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Subject: "it's irreversible digital dementia for the yoof (study)" Previous topic | Next topic
howisya
Member since Nov 09th 2002
39983 posts
Tue Jul-16-13 10:20 AM

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"it's irreversible digital dementia for the yoof (study)"


  

          

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2973527
‘Digital dementia’ is on the rise
Teens addicted to Net, mobile devices now get cognitive disorders

June 24,2013


Kim Min-woo, 15, started having memory problems recently. He started flunking tests in subjects that required heavy bouts of memorization. And then he couldn’t remember the six-digit keypad code to get into his own home. He had to call the code up on his smartphone to get in the door.

Kim’s mother took him to a doctor and the diagnosis was shocking: Kim had symptoms of early onset dementia due to intense exposure to digital technology. Since the age of five, Kim was tethered to either the television or the computer. He is an avid computer game lover.

“His brain’s ability to transfer information to long-term memory has been impaired because of his heavy exposure to digital gadgets,” said psychiatrist Kim Dae-jin at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital in southern Seoul, who diagnosed Kim and is treating him.

Koreans were the earliest converts to digital life, and they may be the first to be afflicted by its most harmful side effects. Penetration of wireless broadband, at 104.2 out of 100 people, is the world’s highest.

More than 67 percent of Koreans over the age of 16 have smartphones, again the world’s highest. And where adult Koreans go, so do the kids and teens.

According to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, 64.5 percent of teens now have smartphones, up from 21.4 percent in 2011.

Internet addiction was recognized as a problem in both adults and young people as early as the late 1990s. Now Korea is discovering a scourge called “digital dementia” - the kind of early onset dementia, or deterioration of cognitive abilities, that usually only comes about following a head injury or psychiatric illness.

Korean doctors are finding a growing number of cases of memory problems, attention disorders and emotional flattening among kids and teens spending too much time web searching, texting and using multimedia.

They think young people are at particular risk because their brains are still developing.

“Overuse of smartphones and game devices hampers the balanced development of the brain,” says Byun Gi-won, a medical doctor who runs the Balance Brain Center in southern Seoul, which helps people with cognitive problems related to computers and smartphones.

“Heavy users are likely to develop the left side of their brains, leaving the right side untapped or under developed,” the doctor said. Engaging with computer or mobile devices is the kind of activity that is handled by the left side of the brain, he said.

“Left-brain skills include rational, linear, fact-finding thinking processes whereas right brain skills include intuition, imagination, emotional thoughts,” says Doctor Kim Young-bo at Gachon University Gil Medical Center in Incheon.

“Since smartphone use mostly stimulates the left side of the brain, the right side, which is linked with concentration, eventually degenerates, reducing attention and memory span,” Doctor Kim said.

Psychiatrist Park Ki-jeong warned that the cognitive disorders such as shortened attention span and reduced memory capacity could lead to actual early onset dementia.

“Ten to 15 percent of those with the mild cognitive disorders develop dementia,” he said. “And there’s an increasing number of young people experiencing those disorders.”

The government-run Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service reports that the number of people suffering from cognitive problems in their 20s to 40s jumped to 1,585 last year from 1,160 in 2008.

“From the early 2000s, I’ve seen a drastic increase in patients with reduced memory spans, especially young people. When I looked at it, most of them were exposed of the heavy consumption of digital gadgets,” said Dr. Kim at Gachon University Gil Medical Center in Incheon, who works at the hospital’s brain research institute.

“The gadgets ease the burden of memorizing tedious information but if we don’t use our brain functions, the overall cognitive skills of being aware and perception will ultimately decrease,” he said.

Dr. Choi Jeong-seok of Boramae Medical Center in southern Seoul recently noticed an increase in the number of teens coming to the psychiatry center of the hospital.

“Many of them are affected by mental and cognitive disorders because they are addicted to computer games and smartphones,” he says.

And the number of teens getting hooked on smartphones is only going up, as figures from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announced this month demonstrate.

The percentage of young people between 10 and 19 who use their smartphones for more than seven hours a day was 18.4 percent, a 7 percent increase from last year.

Clinics dedicated to helping teens and young people restore impaired cognitive ability are springing up.

Experts point out that some brain functions are going through major developments at the age of 17 to 19.

