroin

[Hervé]

Kids turn violent as parents battle 'digital heroin' addiction (http://nypost.com/2016/12/17/kids-turn-violent-as-parents-battle-digital-heroin-addiction/)

Dr. Nicholas Kardaras New York Post (http://nypost.com/2016/12/17/kids-turn-violent-as-parents-battle-digital-heroin-addiction/) Sat, 17 Dec 2016 00:00 UTC


https://www.sott.net/image/s18/365046/large/kidcomputer.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s18/365046/full/kidcomputer.jpg)
© Getty Images


Experienced sailors, Barbara McVeigh and her husband exposed their children to the natural beauty near their home in Marin County, Calif. — boating, camping and adventuring in the great outdoors. None of this stopped her 9-year-old son from falling down the digital rabbit hole.

His first exposure to screens occurred in first grade at a highly regarded public school — named one of California's "Distinguished Schools" — when he was encouraged to play edu-games after class. His contact with screens only increased during play dates where the majority of his friends played violent games on huge monitors in their suburban homes.

The results for Barbara's son were horrific: Her sweet boy, who had a "big spirit" and loved animals, now only wanted to play inside on a device.

"He would refuse to do anything unless I would let him play his game," she said. Barbara, who had discarded her TV 25 years ago, made the mistake of using the game as a bargaining tool.

Her son became increasingly explosive if she didn't acquiesce. And then he got physical. It started with a push here, then a punch there. Frightened, she tried to take the device away. And that's when it happened: "He beat the s - t out of me," she told me.

When she tried to take his computer away, he attacked her "with a dazed look on his face — his eyes were not his." She called the police. Shocked, they asked if the 9-year-old was on drugs.

He was — only his drugs weren't pharmaceutical, they were digital.

In August, I wrote a piece about "digital heroin" for the New York Post (http://nypost.com/2016/08/27/its-digital-heroin-how-screens-turn-kids-into-psychotic-junkies/?_ga=1.13533175.1336544492.1479212076), and the response was explosive. More than 3 million readers devoured and shared the piece — though not everyone agreed on its message. Some readers felt that the notion of comparing screens and video games to heroin was a huge exaggeration.

I understand that initial response, but the research says otherwise. Over 200 peer-reviewed studies correlate excessive screen usage with a whole host of clinical disorders, including addiction. Recent brain-imaging research confirms that glowing screens affect the brain's frontal cortex — which controls executive functioning, including impulse control — in exactly the same way that drugs like cocaine and heroin do. Thanks to research from the US military, we also know that screens and video games can literally affect the brain like digital morphine.

In a series of clinical experiments, a video game called "Snow World" served as an effective pain killer for burned military combat victims, who would normally be given large doses of morphine during their painful daily wound care. While the burn patient played the seemingly innocuous virtual reality game "Snow World" — where the player attempts to throw snowballs at cartoon penguins as they bounce around to Paul Simon music — they felt no pain.

I interviewed Lt. Sam Brown, one of the pilot participants in this research who had been injured by an IED in Afghanistan and who had sustained life-threatening third-degree burns over 30 percent of his body. When I asked him about his experience using a video game for pain management, he said: "I was a little bit skeptical. But honestly, I was willing to try anything." When asked what it felt like compared to his morphine treatments, he said, "I was for sure feeling less pain than I was with the morphine."

Sure enough, brain imaging research confirmed that burn patients who played "Snow World" experienced less pain in the parts of their brain associated with processing pain than those treated with actual morphine.

The Navy's head of addiction research, Cmdr. Dr. Andrew Doan, calls screens "digital pharmakeia" (Greek for pharmaceuticals), a term he coined to explain the neurobiological effects produced by video technologies.

While this is a wonderful advance in pain-management medicine, it begs the question: Just what effect is this digital drug — a narcotic more powerful than morphine — having on the brains and nervous systems of 7-year-olds addicted to their glowing screens?

If screens are indeed digital drugs, then schools have become drug dealers. Under misguided notions that they are "educational," the entire classroom landscape has been transformed over the past 10 years into a digital playground that includes Chromebooks, iPads, Smart Boards, tablets, smartphones, learning apps and a never-ending variety of "edu-games."

These so-called "edu-games" are digital Trojan horses — chock-full of the potential for clinical disorders. We've already seen ADHD rates explode by over 50 percent the past 10 years as a whole generation of screen-raised kids succumb to the malaise-inducing glow. Using hyper-stimulating digital content to "engage" otherwise distracted students creates a vicious and addictive ADHD cycle: The more a child is stimulated, the more that child needs to keep getting stimulated in order to hold their attention.

Research also indicates that retention rates are lower on screens than on paper and that schools without electronics report higher test scores. And then there's Finland. A standard bearer of international excellence in education, Finland rejected screens in the classroom. According to Krista Kiuru, their minister of education and science, Finnish students didn't need laptops and iPads to get to the top of the international education rankings and aren't interested in using them to stay there.

Yet in the US, there is a national effort to give kids screens at younger and younger ages as parents worry that their little ones may somehow be "left behind" in the education technology arms race — the data be damned.

But not all parents are drinking the screens-are-wonderful Kool-Aid — some are fighting back.

Cindy Eckard, a Maryland mother of two, is launching a grassroots campaign to create legislation to limit screen time in schools and is testifying in front of a state Senate subcommittee hearing this month.

"I was shocked to learn that the Maryland State Department of Education had no medically sound health guidelines in place before they put so many of our children in front of a computer every day . . . The schools keep encouraging more screen time in the classroom without any regard for our children's well-being," Eckard told me. "Our children are owed a safe classroom environment, and right now they're not getting one."

Some parents are opting out of public schools for less technology-dependent schools. Many Silicon Valley engineers and executives, for example, put their kids in non-tech Waldorf schools.

Others, like longtime educator and consultant Debra Lambrecht, have decided to create new tech-free school models. Debra has created the Caulbridge School, a distinctly "Finnish-style" school that is intended to serve as a template for future schools throughout the country.

"The argument for technology in the earlier grades is often rooted in the fear of children falling behind. It is true that most children will use technology in their jobs and everyday life. It is also true that most children will learn to drive a car," Lambrecht said. "Certainly we would not give a 7-year-old child the car keys to give them a jump-start to be a more skillful driver. In the same way, we want to ensure children can effectively use technology as a tool and will bring all of their best thinking, creativity and innovation to bear."

A Long Island mother recently contacted me because her 5-year-old son in kindergarten was going to be forced by the school to use an iPad. When she complained and threatened to pull her son out of school, her school district threatened to call child protective services. I spoke to her school's superintendent, and he agreed to let her son opt out of using an iPad. But all the other kindergartners still need to use iPads for standardized-testing purposes. That Long Island mother has already reached out to her local legislators.

That seems to be the key. Parents need to educate themselves, find their voices and speak up. If enough parents organize, push for legislation and put pressure on their schools to limit screen time in school — as well as to delay the grade levels that screens are introduced into the classroom — then we might have a chance to slow down this digital epidemic.

Indeed, even the respected AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) has just this month modified their screen recommendations suggesting more tech-cautious guidelines: Children younger than 18 months, no digital media; ages 2 to 5, no more than one hour daily, to be "co-viewed" with parents.

