Cordova Bay Elementary School

The ding of our phone receiving a text, a like, heart or emoji gives us that hit of the feel-good brain chemical dopamine. It’s just like the rush of getting a win from a slot machine. When we play a video game or a game on our phones we get the same hit of dopamine when we win and we also get one when we are close to a win which keeps us playing longer. We want to keep activating that reward center of our brains. This neuro-stimulus feedback loop becomes addicting and it is why we continually want to plug in longer and get distracted by the amount of time we are spending on technology, especially social media and video gaming. With online gaming we are now also using money to play, purchasing loot boxes (you pay to open one of these in hopes of getting a desired weapon) and skins (cosmetic purchases that help your avatar to look a certain way). We may also be using microtransactions to pay for our next Candy Crush life. Some parents have shared that their kids/youth are using the apps store or their credit cards without their knowledge to purchase these items. When I talk to children and youth they say their friends have these applications and they do not want to miss out (FOMO-fear of missing out). Some people even trade or bet their skins and loot boxes online in order to make more money. Other young people are even gambling online using their parents’ credit cards. Some gaming companies are now also deploying video games in casinos for betting. Check out the Nothing but Net Challenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl8mJrs2rr8 .

Overall, social media, and video gaming are similar to gambling in that they immerse us, activate the same neurochemicals, there can be risk involved, FOMO and a progression of concerns and symptoms that can arise if we are not able to self-regulate these activities.

So how do we deal with these concerns, symptoms and help our youth self-regulate? First off, we talk to our kids about what is happening in their brains when they are gaming and using social media. We then talk about setting limits with these aspects of technology. If you own an iPhone there is now an option to use screen time to monitor and set limits on your phone use https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT208982 . For Android phones there are apps called Moment and Digital Well-being to help monitor your screen time. Please remember that when using these applications, we are helping our children/youth to self-regulate so we need to have ongoing conversations about our use in monitoring their devices, rather than just simply controlling their use. Thirdly, we need to allow our youth to be without devices and encourage other activities including being bored and just sitting. Authors Joe Clement and Matt Miles of the book, “Screen Schooled” say that “downtime is necessary for the human brain, wonder is what results in human advancement, and boredom results in creativity.” Lastly, you may want to be aware that many Google employees and Silicon Valley game designers have their own childcare employees sign a screen-free contract saying that while they are with their kids that they will not be exposed to screens. This makes me think that they may be aware of something we are not?

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