Zone’in Workshops

It was recently reported by a grade 2 teacher that over the past two years, her school had purchased three upgrades to classroom computers, while her requests for much needed repairs to the school playground structure had been ignored.  A principal from Long Island NY reports “I feel as if we’re being swept down this enormous river – we don’t know where were going, or why, but we’re caught in the current.  I think we should stop and take a look before it’s too late.” Stopping and taking a look is exactly what this article titled Balanced Technology Management will offer readers a chance to explore. If daycares, schools and workplaces acknowledge the impact technology has on early child development, academic performance, and worker burnout, then administrators can astutely make intelligent decisions regarding managing balance of said technology. Creating Balanced Technology Management initiatives will ensure that all human beings achieve a balance between technology use, and critical determinants for health e.g. movement, touch and human connection.  This managed balance between technology and health initiatives, will ensure every human being achieves their maximum level of productivity and optimal performance, whether at play, school or work.  Taking a look at new research regarding technology overuse, and then exploring ways to balance that use with health initiatives, will provide readers with useful food for thought when making tough decisions regarding technology.  Please refer to the Zone’in Fact Sheet for research literature references.

The past decade has witnessed an explosion in use of multiple types of technology at home, school and at work.  Time spent plugged in to virtual networks has without a doubt created numerous challenges for parents, teachers and employers alike, as they struggle with regulation and restrictions of an activity that for some has turned into an addiction.  While entertaining, efficient, and down right essential – technology overuse is resulting in significant mental and physical health issues, ultimately impacting on human productivity and well being.  Social isolation, not enough movement, touch, or human connection, as well as lack of exposure to the great outdoors, are all resulting in developmental delays and attachment disorders in children, with subsequent impaired attention and poor academic performance.  Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have found that the likelihood of experiencing symptoms of depression increase by eight percent for every hour of television a young adult views as a teen.  Continuous partial attention (a new term to describe simultaneous use of multiple technologies) is resulting in worker burnout, anxiety and depression, with subsequent lower overall productivity ratings.  The replacement of the home dining room table with “take out” dinners and the big screen TV, and the presence of TV’s in bedrooms, are resulting in epidemic obesity rates and real life disconnection within the family unit.

Citing numerous research studies, Professor Craig A. Anderson with Iowa State University reports in his book Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research and Public Policy that the scientific debate about whether exposure to media violence causes increases in aggressive behavior is over, and should have been about 30 years ago.  Anderson states “For each category exposure to media violence was significantly associated with increased aggression or violence, both in the immediate and long-term contexts.”  Anderson goes on to states that 60% of TV programs, “almost all” video games, and a surprising number of cartoons fit the definition of “violent” content (intentional harm).  Surprisingly, it wasn’t the intensity of violence that attributed to aggressive episodes in children, but rather the frequency of exposure to violent acts (blood and gore didn’t seem to matter).  Check out Robbie Coopers website www.robbiecooper.org “Immersion/Simulations” for an interesting view of children playing violent video games. Another “new age” concern is that aggression can now be acted out online.  11% of elementary children have experienced cyberbullying, and 50% of the time they did not know the offender.  Although cyberbullying generally happens on the home computer, the effects of cyberbullying are acted out on the playground, creating yet another liability and management issue for schools.  These studies have resulted in the American Academies of Physicians, Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Pediatricians joining with the American Medical Association to class media violence as a public health risk, second only to the impact of cigarette smoking on lung cancer incidence.