But many, myself included, think these recommendations still don't go far enough. Because of what we know about screens as "digital heroin," I believe that kids below the age of 10 should have no interaction with interactive screens (iPads, smartphones, Xbox). There should be warning labels on such interactive screens that read: "Excessive Screen Usage by Children May Lead to Clinical Disorders."

Meanwhile, back in Marin County, Barbara pulled her son out of his suburban tech-filled public school and enrolled him in a more rural, less tech-oriented school. So far, she's seen huge improvements in his behavior.

She just found out last week that all fourth-graders in her son's new school will begin learning the increasingly popular skill of "coding" to design video games. Even in this rural hamlet school, kids were allowed to play violent video games indoors rather than having to go outside to play during recess.

She is now hoping to get political about this issue and to reach out to legislators to end the digital madness in elementary schools. "I am prepared to go to war with our public education over technology use. This is wrong," Barbara said with the determined voice of a mother fighting for her child's life.

"I feel like there is a war going on against our children," Barbara said. "And it's come so fast that we're not even questioning it."
On August 28, The Post published a piece by Dr. Nicholas Kardaras,"The Frightening Effects of Digital Heroin," (http://nypost.com/2016/08/27/its-digital-heroin-how-screens-turn-kids-into-psychotic-junkies/) that was based on his book "Glow Kids." (https://www.amazon.com/Glow-Kids-Addiction-Hijacking-Kids/dp/1250097991?tag=nypost-20?tag=nypost-20?tag=nypost-20) In it, he argued that young children exposed to too much screen time are at risk of developing an addiction "harder to kick than drugs." The response was overwhelming, generating more than 3.3 million views on The Post's website and hundreds of letters from anxious parents. Now Dr. Kardaras writes about this parental revolt against digital heroin and reminds readers of the worst effects of the obsession.

Dr. Nicholas Kardaras is executive director of The Dunes East Hampton, one of the country's top rehabs. His book "Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids — and How to Break the Trance (https://www.amazon.com/Glow-Kids-Addiction-Hijacking-Kids/dp/1250097991?tag=nypost-20?tag=nypost-20)" (St. Martin's Press) is out now.

[Bill Ryan]

.
This is important. Herve's post is 8 minutes old, and I'm bumping it already. :highfive:

:bump:

[greybeard]

I could not agree more.
The OP is spot on.
Thanks Herve

Chris

[Daughter of Time]

This brings to mind something I read over 20 years ago which I never forgot. It was an interview with Dr. Timothy Leary sometime in the early '90s, if I remember correctly.

For those who may not know, Timothy Leary was a psychologist who experimented with, lectured on, and greatly defended the use of psychedelic drugs, especially LSD. His reason for defending LSD was because the drug expanded your mind.

Since LSD's use mostly went out with the hippie era, Dr. Leary was asked in this interview what the drug of the future might be. He answered "computers!"

He went on to say, and I'm paraphrasing here, something to the effect that while LSD was a drug for the few, computers would become the drug for the many, and in many ways, they would be far more addictive than any psychedelic drug because it would be far easier to buy since they're legal, far easier to take since one can use computers and seemingly function in day to day life and the user would not realize they had an addiction until the addiction completely took over their minds.

I didn't believe him at the time. I felt computers would be quite lame in comparison to LSD. It would seem I was wrong!

[wegge]

This reminds me of something I learned recently.
I´m getting an education in Somatic Experiencing (http://traumahealing.org/), an bodily approach to resolve trauma.

So fast forward, when people due to an incident or many,they feel their body is no longer a safe habitat,
they can dissociate of parts or almost completely from their body.

And then they tend to avoid activities in the real world, that would put their nervous system into higher gear, and thus might bring back flashbacks from the trauma.
So, when we talk about game addiction, asuming there is some action, they still feel a bit of the thrill of this action but it´s safer for them, because it´s kind of outsourced
from their body into the digital world.

[Whiskey_Mystic]

I spent more than twenty years in computer game development. Companies like Broderbound, EA, and Zynga. A key component of game design is to trigger the brain to release small serotonin hits. Just enough to keep the player chasing the next one. We did not invent this. Casinos have been doing it for a very long time.

So, video game addiction is not a myth. It's the goal.

And it is not just kids. My audience when I worked on Farmville was women aged 35-55. One of them spent $80,000 on that game. I wanted to tell her she could buy a real farm for that.

Here is a recent article from SFGATE, the online arm of the San Francisco Chronicle.

A California man steals $5 million, spends $1 million on 'Game of War' cellphone game
www.sfgate.com


http://www.sfgate.com/aboutsfgate/article/A-California-man-steals-5-million-spends-1-10790647.php

Games aren't all bad. They are good entertainment. I worked on games with Stan and Jan Berenstain -The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight taught conflict resolution. I worked on Dr. Seuss titles with Audrey Geisel. But the industry has changed. We used to make art that we were proud of. Once the money men figured out that the game business was larger than the motion picture industry, everything changed and now the casino model has taken over many aspects of the industry. That's why I left. Well, I was actually kinda squeezed out because I resisted this change.

[Catsquotl]

Anyone who has checked their posts to see if it was thanked can relate to the addictive nature of a useless activity that somehow gives a possitive addictive feedback loop.

With Love
Eelco

[wegge]

Anyone who has checked their posts to see if it was thanked can relate to the addictive nature of a useless activity that somehow gives a possitive addictive feedback loop.

With Love
Eelco

or when you´ve conditioned yourself to your phone´s ringtone and there´s something happening inside you when you hear it.

[avid]

Having been 'deprived' of the internet and telephone recently for almost a month, the severance was horrendous, then I realised it was addictive, with sleepless withdrawal symptoms, panic attacks et al. I went to great lengths to achieve 'contact' by sitting in a Tesco's cafe using their wi-fi every week, a 20 mile round trip.
My grandson is online gaming most of his spare time, despite swimming training, extra tutoring and begrudging trips out with the dog. A young belligerent teenager he is becoming a violent, tantrum-throwing chap when deprived of digital gaming.
Very disturbing, parents not backing each other up to insist on rules, timing etc.
Who knows what's being shoved into these young minds, violence, no empathy, greed, selfishness...
We have to curtail their access to reasonable levels, and monitor the games industry more closely.
It's cathartic to 'pull the plug' on a regular basis.

[Hervé]

Anyone who has checked their posts to see if it was thanked can relate to the addictive nature of a useless activity that somehow gives a possitive addictive feedback loop.

With Love
Eelco

Yep:

Re-post from here:
[...]


No Statistics for Inner Poverty (http://henrymakow.com/2016/12/no-statistics-for-inner.html)

by Henry Makow Ph.D.
(Updated and revised from May 18, 2014)
Re-post: December 17, 2016


http://henrymakow.com/upload_images/addicted.jpeg


Most of us are beggars and feel-good junkies, addicted to society to make us happy.

"They are but beggars that can't count their own worth."
― with apologies to William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet


Excellent records are kept for material poverty.
For example, 16% of Americans live below the poverty line which is $24K for a family of four, This includes almost 20% of American children.

However, a more serious epidemic is sweeping the nation: inner poverty.

While I estimate 95% of the population lives below the spiritual poverty line, this squalor garners absolutely no attention.

Inner poverty is a spiritual vacuum at the core of our being. Its symptoms are a sense of emptiness, sadness, meaninglessness and lack of direction. It's like the soul has gone AWOL.

What do people want?

We want to feel good.

How do we know if we are spiritually impoverished? We need the world to make us feel good.

