While there are benefits to screens, it’s also important to consider what it’s doing to our brains. Our nervous systems and prefrontal cortex were designed to protect us from real danger, not perceived. Doctors research how our well intended reward pathways are being impacted. I have uncovered my own list of behavior changes since we increased your screen time and will try to protect you from becoming addicted and affected.
BENEFITS
Some areas I can agree that screens will be beneficial to you are enhancing visual perception, improving ability to switch between multiple tasks, better information processing, ability to make the brain more receptive to change, enhance visual capabilities, manipulate the memory centers of the brain, strategy skills, and making decisions that have both an immediate and long-term impact. However, when we become accustomed to some of these higher levels of processing, it makes it more difficult to focus within a classroom or setting that isn’t as engaging.
Another benefit is the interaction permitted through chatting and excelling in the world of gaming can provide a sense of mastery and confidence they could be missing from their actual lives. I appreciate when you game with others, strengthening your relationship when bonding together. This is the very reason I try to play with you. As long as you don’t give me the broken remote again. 😉
Finally, “the human brain is wired to crave instant gratification, fast pace, and unpredictability. All three are satisfied in video games.”2
NERVOUS SYSTEM
An area that causes me the most concern is that God designed our nervous system to respond to danger in a way that protects us. It’s called hyperarousal and referred to as the fight-or-flight response. Many video games create this same response, yet we don’t have an opportunity to self-regulate the way God intended, by physically discharging this built up energy (in real life using our muscles that have been pumped full of blood and using up all the chemicals released into our bodies). Our brain isn’t able to differentiate between real and virtual danger. The most terrifying part is that when this occurs too often, or too intensely, the brain struggles returning to its calm state, leading to chronic stress (which affects the mind and body). This could be alleviated by agreeing to play 15 minutes and then running and playing outside in God’s beautiful creation.
“Once chronic stress sets in, blood flow is directed away from the higher thinking part of the brain (the frontal lobe) and toward the more primitive, deeper areas necessary for survival, causing impairment in functioning. With children, whose nervous systems are still developing, this sequence of events occurs much faster than it does for adults, and the chronically stressed child soon starts to struggle.”2
“Because chronic stress effectively “short circuits” the frontal lobe, a hyperaroused and mentally depleted child will have trouble paying attention, managing emotions, suppressing impulses, following directions, tolerating frustration, accessing creativity and compassion, and executing tasks. All of these effects are compounded by screen time disrupting the body clock and hindering deep sleep. The science confirms that blue light exposure results in delayed melatonin release in the brain, which in turn makes it harder for kids and teens to fall asleep, decrease in Total Sleep Time, an increase in Sleep Onset Latency and modifications to both REM and Slow Wave Sleep cycles. In fact, the effects on sleep alone can explain many of the mood, cognitive, and behavior issues associated with screens, and also explain how screen effects can build over time, making them easy to miss.”2
PREFRONTAL CORTEX
Only recently have doctors considered what these games are doing to the brain matter. Many researchers believe that excessive gaming before age 21 can physically rewire the brain. “As far back as the early 1990s, scientists warned that because video games only stimulate brain regions that control vision and movement, other parts of the mind responsible for behavior, emotion, and learning could become underdeveloped.”2 The adolescent brain is very impressionable and we’d like to protect your prefrontal cortex, which judgment, decision making, emotional regulation, executive function, and impulse control are regulated.
“Playing violent video games for as little as 30 minutes immediately lowered activity in the prefrontal regions of the brain compared to those who participated in a non-violent game. Just 10–20 minutes of violent gaming increased activity in the brain regions associated with arousal, anxiety, and emotional reaction, while simultaneously reducing activity in the frontal lobes associated with emotion regulation and executive control.”2
It also causes the blood from your stomach, kidneys, liver, and bladder to move towards your limbs and heart, increasing your blood pressure and heart rate… prepared for your fight or flight response. This reaction that God designed to help you can often leave you feeling foggy, listless, weepy, and exhausted. Again, it was only meant for real danger and not perceived.
I know you’ve only had a handful of opportunities to have excessive screens, such as birthdays and time with grandparents, but please admit that you can feel a difference for a few days following those circumstances. Doctors have performed brain scans using MRIs to determine the affects and can visually testify to gray matter and pruning on the thinking part of the brain on those that play excessively.
