Why are our kids so different today?

Is the digital native iGeneration evolving into technologically enhanced humans or devolving into anxious, self-focused, concrete thinkers suffering chronic disillusionment proportionate to their screen exposure? Technology has changed our lives for the better in so many ways; however, exposing children to screens too young is yielding adverse health effects, including obesity, sleep problems, cognitive deficits, language delays, social and emotional development issues, and executive functioning deficits. Research indicates that overexposure to media screens is rewiring our neural networks and especially negatively impacting the developing brain and body. Parents and caregivers should consider five critical categories of digital dangers created by screen exposure and use brain-based parenting techniques to prevent them from becoming problems.
1 Attachment
Early childhood face-to-face interactions are critical for establishing secure attachments, building relationships, and providing the basis for emotional maturity. Babies and toddlers cannot self-regulate, and first, they must learn how to co-regulate, a process by which a caregiver attunes to the needs of a child by mimicking emotional expressions and then providing care and comfort. However, overexposure to screens decreases face-to-face time. The mirror neurons that assist in developing social and emotional skills have fewer opportunities to fire.

Indirect exposure to screens, such as having the TV on in the background, can distract children from exploring or playing with toys, reduce cognitive processing, interfere with memory and reading comprehension, and reduce the quality of parent-child time. Brexting – texting while breastfeeding – can cause babies to dysregulate and disrupt feeding. When parents with children under five use more technology, their children exhibit more sulking, frustration, whining, hyperactivity, and temper tantrums. This lack of eye contact and face-to-face interaction may cause attachment and self-regulation problems, which later could set the stage for increased risky behavior and relational problems.

Connection to a digital global village fails to increase neurotransmitters such as dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin compared to in-person interaction. Plugging into screens for hours every day leads to social isolation, depression, anxiety, meaninglessness, hopelessness and can increase suicide risk. These mood issues plague the iGeneration and represent statistically significant mental health problems unseen in previous generations.

2 Physical Health
There is a link between screen time (TV, computer, phone, etc.) and physical health issues, including childhood obesity, myopia (near-sightedness), and sleep problems. Increases in screen exposure plus reduced time spent outdoors yields poorer nutrition and reduced immune response. Childhood and adolescent obesity rates have more than tripled since the 1970s. More than 81% of adolescents worldwide are physically inactive, and 59% of children will be obese by the age of thirty-five. Failure to get the recommended amount of sleep and screen-free play time is associated with executive function and learning problems, as well as reduced emotional regulation, focus, and memory.
3 Overstimulation
Early and continuous screen exposure is associated with emotional reactivity, anger, and anxiety. A constant media stream of fast-moving stimuli and less time spent experiencing and dealing with real-life stress leave today’s youth drained and unprepared. Tech manufacturers integrate supernormal (colorful, fast-moving) stimuli into games, apps, websites, and phones to increase visual stimulation and turn on the limbic system’s reward pathway, which is associated with addiction.

A constant stream of novelty, more information, and eye-catching supernormal stimuli keep us constantly checking, looking for likes, and creating new posts for fear of missing out. This can result in a constant state of insufficiency: the feeling of never being done — because there is always another episode to binge on, another level of a game to reach, or a new app to play. Children may not get the same sense of completion they would get from finishing a book or completing a Lego project. Such a state of insufficiency and constant screen stimulation may drain the brain of resources, energy, and creativity.

Popcorn brain and techno-tantrums can result from the brain adapting to and craving constant technological stimulation. Exposure to multiple screens and switch-tasking between them results in children taking an average of three hours longer to complete homework. When children get bored too quickly and look for a screen to plug into, their brain loses the opportunity to develop networks for coping with uncomfortable emotions or tolerate slower-paced activities.

4 Learning
Producers of learning games market their products by selling the promise of developmental or educational benefits such as accelerated learning, alphabet recognition, reading skills acquisition, or increasing language or math skills. However, research has demonstrated no effect, or even negative effects, from using digital learning tools, especially under the age of three. A transfer deficit often occurs, meaning digital learning fails to transfer to real-life skills.

The more screen or TV exposure children experience when young, the more likely they will have problems with attention, cognitive ability, and language skills. The quick edits, flashing lights, and auditory cuts from gamified learning software may overstimulate the developing brains of preschool and elementary-age children. Instead of learning skills, children accrue watching skills.