We´re addicted to getting "fixes" like drug addicts.

INDICATORS OF SPIRITUAL IMPOVERISHMENT
Love or sex addiction.
You catch a glimpse of a beautiful creature in the distance and imagine a life of bliss together if only... You see a couple strolling hand-in-hand and feel envious..

Stinginess.
Why are so many well-off people so stingy? They feel poor.

Schadenfreude.
You derive some satisfaction or comfort from the misfortune of others.


http://henrymakow.com/upload_images/sflike.jpg
(Sally Field)


We desperately seek recognition, acceptance and encouragement to feel good. This may take the form of sales, "likes," followers," "smiles,' or hits. One young friend was despondent because he texted three girls about "hanging out" and none replied.

Money makes us euphoric or miserable. We measure our day in terms of how much we made or lost. Another friend was burned up because potential clients were waffling. He had done work on spec for a client who wasn't even answering his emails.

We've been programmed to be beggars, feel-good junkies, addicted to the world to make us happy.

As a result, we feel like beggars. How can we stop?

HOW TO STOP FEELING LIKE A BEGGAR
Beggar behavior is habitual; these habits are ingrained, programmed by society, and very difficult to change.

The key to not feeling like a beggar is to stop acting like one.

Check your stocks just once a day instead of every five minutes.

If you can't do this, sell them all. Thoreau said, "We are rich in the number of things we can let alone."

Check your email or Face Book just 2-3 times a day.

Give. Encouragement. Money. Help. People in beggar-mode never give. Giving destroys this programming.

Mortify yourself to the world.

In religious terms, this means renounce the world. You refuse to gain your primary happiness from any other source but God, i.e. your soul connection.


http://henrymakow.com/upload_images/solitude.jpeg

You become indifferent to praise or blame except your own. It's funny that we place so much value on other peoples' opinion, and so little on our own. We make so much effort to gain respect from others, and so little effort earning our own. We need to learn to make ourselves feel good. Enjoy your Self. What an art that is.



We've been programmed to deny ourselves and conform to others. We have been programmed to disdain ourselves, to feel inadequate.

We need to reprogram ourselves, whether by constant prayer, meditation or by repeating affirmations. The mind is like a steering wheel. If we don't control it, someone else will.

We get a temporary thrill when the world puts a nickel in our cup, but the mind soon needs another "fix."

The organ of "feeling" is the soul not the mind. The soul is the entity that hears the thoughts. Our feelings usually correspond to thoughts. If we still the mind, as in meditation, we can experience the soul. Thus, the soul should determine the thoughts, not the world. Think uplifting thoughts. That's what faith is about.

CONCLUSION
The key is submitting mind to soul. We need to transfer our sense of self from the thoughts to the soul (http://henrymakow.com/2015/01/Thinking%20-is-a-Bad-Habit%20.html). Soul is the real Self. Soul, our connection to God, is our real identity.

We need to be Self-possessed. Self-controlled. Self-directed. Self-motivated. Self-sufficient. i.e. God-centered. By Self, I mean soul, not ego. Loving God is really loving your own essence.

People will treat you like you treat ("serve") your Self, our true identity and path.

Beyond the necessities, we don't need anything from the world. If we live within our means, we can turn our focus inward. We don't have to be beggars.


---
Note: Those interested in learning more about this approach can check out Eckhart Tolle's YouTubes and books.

Related - Makow -
How's Your Inner Beggar? (http://www.henrymakow.com/hows_your_inner_beggar.html)
Thinking is a Bad Habit (http://henrymakow.com/2015/01/Thinking%20-is-a-Bad-Habit%20.html)
Cohabiting With a Monkey
(http://henrymakow.com/cohabiting_with_a_monkey.html)

First Comment from Jim:
This is the very reason I closed my Facebook account.

I was very reluctant but my mother badgered me into joining FB, so I did. And it didn't take long for it to consume me.

I would rush home, log in, and read what people said about my latest post... or didn't say.

If there were no comments or 'likes', I was crushed. My day was ruined.

One day I had an epiphany. I had become an attention-seeking whore, or a beggar as you put it. I realized that constant pursuit of everyone's approval, rather than just living my life, was damaging to me.

Certainly, there are times when we need to be affirmed and advised by the people we respect but their opinions shouldn't be the guiding force in our lives.

===============================================

Now... where the hell has that inner poverty been inculcated into one? ... beside being hopeless sinner or infidel or goyim or... which leads to spiritual capitalism and the hoarding of brownie points (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_points)...


PS: See this post (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?94731-Fake-News-and-the-War-on-Freedom-and-Truth&p=1121274&viewfull=1#post1121274) (<---) also.

[Catsquotl]

It's cathartic to 'pull the plug' on a regular basis.

I agree, although it is only that if you "do it to yourself" so to speak. Imposing the experience on someone else will usually reap different results.

With Love
Eelco

[joeecho]

Addiction: Get them while they are young.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/05/05/10/33DBA12500000578-0-image-m-14_1462440894976.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/89/a1/c3/89a1c32da230be7106e71c5e9728c91f.jpg

(Sometimes humor helps tells the story just as well as the somber type)

All I can say is....

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/01/01f4b17aa91d13701a8aa7a038d0457414813564b14b12402f4b8c4e30cb483e.jpg

[shaberon]

I'd say it was all somewhat debatable, mitigatable until the advent of portable devices.

In my personal odyssey, by the time I was twelve, I realized I had been sucked into cable tv and Atari, and I axed it from my existence. I was very reluctant to get a pc as an adult--mostly badgered by someone else to do it. It remained a pretty small part of my life, but, through the years, I feel like I got cornered into excessive use, because all the "regular" things of life simply got swept away. Sometimes I don't post here for a week or two, mostly because of desperately trying to get back into 3D activities.

When I was working at a place and had closing duties, at the end of the day when going to lock up, the co-workers would regroup for a brief conversation before leaving. But once they all were getting smart phones, it turned into: shut up and press some buttons. Not even wait a few more minutes until everything was done; just kill the conversation and ignore everyone around you and phone away. And that was what...roughly ten, fifteen years ago now? At this point, it seems like there's no one left to talk to or do anything with.

I'm not sure that narcotics would be the best alternative, but, note for note, I'd rate acid heads miles above such a digital addict. LSD was still around until 2000ish when they shut down that missile silo in Kansas that made 90% of the world's supply, so, to my perception at least, the end of acid/launch of smart phones was contemporaneous.

I really don't know how to countermand this stuff in any peaceful kind of way...

[ponda]

It might depend on what/how you are using the digital interface for. You can learn a lot these days by looking at a computer screen. Like all things, technology can be a useful tool or a distraction.


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/52/5e/2b/525e2b059b47d71559bbbb90d08a9d6e.jpg

[joeecho]

When I step back and view this from a wider viewpoint it reminds me of an assimilation initiative. Perhaps to begin to trust certain digital information while rejecting the information shared heart-to-heart. Could it be that gaming is the equivalent to a gateway drug and even more so to the electronic educational games for the very young? Pandora's box applies.

[Selene]

When I worked with the horrendous problems of crack-addicted street hookers in my fair city - people who would do utterly anything to sustain their addictions – I maintained, in the face of expert opinion to the contrary, that addiction has much less to do with your character or willpower than it does with our human neurology.

The addiction is like a nuclear weapon: it doesn’t care who you are, how you feel, what kind of parents or upbringing, trauma etc you’ve had.