“Right and left prefrontal lobes mature at around 17 to 19 so the period is critical,” said Jang Won-woong, a researcher at the Balance Brain center in southern Seoul. “Teens can impair that development by being exposed to many devices.”

Despite such sobering warnings from medical professionals, Korea is now poised to fully adopt digital devices in the classroom, making even broader use of the Internet and computers.

“In reality, using digital media in kindergarten or primary school is actually a way of getting children addicted,” wrote German psychiatrist Manfred Spitzer of the Ulm University Hospital in his 2012 book “Digital Dementia.”

“I’m not sure whether classrooms equipped with advanced technology work well,” said Kim Young-bo of the Gil Hospital. “Children are easily distracted and they are vulnerable to addiction.”

BY BAEK IL-HYUN, PARK EUN-JEE (ejpark@joongang.co.kr)

  

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Topic Outline
Subject Author Message Date ID
If it turns out there's a link, this terrifies me
Jul 16th 2013
1
stop buying your kids excessive shit to pacify them.
Jul 22nd 2013
2
Some crazy addiction statistics from S. Korea (swipe)
Jul 23rd 2013
3
article (and book) gets at roots causes
Mar 13th 2017
4
still moar problems with having tablets raise your chilluns
Mar 27th 2017
5
It's amazing and eerie to watch a toddler become transfixed...
Mar 28th 2017
6
you definitely have to monitor use or it becomes a crutch
Mar 29th 2017
8
      i try really hard not to play the generation card
Mar 29th 2017
9
lol, its not just Peppa Pig
Mar 28th 2017
7
The brain has to be trained like any other organ.
Apr 10th 2017
10

wallysmith
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7808 posts
Tue Jul-16-13 10:34 AM

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1. "If it turns out there's a link, this terrifies me"
In response to Reply # 0


  

          

All too often nowadays I see parents putting an ipad in front of their kids to keep them busy while they go handle something else (not judging, I would do the same). But yeah since the start of the Information Age (and accelerated by smartphones) there's been all sorts of discussions regarding the loss of concentration in adults, let alone kids with developing brains.

I still think it's a bit early to establish links, but South Korea should absolutely be at the forefront of these studies.

  

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Bruce Belafonte
Member since Jan 14th 2008
31999 posts
Mon Jul-22-13 06:05 PM

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2. "stop buying your kids excessive shit to pacify them."
In response to Reply # 0


  

          

http://youtu.be/5o37GORoKUQ

#htpw

  

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wallysmith
Charter member
7808 posts
Tue Jul-23-13 12:27 PM

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3. "Some crazy addiction statistics from S. Korea (swipe)"
In response to Reply # 0


  

          

Over 100% mobile penetration rate among the population (50% for U.S.), with a 65% rate for children 6-19 (37% for U.S.)

In the coming years I think we'll be seeing this trend get worse and worse

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324263404578615162292157222.html?mod=e2tw

A Rising Addiction Among Youths: Smartphones

SEOUL—Lee Yun-soo has some regrets that she replaced her faded old clamshell phone with a smartphone six months ago.


The smartphone-penetration rate among children and teenagers in South Korea tripled last year, and the government says roughly one in five students is addicted to the devices. The WSJ’s Alastair Gale talks with Jake Lee about the problem.

The South Korean high-school student enjoys tweeting funny photos, messaging friends and playing online games. But she said her smartphone is increasingly disrupting her life at school and home.

"I hate doing it but I can't help it," she said as she fiddled with the palm-size gadget.

Ms. Lee is among the roughly 1 in 5 students in South Korea who the government said is addicted to smartphone use. This addiction is defined as spending more than seven hours a day using the phone and experiencing symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia and depression when cut off from the device.

Mobile Mania

South Koreans are among the world's biggest tech users. That can pose problems:

South Korea has reached a mobile-phone penetration rate of more than 100%—meaning some people carry more than one handset—and smartphones represent nearly two-thirds of those devices, according to data from the government.
For comparison, the smartphone-penetration rate in the U.S. was 50.4% as of June, according to the International Telecommunication Union.
The smartphone-penetration rate in South Korean children ages 6 to 19 tripled to 65% last year from a year earlier, according to the Korea Communications Commission. The smartphone addiction rate among teenagers was 18%, double the addiction rate of 9.1% for adults, according to another government survey.
According to the Pew Research Center, 37% of teens in the U.S. had smartphones in 2012.
Earlier this month, the South Korean government said it plans to provide nationwide counseling programs for youngsters by the end of the year and train teachers on how to deal with students with addiction. Taxpayer-funded counseling treatment here already exists for adult addicts.