“Practicing anything repetitively physically changes the brain. With time and effort, you get better at the specific task you’re practicing, whether it’s shooting at the enemy in a video game or hitting a baseball. Those repetitive actions and thoughts stimulate connections between brain cells, creating neural pathways between different parts of your brain. The more you practice a certain activity, the stronger that neural pathway becomes. That’s the structural basis of learning. Neural pathways that are not used eventually get pruned.”2
REWARD PATHWAYS
“The amount of dopamine (a chemical that makes us feel joy) released while playing video games was similar to what is seen after intravenous injection of the stimulant drugs amphetamine or methylphenidate. With all that extra dopamine lurking around, the brain gets the message to produce less of this critical neurotransmitter. The end result: players can end up with a diminished supply of dopamine (joy).The dopamine release that comes from gaming is so powerful, say researchers, it can almost shut the prefrontal regions down.”2
This is helpful when you are gaming because it helps you sustain your interest for longer amounts of time, keep you focused, and elevate your mood. The chain reaction now causes your body to release a stress chemical called cortisol, which is the body’s master stress hormone, relating to mood, motivation and fear, and is released as a response to stress, alongside adrenaline. It takes a few minutes to have an effect, but it diverts energy away from the immune system, starts sugar cravings, increases blood pressure and halts digestion. “It can take weeks for your body, brain, and mind to return to a normal sense of balance.”
“Eventually, your child’s brain will need more and more stimulation to produce dopamine, which they will only be able to get from video games (or I would think drugs). When this happens, it leads to even more dependence. Breaking this cycle early is important and will help your child in the long run.”4
ADDICTIONS
Addictions are more difficult to break, than prevent. My goal as loving parents is to create guardrails to protect you from this. Some signs I’ve noticed is the desire to spend excessive amounts of time on screens, becoming defensive when confronted, losing track of time, preferring to spend more time with the computer than with friends or family (not often, but definitely has potential), losing interest in previously important activities, becoming moody/ irritable, and attempting to hide gaming activities.
SIDE EFFECTS I’VE NOTICED
You know I’m similar to Beverly Goldberg and constantly looking for what or who is harming my babies. I’ve noticed this since back in the day when I only allowed Eli to watch Baby Einstein after reading about rapid eye movement when watching the traditional toddler shows… and witnessing his little eyes rapidly flicker while watching the screen change up to 10 times per second.
Since I’ve increased the amount of time you could play and even allowed one of you to play Fort Nite and PubG, I’ve noticed more aggression from both boys, more crying from both boys, more disrespect from both boys, more tics from one boy, more headaches for one boy, bored and lacking creativity from both boys, requesting screens much more often by all three kids, more likely to stretch the truth or become confused or forgetful from all three kids, more argumentative and defensive from one boy, losing track of time from all three kids, craving more sugar from all three, and not getting quality sleep from one boy.
This list in itself makes me curious as to why screens have affected the boys more than our daughter. Until I realized that I based how much screens they have earned on kindness and following through with requests made. While she is one of the kindest people I know, she is still learning how to follow through, proving that she hasn’t been affected because she hasn’t earned the freedom to play screens as often.
In closing, as nervous as I am about excessive screens, I believe we can come up with an amount and conditions that we both agree are healthy, that won’t damage your God given gifts of a healthy nervous system and prefrontal cortex. These will both help you become exactly who God created you to be. Your reward pathways will still enjoy things like time with family and friends on a gorgeous sunny day or riding your bike. We can celebrate your behavior versus nagging you to not body-slam your younger sibling “for fun” and we can be confident that you won’t become an addicted “screen-ager!”
Citations:
1- How Do Video Games Affect Brain Development in Children and Teens?
By AMY PATUREL MS, MPH (master of Science and Master of Public Health, American Academy of Neurology
2. This Is Your Child’s Brain on Video Games
Victoria L. Dunckley M.D. of Mental Health), Psychology Today
3. What Happens to Kids’ Brains When They Play Video Games, According to a Psychologist
By Emma Singer
4. 11 Ways Video Games Affect a Child’s Brain