It cares only for the control of your brain.

The sooner that we recognize the overwhelming power of addictive material, the sooner we will be able to address its treatment. It’s not about you, or your willpower. It’s about overwhelming force.

And anyone who thinks “I’m stronger than this, I’m exempt …” is delusional. We are all at risk for something.

I am so very happy to see this discussion.

Regards,

Selene

[joeecho]

A difficult thing about child addiction is that they have it before they have a chance to understand it's significance. Once ingrained, try telling a child that too much gaming (for example) isn't in their best interest.

How does one stem the digital tide for their child when their peers, friends, siblings, and parents are all on digital conTRAPtions?

http://boardofwisdom.com/cachetogo/images/quotes/205.png

[Selene]

I recall a conversation I had in Bern, Switzerland back in the late 1980’s. The woman was telling me about the horrific and growing problem in Bern of heroin addiction – and they were stymied.

I thought: WTF? The ‘conventional wisdom’ says that drug addiction is caused by poverty, social inequality, trauma, weak sense of self, lack of nurture, etc etc. Get a life, and a therapist, in other words.

But the population of Bern didn’t meet any of those criteria: Switzerland is quite uniquely prosperous and homogenous, with stable middle-class families and homogenous cultural values, good prospects, good medical, arts and education for all, a solid work ethic, tradition, etc. Nothing that ought to be the source of an epidemic. Switzerland was quite literally the last place on earth that ought to have an addiction problem.

That’s when I began to wonder: What is addiction, really?

Regards,

Selene

[The Freedom Train]

That’s when I began to wonder: What is addiction, really?

IMO - a mixture of blanket mind control programming, targeted psychotronic manipulations, and possession (demonic, astral, alien...).

[SpookyMulder]

Thank you Hervé.

Just like Whiskey_Mystic I have spent years in game development before stopping due to the direction most companies were taking. What used to be fun games became military simulations and aggressive entertainment. Of course do not think that it was an all act of randomness. And who backs the gaming industry, especially the big players?

You want to find some interesting games, well go check the "Indie" scene but still, the tide is also turning due to the advent of portable digital devices.

Back to digital devices, you cannot turn your head around and notice people hooked to their smartphones, on the train, on the ferry, on the plane, on the bus. They even attach USB slot in case your pretty precious runs out of juice!
You see adults and parents giving their personal devices to their 18 months old "babies" just for the sake of having some peace! People, friends and families go to restaurants and all sit at their dinner table playing with their devices.


The addiction is not only hitting kids, but adults. Go and find someone who actually read a paper book on a public transport and you will look like a crazy lunatic!

Welcome to the world of Smombies (Smartphones Zombies)!

[TigaHawk]

Will chime in here as someone who you'd class as digitally addicted.

Parents got me a Sega when i was young. Loved Sonic the Hedgehog. They eventually got a PC and i started playing Mechwarrior 2 and other games. Now i am 31. I go to work, and look forward to coming home each day to play video games. I do my job well, keep the house clean, cook food, do laundry etc - but every single second i can i will dedicate to playing games on the PC.

Why you may ask?

It's an Escape. Fairly sure i have Depression at this point, I'm terribly bitter at the world because I don't want to be here. Everything is extremely ****ed up, I'm living in an Insanity ward where everyone but a few that are looked at by the "normal" people as crazy are completely ****ed up, have no moral compass, believe what the law dictates is 100% correct with no grey areas. They don't care about this planet, or anyone else but themselves. We're more than likely headed to WW3, IT doesn't matter if i go out and protest (great example here is for the Barrier Reef. Protested a heap so they backed off on letting the Adani corporation the mine / dreding the reef. Now they've given it to them and they're about to get 1 billion handed to them by our government to setup a train instead. I work for Government in IT and it's compartmentalised to ****, it's all about ego and social status. money wasted everywhere. People make big decisions that effect others based off how they feel it will impact people they like / dislike in the office... But i'm finally Permanent. Almost impossible to fire, the pay is good and the job is piss easy. I used to love my job - now i don't give a **** because any attempt to improve or really help people is instantly shut down by political BS.

When I jump on the PC I can forget about all that, and enter a faux world (when you think about it, it's not that dissimilar to IRL because the life you life if you go to work each day is a complete lie, a charade of insanity) that is significantly more pleasing and relaxing than reality.

[wegge]

Another interesting perspective on some of the underlying factors that lead to addiction: from Johann Hari (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html)

snippets from the article:

"If you had asked me what causes drug addiction at the start, I would have looked at you as if you were an idiot, and said: “Drugs. Duh.” It’s not difficult to grasp. I thought I had seen it in my own life. We can all explain it. Imagine if you and I and the next twenty people to pass us on the street take a really potent drug for twenty days. There are strong chemical hooks in these drugs, so if we stopped on day twenty-one, our bodies would need the chemical. We would have a ferocious craving. We would be addicted. That’s what addiction means.

One of the ways this theory was first established is through rat experiments — ones that were injected into the American psyche in the 1980s, in a famous advert by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. You may remember it. The experiment is simple. Put a rat in a cage, alone, with two water bottles. One is just water. The other is water laced with heroin or cocaine. Almost every time you run this experiment, the rat will become obsessed with the drugged water, and keep coming back for more and more, until it kills itself.

The advert explains: “Only one drug is so addictive, nine out of ten laboratory rats will use it. And use it. And use it. Until dead. It’s called cocaine. And it can do the same thing to you.”

But in the 1970s, a professor of Psychology in Vancouver called Bruce Alexander noticed something odd about this experiment. The rat is put in the cage all alone. It has nothing to do but take the drugs. What would happen, he wondered, if we tried this differently? So Professor Alexander built Rat Park. It is a lush cage where the rats would have colored balls and the best rat-food and tunnels to scamper down and plenty of friends: everything a rat about town could want. What, Alexander wanted to know, will happen then? "

[shaberon]

...while rejecting the information shared heart-to-heart.

When put in just those simple terms...it's nothing verbal, it's not even really a gesture or any kind of activity. It is the electric field of a heart seeking to harmonize with the electric fields of other hearts nearby.

If someone is nearby, does your heart tense, race, or flutter? Or not respond at all? That is a rejection of straight heart-to-heart information or communication.

Unless harmony is anchored in that specific organ, it is false. And I believe that if the very young are given tablets and the like, they are going to be so thoroughly gimped and hobbled, they will be unable to ever detect the correct harmony. It's not something you should accidentally discover once or twice a year, it should be the standard mode of existence.

You could be an idiot with the capabilities of a pile of mud, and still participate in harmony. In fact, such a person is probably a better candidate, than someone who's mind got launched down the digital tube and picked up a million bright ideas.

Edit: on seeing TigaHawk's post show up. I completely understand about the immoral establishment, depression, and escapism. I've had times like that both as an adolescent and as an adult, and all I can say is that it is well worth the effort to find any alternative to spending 100% of one's time with the pc, even if it means looking at faces in the clouds.

[wegge]

When I worked with the horrendous problems of crack-addicted street hookers in my fair city - people who would do utterly anything to sustain their addictions – I maintained, in the face of expert opinion to the contrary, that addiction has much less to do with your character or willpower than it does with our human neurology.

The addiction is like a nuclear weapon: it doesn’t care who you are, how you feel, what kind of parents or upbringing, trauma etc you’ve had.