South Korea, home to the world's biggest smartphone maker, Samsung Electronics, 005930.SE +2.28% prides itself on being the global leader in high-speed Internet and advanced mobile technology. Koreans are some of the first adopters of new digital devices.

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With a mobile-phone penetration rate of more than 100%—meaning some individuals carry more than one handset—and smartphones nearly two-thirds of those devices, the government is setting measures to deal with the problems such heavy exposure has spawned. For comparison, the smartphone penetration rate in the U.S. was 50% as of June, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

Korea has had problems with online-game addiction among teenagers for years thanks to widespread availability of high-speed Internet services. Now that smartphone penetration among teens and children is rising at a faster pace than other groups, the age at which people find it hard to wean themselves from a smartphone is getting lower.

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Associated Press
In many South Korean schools, teachers routinely collect mobile devices from their students during school hours. The government said it plans to train teachers how to deal with students who suffer smartphone addiction.

The smartphone penetration rate in children ages 6 to 19 tripled to 65% last year from a year earlier, according to the Korea Communications Commission. Meanwhile, the smartphone addiction rate among teens was 18%, double the addiction rate of 9.1% for adults, according to another government survey. According to the Pew Research Center, 37% of teens in the U.S. had smartphones in 2012.

"The situation is already serious," said Hwang Tae-hee, an official at South Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality & Family.

The problem is surfacing in other tech-savvy places such as Japan and Taiwan. A survey in Japan found that smartphone use among high school girls tripled last year.

As well as distracting students from their studies, experts say it is damaging interpersonal skills.

"Students today are very bad at reading facial expressions," said Setsuko Tamura, a professor of applied psychology at Tokyo Seitoku University. "When you spend more time texting people instead of talking to them, you don't learn how to read nonverbal language."

In Taiwan, the phenomenon of constantly checking email or social media has led to the label "heads-down tribes." A survey by the Taiwan Network Information Center showed that the number of people accessing the Internet via laptops, tablets or smartphones in the past six months has doubled to a record 5.35 million from a year earlier.

It is standard practice in Korean schools for teachers to collect mobile devices from their students during school hours—with patchy success. "Some of them hide their phones and use them during the break or even in class," said Lee Kyoung-shin, a high-school teacher in Incheon, west of Seoul.

Smartphones are often the most important possession for a young person, said Ms. Tamura of Tokyo Seitoku University. "It represents their connection to their friends. Not participating could mean exclusion from a circle of friends, so we always find that children are terribly anxious to respond to messages," she said.

Smartphone one-upmanship has led to incidents of bullying in Korean schools, where a 12-stage smartphone ranking sets the latest models as "kings" and earlier models as "slaves." Theft is common, said Kim Hoi-kyung, a school supervisor at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. The office in June decided to provide up to 20 million won ($17,830) per school this year to help teachers pay for losses of smartphones in their possession.

Lee Yun-soo, the 18-year-old high-school student, has found a way to avoid the distraction of her smartphone during exam periods: She removes the SIM card, which stores phone numbers, from her Android phone and inserts it into an older, Internet-disabled phone.

"I keep asking myself: 'Why did I buy a smartphone?' Sometimes I stay up all night using Facebook and tweeting. After switching to a smartphone, I quickly became addicted." she said.

  

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howisya
Member since Nov 09th 2002
39983 posts
Mon Mar-13-17 12:04 PM

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4. "article (and book) gets at roots causes"
In response to Reply # 0


  

          

also "an inability to empathize and read social cues" - expert ties to parallel play, for all you parents out there

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/stevens/ct-irresistible-tech-addiction-adam-alter-balancing-0313-20170313-column.html#nt=related-content

  

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howisya
Member since Nov 09th 2002
39983 posts
Mon Mar-27-17 11:13 AM

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5. "still moar problems with having tablets raise your chilluns"
In response to Reply # 0


  

          

https://theoutline.com/post/1239/youtube-has-a-fake-peppa-pig-problem

  

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obsidianchrysalis
Member since Jan 29th 2003
8740 posts
Tue Mar-28-17 04:01 AM

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6. "It's amazing and eerie to watch a toddler become transfixed..."
In response to Reply # 5


  

          

It's amazing and eerie to watch a toddler become transfixed while watching a video. My niece is two and while her parent's let her watch TV sometimes, they rarely let her watch content from a smartphone.

