Future Tech

Opinion: Slaying digital dragons

Tan KW
Publish date: Wed, 11 Aug 2021, 10:39 AM
Tan KW
0 464,944
Future Tech

A year and a half after the pandemic upended normal life, the amount of time kids and teens tend to spend on their devices and social media has reached shocking levels - eight, ten, even 12 or more hours a day.

Repercussions for their mental health, physical fitness, social skills, relationship building, and even for our democracy, are dire, says author and psychologist Alex Packer.

In his timely new book, Slaying Digital Dragons: Tips and Tools for Protecting Your Body, Brain, Psyche and Thumbs from the Digital Dark Side, Packer speaks directly to young people to offer a frank and necessary look at the effects of this excessive screen time on their lives, as well as to explain how Big Tech's algorithms are invading their privacy and hijacking their attention.

The book is said to not shy away from tough issues or preach top-down; with empathy, respect, and lots of humour, Packer allows teens to understand the psychological and technological dynamics at play, empowering them to decide for themselves to take charge of their digital lives. For up-and-coming generations, he notes this skill is as important as brushing teeth and using a seatbelt.

The author says teens can assess their digital health using quizzes, warning signs and self-assessment challenges in his book, but it seems adults could benefit as well. My phone keeps claiming I need to get rid of more apps, all the while an app is needed for just about everything we do now-a-days.

As Packer puts it, "Never in the history of civilisation has one technology hijacked truth, reality, and public discourse-sinking its claws into every aspect of human existence to monitor, manipulate, and predict our behaviour for profit or hidden agendas."

The pandemic greatly exacerbated the overuse of social media, but it also complicated the issue of screen time and limits because young people needed screens for school, socialising, and various extracurricular activities. So, how do you differentiate between good screen time and bad?

Screen time is tricky, says Packer. Adults tend to focus on how much time teens spend on their screens: More = bad. Less = good. But it's not how much time you spend, it's how you spend that time:

Are you creating or vegetating?

Are you a passive spectator, or are you digging deep into yourself to learn, connect, and create?

Is your screen time a healthy balance of homework, friends, education, and entertainment-or are you spending eight hours a day killing space invaders and mining obsidian blocks?

Does being online make you feel happy, productive, and socially connected, or depressed, lonely, guilty, or inadequate?

Is your screen time focused, or does it assault you with attention-grabbing "gotchas"?

When you're not staring at a screen, are you physically active, seeing friends, spending time with your family, and keeping up with your responsibilities?

According to Packer, you have to look at the entire picture to determine whether screen time is "good" or "bad."

So what's the most impactful thing you would tell a teenager who was getting swallowed up by the digital world?

Make your phone your tool, suggests Packer. Don't become its tool. Be mindful about the time you spend on your devices. Recognise that along with all the wonderful, positive things smartphones, social media, and the Internet have made possible, there's another side to them.

The wrong kind of screen time can harm your body, brain, relationships, psyche, reputation, and future opportunities.

The best protection against this is knowing the warning signs that suggest one's life balance is out of whack.

If teens identify aspects of their screen scene they'd like to change, the book provides a guided self-intervention for resetting their life balance - a process aptly called "giving yourself an App-endectomy."

 

 - TNS

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