It cares only for the control of your brain.

The sooner that we recognize the overwhelming power of addictive material, the sooner we will be able to address its treatment. It’s not about you, or your willpower. It’s about overwhelming force.

And anyone who thinks “I’m stronger than this, I’m exempt …” is delusional. We are all at risk for something.

I am so very happy to see this discussion.

Regards,

Selene

But you have to factor in that your upbringing and trauma directly change your neurology. Which then in turn ´plays a role in what´s going to be overwhelming to you.
It´s also said trauma is "too much too fast too severe."

Another side point is, what we call TRAUMA, IS NOT AN INCIDENT OR MANY BUT A (PERSISTING) REACTION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.


another side point, not related to the quoted post:

I think Jon Rappoport (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KEcU4D_3dM)would say addiction just comes from boredom. But, utterly encompassing boredom of your whole being.
Not knowing what to do in your life. No one thing that thrills you and gives you energy. So you take a quick fix.

It´s also related to many doomsday prophecies, or the next big quacke or attack that will happen next fall in california, when you look at it from an energetic perspective.

Boredom is low, stagnant energy. Then you imagine this big energy event of a catastrophy and attach yourself to this and suddenly you´re thrilled and filled.

[BongoBob]

As someone who has had the (not-always-so) wonderful experience of growing up, and with, the internet age (hooked, in a sense, to the drug of the internet -and video games- and all it's ... glory) since the age of 10, one of the most interesting things that comes to mind most fervently in this moment is the internet hive-mind phenomenon; almost a philosophy of sorts.

There's many websites out there now that expand upon this phenomenon for better or worse- Reddit is one such community that comes to mind as expounding such a philosophy (among a generally younger audience) of the 'internet hivemind'. It may just be strong confirmation bias culminating from being able to subscribe to, and getting fed information that resonates with your beliefs on a daily basis from a range of users.

But when you look at the larger sub-reddit communities, there are some ideas that are posted near-simultaneously, similar in fashion to the notion of Global Consciousness (monkeys learning to use sticks as dinner utensils in different locations among the planet or what have you). In essence, the instant-connectivity of the internet allows the user a sort of pseudo-psychic connection to their peers.

Early in the 1900's, before the FCC, before Radio was unregulated, when the Ham techies flooded the radio spectrums, it was the same sort of deal.. when you hit a great wave-propagation, you could communicate across the world instantly, and making contact with someone-so-far would kickstart the seratonin in the brain instantly.

I suspect that the psychic connections are as real as the great release of seratonin that these experiences release. From experience, i've met MANY people through this web ( and what a precarious web it is, entangling us all.. we are posting or reading here of course :p ) who I probably would not have met otherwise due to physical constraint of location. I've met people on-line through such serendipity and synchronicity who at times resonate on the same mental patterns in such an exquisite way to send me into a satori of sorts.

The internet, and computers in general are a tool, and one which on the whole has done more benefit than harm in the global sense. Very much the same as nuclear energy or a pool table, which can be used to benefit or harm; The former consisting of a range from efficient electrical energy generation to potential nuclear fallout, the latter ranging from facilitating friendly social interaction to exacerbating trope-like pool-shark competition.

Our world as it is will still unfortunately still have a few pool sharks and saber-rattling nuclear powers who have their own karmic lessons to learn, but the general consensus seems to me bias towards enlightenment for all through a more open dissemination of information and concepts... ( Twenty years ago, Tesla was regulated to dustbin of history in the name of capitalistic progress, but now, propagated through the magic of memes (completely different topic), his legend of combining the meta-physic with material has become near commonplace!)

[Sunny-side-up]

On a related note.

The Ufology, Paranormal, Zero-Point, Electrogravitic-Tech combined subject of these days is so addictive.
Can't watch and or read enough and there is a lot of it :sun:

For us in the truth seeking, alt (real world) it is like living a Si-Fi novel.
The so called Real-old-world and it's sciences, history is so dull in comparison.
I often feel like I'm coming down from acid, the established old world is such a dull colour.

Add to the above the truth seeker alt world is like living in a massive mystery/detective story.
It is a hard book to put down.

[BMJ]

With all these ill effects. What are some constructive ways to counter computer gaming and mobile phone addiction?

[greybeard]

With all these ill effects. What are some constructive ways to counter computer gaming and mobile phone addiction?

Good question BMJ
First and foremost there has to be an acceptance that its harmful, secondly that its harmful to the person who is addicted--I doubt they would admit to being addicted first off.
A habit takes on average thirty days to get out of.
What worked regarding smoking for me was delay " I wont have one just now"
Making a big deal of it is counterproductive as that makes giving up or limiting seem difficult.

Find something else interesting to do.

Hope this helps someone.

Chris

[Catsquotl]

With all these ill effects. What are some constructive ways to counter computer gaming and mobile phone addiction?

That is a good question. There are addiction programs dealing with video game addiction.
Like Alcohol abuse the line to cross before one conciders it an addiction is different for everyone. As always some will consider it a problem if you use a computer for anything more than usefull computing or communication. Or even wanting to use it at all as a sign of addiction. Others condone a wide variety of use before considering it problamatic. Others need a strong intervention and some will remain hopelesly lost. Not owning up to the fact that they are addicted or prefering the addiction over anything else.

I recently drawn a line for an alcoholic. The resulting argument became nasty real fast. It hurts, everyone looses and has their own idea's of what exactly transpired.
Addictions are complicated. Any kind of adiction and there is hardly any good way to stop them save from complete withdrawl. I doubt computers leave one with that option, because it's becomming so ingrained in everyday life these days.

[Frances2014]

It is a coping mechanism for CPTSD.
Complex post traumatic syndrom disorder.

I was helping my grandson this morning to read a childrens book for school.
The storyline was constructed to create trauma.
Monsters, predators laughs at pain, subtle cruelty, ect ...
Then the child will have trouble reading books...

Its everywhere, with everybody, all the time, this is a trauma based 3d holographic constructed dimension.
Trauma is a physical response to repeated physical and psychological aggressions in every day life.
The memory of each aggression is imprinted in the cells (The body keeps the score book...)
It has to do with the double vagal system in mammalian species and brain growth.
See the vagal theory by Steven Porges)

The internet is home to with awakening people who discover their own experience of trauma,
there are groups of support on facebook,
Richard Grannon to name one, and others on yt, for exemple...

It was/is programmed that way to produce a narcissic supply of strong primitive emotional rush to support psychopatic elitists.
The predator/prey duality model is collapsing on itself.
Terra, mother nature is destroying the structures of slavery in her own way (geological changes).

We become aware of this dysfunctional millenium matrix of fear and violence.
The other day, I watched a movie and I was surprised because there was no violence from beginning to end...

I was an internet addict myself for some years, while in a situational crisis period.

Each human is an individual being, the healing of trauma is an individual process in the moment.

The HD tv is a coping mecanism, as food or alcool or drugs or digital toys...

The cause of all the trauma is this system of slavery, ruled by corporations as banks, commercial entertainment, industrial warfare, ect...

We stll have to support ourselves and each other in our every day life.

Remember the root cause is what needs to be understood and adressed, not only the coping mecanism.

[Hervé]

What is addiction?

Rather than getting lost in some rabbit's chemical or genetic galleries, I'll consider it from the energy fields perspective, whether they are called shadows, entities, tulpas, eggregores, AIs, hitchhikers, walk-ins or starving inner wolves (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Wolves), any and all are in need of some loosh. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Wolves)

When one feeds kids candies... one knows what to expect next, right?