One day at a family party, I noticed that my niece had somehow gotten a hold of an iPad and her face was completely engrossed in the video. I'd seen her become fascinated with a TV show before, but this was different in a way that I don't know how to articulate.

I don't have kids and it's hard to say that I wouldn't let my toddler or infant play with my phone so I can eat my cereal in relative peace. But the truth is that a child's mind is so impressionable at that age and considering that consumer technology is so immersive and seductive for adults, it's reasonable to think that children's exposure ought to be monitored.

  

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RobOne4
Member since Jun 06th 2003
56697 posts
Wed Mar-29-17 04:21 PM

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8. "you definitely have to monitor use or it becomes a crutch"
In response to Reply # 6


  

          

when we would go out my wife would always make sure to have a movie ready to go on her phone. It might be dinner or anything when our son would get bored and antsy. I fought it. Let him be bored once in a while it wont kill him. Bring a book or a toy instead. Let his imagination go. Cut to several years later and he is no longer the only child in the extended family. He has cousins who are a few years younger. I swear I refuse to go out to dinner or anywhere in public with them all together. If they dont have a phone in front of them they are fucking maniacs. Parents rely on that ipad or iphone to babysit them. Once it is out of their hands they go wild. My son has always been very active. Loves going outside and playing sports. But if I were to let him play on his ipad as long as he wants I guarantee you he would sit on that thing all day long. Its easy to see how kids who are not active can get sucked into that shit. Parents have got to stop being lazy.

November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

  

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rob
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23210 posts
Wed Mar-29-17 09:03 PM

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9. "i try really hard not to play the generation card"
In response to Reply # 8


  

          

but there's been a clear difference in people born late 90s/early 00s and people born in the past 10 years.

memorization and patience have always been hard sells for children. but i get kids that have no idea wtf i'm talking about. not even "i don't want to learn things" or "waiting is hard" but "what do you mean i should just know things from practicing?" and "i have never had to wait more than a minute ever."

and their bubbles are huge. they really need a lot of help learning how to deal with other people.

i get a lot of 10 year olds in my class that feel like they've got pre-school habits. and it's not their fault. they get a lot better with help and training, but that takes a lot of time i'd be hoping to use to work on other skills.

it kills me because we're already wired for instant gratification and suck at reflection and long term planning. its a big flaw in our species, and you see how it played out with the boomer generation that's currently in control.

what's this going to look like in 50 years?

  

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Innocent Criminal
Member since May 03rd 2003
14582 posts
Tue Mar-28-17 09:36 AM

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7. "lol, its not just Peppa Pig"
In response to Reply # 5


  

          

My son (3) likes Team Umizoomi and they even have bootlegs of them too. Bootleg ass world's collide videos of Spiderman driving Lightning McQueen in a race against Team Umizoomi and Blaze the Monster Machine. How these channels stay up long enough to have millions of views while Google furiously takes down instructional videos on how to use a breast pump is baffling.

________________________________
There are dozens of us! Dozens!

  

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TheAlbionist
Member since Jul 04th 2011
3306 posts
Mon Apr-10-17 07:48 AM

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10. "The brain has to be trained like any other organ."
In response to Reply # 0
Mon Apr-10-17 07:49 AM by TheAlbionist

  

          

If you never do extended cardio, your lungs and heart will never grow and strengthen to the capacity of doing extended cardio.

If you're raised never having to remember anything, because all the facts are always just a Google away your body may not retain all its ability to remember long-term.

Taken to the extreme, kids could be raised to be human dumb terminals with ultra-fast processing for their sensory inputs and motor control but only ever relaying long-term data from other hosts compared to the stuffed-HDD-needing-a-defrag brains of their ancestors.

_______________________________

))<>((
forever.

  

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