Dr. Gary Small, neurophysiologist, researcher and author of iBrain: Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind reports that both children and adults who overuse technology are permanently rewiring their neural circuitry.  Researchers reports that MRI’s taken while people use technology (in the tube!) are showing a shift from use of the frontal cortex, to use of other areas of the brain associated with impulsivity and lack of empathy.  The frontal cortex is the area of the brain that helps see the big picture, delay gratification, reason abstractly, and plan ahead.  Dr. Small reports “While the brains of today’s children are wiring up for rapid fire cyber searches, the neural circuits that control the more traditional learning methods are neglected and gradually diminish.”  Another study by Professor Akio Mori with Tokyo Nihon University found that the use of video games actually suppress frontal lobe activity, and that chronic players who play greater that 2 hours per day, actually develop “video game brain”, a syndrome that essentially turns off the frontal lobes, even when kids are not playing video games.  Video game use also takes its toll on the body through activation of the body’s autonomic nervous system, with increased blood pressure and heart rate, and subsequent chronic release of adrenaline.  Children’s bodies don’t understand they are not in real danger while playing violent video games, and subsequently are in a prolonged state of sympathetic fright, flight or fight.  Chronic stress states in adults have been found to have numerous negative effects on not only physical health, but brain function as well.  Long term consequences of chronic stress states by overuse of video games in children have not yet been adequately studied.  Could children who play excessive violent video games develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? Dr. Small proposes “Are we rearing a new generation with underdeveloped frontal lobes – a group of young people unable to learn, remember, feel, or control their impulses? Or will they develop new advanced skills that will poise them for extraordinary achievements?”

The answers to this question are varied.  Technology is not intrinsically bad (with the exception of violent media), but requires management to achieve lifestyle balance.  Consider for a moment that each developing person’s 24 hour day is a pie, sectioned off according to activity duration.  A 2005 Kaiser Foundation Study and Stanford University study of more than 2000 children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 years found that total daily media exposure had increased over the previous five years from seven hours twenty-nine minutes to eight hours thirty-three minutes.  Today’s children are spending more than one third of their “pie” exposed to digital technology, yet studies show that children require 3-4 hours per day of rough and tumble play to achieve not only motor and sensory milestones, but also socialization.  While technology use does have many positive attributes, negative effects on physical and mental health, academic performance, work productivity, sleep, and behaviors such as aggression, depression and anxiety, suggest caution and careful planning.  Each individual would benefit from discovering their “just right” level of technology to promote academic and workplace achievements, but also understand how to balance this technology with activities that promote physical and mental health.  Children obviously need help with managing this difficult task.  Achieving this balance will promote optimal brain efficiency, while maintaining a place on the world stage as leaders in advanced technology.

In order assist with creating technology balance at home, school and work, Zone’in Programs Inc. extended an invitation to technology production companies to partner with communities and schools in child health initiatives, see Linking Corporations to Communities Initiative.  Zone’in Programs Inc. is very pleased to announce that Bill Gates Microsoft Corporation is the first technology production company to express an interest in this unique endeavor.  The Balanced Technology Management (BTM) concept follows the premise that frequent planned breaks from technology use, will result in improved physical and mental health and positively impact on overall worker and student productivity.  BTM recommends one (waking) hour per day, one day per week, and one week per year all individuals participate in a virtual “unplug”, during which no technology is used.  BTM suggests the one hour per day be during family dinner, one day per week be Saturday to play sport, do errands or household chores, and one week per year be the first week back to school after Christmas.  This crucial time of no technology use will help individuals “re-set” their priorities for necessary movement and human connection through the development of alternate activities.  For the home setting, Zone’in Program Inc offers assistance in the form of informative workshops and products to assist families with identification and enhancement of performance skills in developing new activities prior to technology reduction.  Cold turkey unplugs are not rec3ommended, as many children haven’t developed skills in other activities of interest except technology.  The Mixed Signals workshop, Unplug’in Game, and the Technology Reduction Module are available to assist parents and teachers in both home and schools settings to achieve balanced management of technology.  For workplaces, Zone’in Programs Inc. offers the Balanced Technology Management workshop to assist Information Technology Managers in developing protocols and methods on how to balance technology use with ensuring adequate engagement in healthy alternatives.

Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.  Robert Kiyosaki

What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.  Napoleon Hill

We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.  Max Depree

You must be the change you want to see in the world.  Mahatma Gandhi