So, here is something from Steve Richards' "Dreamtime healing":
...Aboriginal culture says, ‘everything is alive.’ So, I had a woman that comes in, to me, from Chile. Doesn’t speak good English. Her daughter said, “my mum can’t sleep, she’s on two lots of sleeping tablets and can’t sleep.” I said, ‘well that makes sense, she’s got two separate entities in there, they both need to keep her awake before she feeds them.’ Everything’s alive.

So what happens is, for these drugs to be created, they’ve got to have an intent behind their creation. The first is the law of intent and the law of agreement. So what is the intent in the creation of that drug and what’s its intent? It now becomes a life‐form that needs to survive like anything else. Therefore, an anti‐depressant means it has to keep you depressed so you’ll feed it. And when you feed it, it will make you no longer depressed. It got it’s food source, thank you very much. Another life‐form taking over the vehicle. Stunned.

...

Everything’s alive. And that’s where we go back to the drugs. When these drugs are created there’s an intent in the creation of those drugs, and they’re alive. They need to survive like everything else. Because they are atoms with memory stored in them. But what I’ve found is when you hit something where there’s equal force, crumbles null and void.

...

other times lots of life‐forms come out and they try to justify why they should exist. The drugs are really good. They often state that they’re spiritually aware [but] they're a life form trying to justify its existence in the being.

So, maybe, life could be defined as an energy field animated by an intention and forwarding an intent to survive via the acquisition of external energy and which translate into a digestive system in physical 3D.

It seems then, that the most common denominator/intent behind most of these drugs is:


"EASE PAIN"


... whether physical or emotional, real or imagined... from Rio's favelas to Bern's mansions... Woala...

Of course, now, it makes me wonder why abductees usually don't remember pain... watching cartoons/games while being probed?

[Bill Ryan]

That’s when I began to wonder: What is addiction, really?



The activity that leads to addiction is an attempt to solve a problem. (The problem is never solved, of course.)

In some cases, the problem is poverty, or a set of apparently inescapable personal circumstances.

But it can also be any (or all!) of


boredom
lack of personal meaning, or meaningful personal goals
lack of self-esteem, or self-worth
desperately needing to be liked and accepted by others.

[enfoldedblue]

With my son we have withheld screens. We have no TV and no video games. At five o'clock he is allowed to watch something (previously on DVD now Netflix) until dinner is ready. When he started school he learned about video games from the other kids and started trying to use WORD to pretend to be playing a video game....++++++++++ gogo...lol It was a bit sad to see...lol. So I went out to a second hand shop and bought a couple of lame learning video games and told him he could choose to play these games instead of a show at 5:00. He played for a while and quickly got bored. This worked really well because rather than feel deprived and missing out on something he could just tell his friends...all cool like...that he thought video games were boring. Now that he is eight he spends most of his time outside kicking the soccer ball around, practicing juggling or creating comic books. He says he can see how video games make his friends not want to play outside and makes him even less attracted to playing. At school his teachers always rave about his incredible attention span and ability to focus.

Though it is soooo much easier in the short term to plonk a kid down in front of a screen, I am glad we made the parenting choices we did. I think in the long term we are all happier... I cn hear him kicking the ball around right now :)

[BMJ]

With my son we have withheld screens. We have no TV and no video games. At five o'clock he is allowed to watch something (previously on DVD now Netflix) until dinner is ready. When he started school he learned about video games from the other kids and started trying to use WORD to pretend to be playing a video game....++++++++++ gogo...lol It was a bit sad to see...lol. So I went out to a second hand shop and bought a couple of lame learning video games and told him he could choose to play these games instead of a show at 5:00. He played for a while and quickly got bored. This worked really well because rather than feel deprived and missing out on something he could just tell his friends...all cool like...that he thought video games were boring. Now that he is eight he spends most of his time outside kicking the soccer ball around, practicing juggling or creating comic books. He says he can see how video games make his friends not want to play outside and makes him even less attracted to playing. At school his teachers always rave about his incredible attention span and ability to focus.

Though it is soooo much easier in the short term to plonk a kid down in front of a screen, I am glad we made the parenting choices we did. I think in the long term we are all happier... I cn hear him kicking the ball around right now :)

Thank you enfoldedblue. I remember as a child growing up in the 70's what I had to entertain myself with were airfix model kits, lego, golden books, matchbox cars, games like hide and seek, army, cowboys and indians which I would play with the kids my age. Or going off walking the storm water drains of Sydney for hours with my mates to see what we could find and where we would end up.

http://f.tqn.com/y/childrensbooks/1/L/C/b/saggy-baggy_v5.jpg

The thing was we didn't have computer games or mobile phones to entertain us. Our entertainment stimulated our mind developing our curiosity, imagination and intelligence. Often I'd create some new never before seen rescue vehicle for my Thunderbirds rescue set from lego, and imagine going off on an adventure with The International Rescue crew and getting a chance to use my new creation in the rescue. I think that's the type of entertainment kids need more of today.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/02/04/article-2273291-172D1E7D000005DC-360_634x411.jpg

Now in my 40's I have computer games and the internet but I take pleasure in going for a walk with my dog, reading books and spending time with friends and making airfix plastic models.

So it's OK to be connected but I think you need have a balance and spend time away from devices and interact with people and develop friendships and use your imagination when reading a book and nuture your creativity when making an airfix model kit and so on. When it comes to people, the world can be cruel but there are alot of good people out there you just have to put yourself out there and not put to much emotional investment in that possible friendship at first because it might not work out, but at least your giving it a go.

[enfoldedblue]

Thanks for your reply BMJ. I agree unstructured play is so impotant especially in this pre-packaged world. We are heading for a creativity crisis. I think the ability to use imagination and think creatively will become recognized as a valuable skill eventually... but probably until the majority have forfeited this natural ability for the sake of easy entertainment. I am hoping to introduce a creativity course at my son's school... because with so much emphasis on standardization there is amost no opprtunity for kids to develop their unique creative abilities.

[Michelle]

This is such an important article. First of all I have a child that is considered a high functioning autistic. I only let my son on these devices once in awhile. I never let him watch anything violent. I noticed that even though my child doesn't watch anything violent, it seems to cause issues in his behavior. I really think that children with the diagnosis of autism, ADHD, PDD-NOS (on the spectrum) are affected more. They already have sensory issues to begin with. At first the devices seem to calm the child a bit. I noticed with my own son that he seemed to act out more after watching a few YouTube videos. He was more compulsive. I feel like children on the spectrum are already overly stimulated and they get even more stimulated on these devices. It's really something to watch out for if you have a child on the spectrum. I thought at first that I was being silly. It seemed silly at the time I guess. I kept on second guessing myself. So now it's just rare that he uses it.

I know a lot of mothers with special needs children. Sometimes it's easier for them to put the child on the IPad or some other device. Low functioning children on the spectrum can't seem to get enough of the IPad. These devices can almost seem therapeutic in some ways as some mothers will see a decrease in stemming while there child is on it. It does seem to center these children initially, but It could be making them worse:( I started thinking that after a friend came over with her autistic son and she forgot the IPad and he had massive meltdowns over it.

