Are your children at risk of digital dementia?
You may be just as disturbed by the term digital dementia as I was.
I fortunately enough stumbled upon the term some time back and unfortunately had to accept the fact that what happened to me recently may have very well been a symptom of the very issue.
Let me explain:
I recently had a conversation with someone about how I despise seafood and was trying to give the lady I was talking to a list of those foods that I didn’t enjoy, and I wanted to mention that mussels (yup, those tiny little slimy things) were one of those foods that I just found repulsive to my pallet, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t remember the word at all. It was as if my brain just “forgot” the word completely.
I knew it started with an “M” and I could explain what they looked like etc, but my brain just didn’t want to remember. I got really scared. Only after changing the conversation and about 10 minutes later did the word suddenly POPPED into my head – MUSSELS. How could I forget a word so obvious? It really bothered me and by that evening I had remembered that I read some information on DIGITAL DIMENTIA.
What is digital dementia?
Did you know the term digital dementia is as old as 2012 when neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer dubbed it as an overuse of digital technology that results in the breakdown of cognitive abilities?
The main contributing factor is technology that rules our daily lives and excessive screen time has affected us. The overuse of technology is literally depriving our brains of the ability to think for ourselves. Think about it, our much older generations had to memorize a lot of things like telephone numbers, important dates etc.
These days everything is so instant and almost every important date or task is calendarized automatically – no need to really try and remember anymore. It is as if technology has made our brains lazy much to our own detriment as it is leading our younger generations to the point of facing early on-set dementia and or Alzheimer’s disease, and we can prevent it from happening.
A study recently revealed that elementary-age children use entertainment technology for an average of 7.5 hours a day – that means almost all the time they could or rather should be spending on natural playtime is wasted on something that is causing symptoms such as :
- Developmental delays
- Short-term memory loss
- Social seclusion
- Lack of movement
- Anxiety
- Depression
What can we do to prevent digital dementia?
- Try and limit screen time to no more than 3 hours per day
- Take regular breaks as often as possible
- Focus on your posture whilst enjoying screen time. Looking down at your screen causes a decrease in your alertness levels due to the resting state of your brain
- Invest in regular physical exercise to maintain memory and cognitive function and overall improve your brain’s sharpness
- When going to bed – shut off your WIFI router to ensure limited radiation whilst you are sleeping
- Engage in mental exercises such as reading, puzzles, arts and crafts, etc. as it engages multiple parts of the brain
Should you be interested, we have some excellent games you might want to check out that can keep your youngster entertained and mentally engaged.
We also offer an excellent reading program that is sure to benefit your child’s development as well as cultivate a love for reading so much so that they just might even trade in their phone for a book. -Now how’s that for a great health benefit?