As kids grow and enter school, their attention span increases, and their working memory capacity grows. However, early exposure to screens, continued exposure to multiple screens, and technology distractions interfere with sustaining attention and overload the working memory, derailing the learning process. Then, absorption of material, deep learning, imagination and creative problem-solving suffer. Unknowingly, parents are the guiltiest culprits of distraction by texting kids when they are in school. Unfortunately, each classroom distraction can yield up to a nine-minute loss in learning!

5 Motivation
As the brain adjusts to a constant stream of dopamine from fast-moving, supernormal stimuli and multiple-screen input, craving for more becomes constant. Gaming and gambling mechanics integrated into educational and recreational software feed a hunger for points, badges, stars, and level-ups, wiring children’s brains to seek extreme rewards. Extrinsically rewarding learning and play come at the peril of intrinsic engagement. Absorbing information to achieve leaderboard status robs children of the joy of learning for love or mastery.

As a result, more young people struggle with motivation. A lack of intrinsic drive yields feelings of purposelessness and meaninglessness and, in return, can lead to depression and increased suicide risk. Social media and video games that promote or glamorize high-risk behavior and first-person shooting increase the risk of eating disorders and substance use issues, decrease empathy, and lead to more aggressive attitudes and behavior. When media condition children to wonder, “What’s in it for me?” societies suffer from their disconnection and disillusionment.

Technology companies hire teen testers and hook them up to machines that monitor their brain waves and emotional reactions to identify and replicate stimulating programming code to lure children and adults into a world of mass-produced, addiction-for-profit supernormal stimuli. Between 9-15% of media users develop gaming addiction, and more acquire PIMU (Problematic Interactive Media Usage). When life pales in comparison to the adventures in video games or must compete with a constant stream of funny pet videos or the inescapable draw of a doom scroll, media users, their partners, their children, and their pets feel alienated, abandoned, and not as important as what is on the screen.

Solutions
First and foremost, know your neuro! Learn your child’s neuro whereabouts, their needs and limits at each neurodevelopmental stage. However, it is essential to remember that not all media affect all children in the same way. Parents should consider developmental levels when assessing the impact of media on each child. The following table includes the American Pediatric Society’s guidelines, the Surgeon General’s recommendations, and tips to meet children’s neurodevelopmental needs and limits:

 

AGE	NEEDS	LIMITS
INFANTS up to 18 months	Provide ample face-to-face, skin-to-skin time and eye contact. Offer touch, toys, or soft objects to calm and soothe. Offer physical objects or toys for distraction, not screens. Develop attachment to people, not screens.	No screen time except video chatting with loved ones  .
TODDLERS age 18-36 months	Provide ample physical interaction and creative play. Offer touch and physical objects for soothing and distraction. Read books and offer toys to develop social and creative skills.  Develop learning skills, not watching skills.	Little to no screen time except video chatting with loved ones.
PRESCHOOL age 3-5 years	Read books together to develop reading and social skills. Discuss characters from the books and educational shows and provide toys from books and shows to grow creative skills. Praise when children use play to self-soothe and distract. Choose slow-paced, high-quality educational media material.	Up to 1 hour/day of co-watched high-quality educational content. No fast-moving stimuli or violent media.
ELEMENTARY age 6-10 years	None or minimal recreational tech on school nights.  Recreational tech earned with completed homework and good behavior. Provide family media-free meals, activities, communal screen watching. Use Brain Balance Rule: Every hour tech = hour of other activity. Co-viewing media with children to facilitate bonding and connect information to real life situations, through explanation, education, and initiating coping strategies.  Younger children need to learn from real-life interactions not from media.66	Up to 1-1.5 hours/day earned recreational screen time. No action-oriented, fantasy or violent scenes.  Children may have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy or be unable to regulate their emotions.
MIDDLE-HIGH SCHOOL Age 11-16	Recreational tech earned with completed homework and good behavior. Reinforce media-free time, healthy sleep hygiene, social skills. Digital citizen and safety training for online activities including stranger dangers, Upstanding online and refusal skills training. Smart phone earned in HS. Social media earned at age 16.	Up to 2 hours/day earned recreational screen time. None or minimal recreational tech on school nights.