Like I said, just something to watch out for with the special needs children. My little girl does not show the same signs as my son after playing with the IPad. She's not on the spectrum or have sensory/overly stimulated issues though. This is not to take away from the programs that autistics need for communication etc.. I understand in those ways it helps❤️

[Hervé]

A more overt/obvious and personalized "screen" attack on specific targets:

Twitter will release info on user who allegedly sent a seizure-inducing tweet to a journalist (http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/20/14026546/kurt-eichenwald-seizure-identify-tweet-data-request-lawsuit)

Russell Brandom The Verge (http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/20/14026546/kurt-eichenwald-seizure-identify-tweet-data-request-lawsuit) Tue, 20 Dec 2016 18:48 UTC


https://www.sott.net/image/s18/365598/large/twtr_twitter_nyse2_1020_0.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s18/365598/full/twtr_twitter_nyse2_1020_0.jpg)
Four days ago (http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/16/13988894/david-eichenwald-seizure-tweet-attack), an unidentified Twitter user tweeted a seizure-inducing animation at Newsweek and Vanity Fair writer Kurt Eichenwald, who has epilepsy. Now, Eichenwald has taken the first step toward identifying the user. In response to a civil suit filed by Eichenwald this week in Dallas district court, Twitter has agreed (https://www.scribd.com/document/334699195/Rule-202-Order-signed-12-19-16-copy) to hand over all relevant subscriber data for the user in question. The attack came in apparent retaliation for Eichenwald's aggressive coverage of President-elect Trump.

While Eichenwald has yet to file criminal charges, the civil suit was sufficient for an ex parte order from the district judge. Twitter subsequently agreed to expedited relief, declining to challenge the order or demand further evidence from Eichenwald. The next step is likely to be a lawsuit against wireless carriers or service providers implicated by Twitter's records, who will have records linking IP addresses and other metadata to the attacker's legal name.

Similar legal cases (http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/23/9772824/commenter-defamation-lawsuit-identity-revealed) have met with success in the past. Twitter reserves the right to retain IP addresses and other location data in its privacy policy (https://twitter.com/privacy?lang=en). If the attacker logs into the same account even once from an identifiable phone or home address, Twitter would be able to use those IP logs to identify them. However, Twitter's stated policy (https://support.twitter.com/articles/41949#3) is to store those logs for only a brief period of time, and it's unclear how much information of that kind is currently available on the user.

Reached by The Verge, a Twitter representative declined to comment on individual cases, referring questions to the company's public guidelines for law enforcement requests (https://support.twitter.com/articles/41949#3). According to Twitter's transparency report (https://transparency.twitter.com/en/information-requests.html), the company received 2,520 such requests in the US in the first half of 2016, and complied with 82 percent of requests.

=================================================

That's just to emphasized that these "things" are known and made use of... like the datum provided by Dolores Cannon that it takes only 30 seconds of TV watching to turn any viewer into a zombie apprentice... under the influence of - at least - a mild, electronically induced, hypnotic trance.

[BMJ]

This is such an important article. First of all I have a child that is considered a high functioning autistic. I only let my son on these devices once in awhile. I never let him watch anything violent. I noticed that even though my child doesn't watch anything violent, it seems to cause issues in his behavior. I really think that children with the diagnosis of autism, ADHD, PDD-NOS (on the spectrum) are affected more. They already have sensory issues to begin with. At first the devices seem to calm the child a bit. I noticed with my own son that he seemed to act out more after watching a few YouTube videos. He was more compulsive. I feel like children on the spectrum are already overly stimulated and they get even more stimulated on these devices. It's really something to watch out for if you have a child on the spectrum. I thought at first that I was being silly. It seemed silly at the time I guess. I kept on second guessing myself. So now it's just rare that he uses it.

I know a lot of mothers with special needs children. Sometimes it's easier for them to put the child on the IPad or some other device. Low functioning children on the spectrum can't seem to get enough of the IPad. These devices can almost seem therapeutic in some ways as some mothers will see a decrease in stemming while there child is on it. It does seem to center these children initially, but It could be making them worse:( I started thinking that after a friend came over with her autistic son and she forgot the IPad and he had massive meltdowns over it.

Like I said, just something to watch out for with the special needs children. My little girl does not show the same signs as my son after playing with the IPad. She's not on the spectrum or have sensory/overly stimulated issues though. This is not to take away from the programs that autistics need for communication etc.. I understand in those ways it helps❤️

Hi Michelle, you might find this video interesting, back to topic.

Autism Therapy On Horseback, The Horse Boy, CNN Dr. Sanjay Gupta Talks With Rupert Isaacson

b7GHzselNmA

[The Freedom Train]

With all these ill effects. What are some constructive ways to counter computer gaming and mobile phone addiction?

Make them illegal! j/k :)

IMO we can as individuals endeavor to keep our use to a minimum, and raise our children in a similar fashion. My daughter does not have her own phone yet, nor do I plan on getting her one. I have an old school flip phone. As for the internet, I endeavor not to get too sucked in to this forum, although I find many of the posts very interesting and I enjoy reading about other people's perspectives.

[meat suit]

That’s when I began to wonder: What is addiction, really?



The activity that leads to addiction is an attempt to solve a problem. (The problem is never solved, of course.)

In some cases, the problem is poverty, or a set of apparently inescapable personal circumstances.

But it can also be any (or all!) of


boredom
lack of personal meaning, or meaningful personal goals
lack of self-esteem, or self-worth
desperately needing to be liked and accepted by others.


also, addiction provides additional structure to those who need it....
I have been there.. dividing the day into 30min. segments between nicotin fixes..
that 30 mins. intervall provides another waveform or harmonic to the existing ones . you could say we are addicted to the day/night cycle and the beating of our heart and the in and out of the breath.... and all the rest...

[joeecho]

Nothing connects two or more quilters together like their mutual addiction.

http://quiltersanon.com/img/quilters-anonymous-inc-logo-1425782048.jpg

[guyres]

Take off jour shoes and feel the wolrd

[Vward]

Go outside

[BMJ]

Words of wisdom from a nine year old starseed Cathy, gives me an indication as to why we should be careful in our use of technology.

Thank you Onawah all credit to you on this find.
Link: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?89230-When-Vested-Interests-Take-Education-over...&p=1117964&viewfull=1#post1117964

Quote:

Mother: “How can we wake up?”

Cathy: “We have to increase our energy as we don’t have the energy required; it’s stolen from us.”

Mother: “How can we protect our energy?”

Cathy: “At present, we only have point five percent (.05%) of our energy. We need to have one point five percent (1.5%).

Mother: How might we begin to increase our energy?

Cathy says:
Don’t get angry about small things.
Don’t speak on mobile phones for a long time.
Don’t eat white sugar.
Don’t watch TV.
Don’t use microwaves.
Don’t have wireless internet.”

[RunningDeer]

5 Ways Smart Phones Are Dumbing People Down



“And experts are even learning that children spending all their time on these kinds of devices are showing a startling lack of ability not only to read other people's emotions but a lack of being able to show empathy.”

“A new study out of the University of California Irvine says devoting more attention to your smartphones than your children could mean they'll have improper brain development and emotional disorders later in life.”


http://avalonlibrary.net/paula/Empower/iPad-kids2.jpg

http://avalonlibrary.net/paula/Empower/iPad-kids.jpg


Transcript:




“…London say that three-quarters of all UK toddlers that's children between the age of 6 months and 3 years old now use iPads or smartphones every day. 6 month olds use iPads every day. I mean just that's what's going on. And I don’t know how many times I've personally seen this but we'll be sitting down to dinner at a restaurant and a mother will come in plunk her small kid down and immediately prop up an iPad right in front of his face and then pull out her phone. They don't talk to each other. They don't look at each other. If the kid tries to get his mom's attention maybe show her something happening in the cartoon or whatever that she's turned on to distract him she won't even look because she's too concerned with checking Instagram or whatever on her phone to even give her own kid the time of day. Parents are admittedly ignoring their children and the children are learning to ignore everyone else because of it.

And studies are showing that smartphone addicted parents have more negative interactions with their children when they do interact with their children but is all about having physical consequences too. A new study out of the University of California Irvine says devoting more attention to your smartphones than your children could mean they'll have improper brain development and emotional disorders later in life. And that’s certainly what's being suggested by the fact that social skills have now eroded to the point that college students are having to take etiquette classes to try and relearn even the basics on how to physically interact with people in real life. And experts are even learning that children spending all their time on these kinds of devices are showing a startling lack of ability not only to read other people's emotions but a lack of being able to show empathy.




https://i.imgur.com/F5VZkI8.gif


9ysYujG0U9I

Truthstream Media
Published on Jul 7, 2017

[Cara]

Phone (and tablet, computer, .....) addiction and its effects illustrated in this short animated film:

QugooaNRnsk

Published on May 29, 2017
Very meaningful short movie on how the system is failing. how we are ruining our lives with abuse of technology.

[Agape]

It’s all true but ...if I look back to my childhood and teenage that happened before the public computer and internet age started, in the 70s and 80s and since we were little behind at that point anyway though I either read, knew of internet and that it’s coming I marvelled the connectivity and creativity of computer world should it be once available to is( but it happened 30 years later for me anyway),

kids were not suffering from many addictions in general because upbringing was more controlled and in parents hands, than it is now.

If I have observed group profile of my classmates carefully, just about third of us have been “busy people” with various(loads of) interests and hobbies.
We were “up to something”, sports, sciences, literature ..varied really so our time was full and there wasn’t really enough time to do all the things you ever wanted to do or try,
between school, homework, parents schedule and interests. Books and getting out on your own. There was hardly any spare time left.


That’s about those with level of serious interest in something. Of course you never heard of any of us in those times.
We lived for ourselves and for what we did.

Sense of competition was not from us, it really emerged from the economically “upper class” kids who wore label cloth and could have things ahead of the rest.

They were not smarter than us but they looked smarter and could pay their way through. It’s them who had the first Nintendos and computers anyway but it’s long ago.

It’s also them who have been known to receive somewhat looser education from their parents and who could argue with parents or throw fits( even though it was rarely discussed and their parents seemed to be somewhat ashamed about it).

I saw kids throwing violent fits in supermarkets for not getting the particular type of food they wanted. Some who continued to do that clearly had underlying psychological issues and ended up in therapy, together with their parents.
Small percentage of them come from “drama families”.

They sometimes end up being great actors and thus get payed for the “drama”. The same guys and girls can throw fits about anything.


But back to the topic, more than half, I would say two thirds of the teenage population was typically “bored” and disinterested in real world till much later on in their development so either they had to be pushed around a bit, entertained or left to their particular kind of childhood emptiness and boredom.

The myth of “naughty kids” seems to originate from “somewhere there”.

Now if there was an internet, yes, most of these developing, distracted, bored and naturally confused by themselves kids would have hanged on it.

It would have made them smarter but probably not better. Because “good and bad” really depends on environment.

There’s another important component to it and that’s a “smart parent”. Optimally, parent is a guide for a child, a knower of the world, one who knows how to control the environment.
Parent who suffers from any kind of addiction and extreme manner cannot expect his children will be forever wiser, more balanced and will make it through.
The whole faith in “smart kids” placed already heavy emotional and life toll on many of our backs.

So before you sink to depth of conspiracy theory ...

consider the problem is mostly not the technologies but it’s mostly the people who can not use them wisely.
People who “don’t know what to do otherwise”.


There’s plenty of people to whom internet connectivity and technologies helped and
do help to find their bigger purpose -out of the IT world,
information -education capacity of the IT is almost endless

and it comes with a warning for those who are literate : do not destroy yourself.


Everything takes years of practice to master it even a bit. Our parents did not have it, we had to learn it all ourselves.

But it’s always about our personalities and freedoms. There is no limit. There’s meaning to what we do and not. Just learn to use it wisely.

Now if my kids spend most of their time playing computer games or watching silly videos on YouTube and I let them do it because it keeps them quiet and content and they’re not demanding attention all the time,
I should not be surprised if they start crying or protesting when I ask them to do something else.
Why, because children need love and attention to their growing up, everyday to certain age. There’s no recipe for how much, how long or how often.

If you give them “smart nanny” and get them used to it, they will naturally figure out it is much smarter than you are and both you and your kids will miss all those years of giving and receiving knowledge and love from live person,
learning to respond and cope with real people

which is way harder than responding to anime.

As a result the “young adult” generation emerging now are very well educated, informed but skeptical and they do not “believe” in relationships the way their parents did. Their concept of making relationships seems to have sunk to the IT world:
with “too many options” and “fleeting values”.


Imagine they’d turn this whole IT scheme off one day 😀

Not that I wish for it but it’s not too difficult to imagine.
It’s also not really difficult to disconnect from it
if you can’t benefit or if it causes too much stress.

Myself I do disconnect whenever it’s necessary.

The time we all have on this planet is precious. A fleeting moment . But you learn this from being with other living beings ...


🙏

[petra]

And studies are showing that smartphone addicted parents have more negative interactions with their children when they do interact with their children but is all about having physical consequences too.

Physical consequences.... like say, death? I say that because of a shocking article I came across last year, child drownings in Germany linked to parent's smartphone fixation:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/aug/15/parents-fixated-by-phones-linked-to-child-drownings-in-germany




Imagine they’d turn this whole IT scheme off one day 😀

Not that I wish for it but it’s not too difficult to imagine.


All it'd take is one big electromagnetic pulse... supposedly. I've heard people comparing the moon to a giant electromagnet too, so kind of makes me wonder if the "moon might be up to something" :P

[Bill Ryan]

QugooaNRnsk

Published on May 29, 2017
Very meaningful short movie on how the system is failing. how we are ruining our lives with abuse of technology.

Wow. Less than 3 mins, and so very poignant.

:bump::bump::bump:

[Frank V]

Phone (and tablet, computer, .....) addiction and its effects illustrated in this short animated film:

QugooaNRnsk

Published on May 29, 2017
Very meaningful short movie on how the system is failing. how we are ruining our lives with abuse of technology.

I hope you don't mind if I borrow this link :) ─ and thank you for posting it in the first place. :thumbsup:

[Carmody]

V1jfFuduZXo

[frankstien]

Re-post--

https://i.ibb.co/BGc7smL/puppet-people-2-12x9-2019-w.jpg

[RogueEllis]

Go outside

Yeah. And while you're at it, stop feeling sad and stop being sick! ;)

I am sorry to be one of these people, but until you own nothing and are selling your body for five more minutes of your "high," then it ain't worse than heroin. Not saying it's not bad. No, I very much agree it's very bad. But I don't agree it's "worse than heroin." I know it's just phrasing, but I'm real sensitive to the words I suppose.