As I wind down reading Stolen Focus by Johann Hari, I cannot help but write this blog post. What I read was deeply troubling yet I always, sort of, knew it existed. Reading about children and how they handle stress worried me because I have seen first-hand how kids pick up on stressful environments they are in. Just because they are young does not mean they have no responsibilities. The fact that this topic was then related back to our addiction to technology made a whole lot more sense when looking at the bigger problem. It’s no wonder we have a hard time putting our phones down, when the world around us can be quite scary.

Bad Behavior or Trauma?

In chapter 10 Johann speaks to Nadine Burke Harris who works with children and studies their childhood experiences, linking those to health affects later in their life. She has met plenty of children who have some sort of anxiousness, or major anxiety and have been diagnosed as having ADHD or trouble focusing on school. She has reported that a lot of children don’t have ADHD, they are just in a hypervigilant state. Meaning that instead of focusing on school or playing with friends, they are focused on a dangerous situation that has happened to them and trying to look out for similar dangers ahead. I found this back and forth between Nadine and Johann especially interesting because this attention stealing state is something that happens naturally in the human brain. It’s there to protect us, but it seems unfair that some young children experience things so traumatic that it stays with them. I continued listening to the audio of this chapter online, where Nadine explains how she talks to the parents of these children and how she explains to them that their home life has affected their child’s mind. The good news is that its reversible when the parents help to create a stable environment, and remove the stressful situation at hand.

Children and Tech

As our children enter their primary school years, it’s now common for kids to have cell phones, iPads, and even social media accounts. However, many studies have been done showing harm to children when social media is too embedded in their lives. I visited the Humane Tech’s website which had a great article on social media and children. It gave some staggering statistics, for example, kids and teens spend an average of 91 minutes a day on the TikTok app, and about 62% of 12–18-year-olds are on some kind of social media daily! This may not seem so bad but when you see the studies behind it, the future becomes worry some. The fact that exposure to unrestricted digital technology can prevent child development and literally change brain structure means we are setting our kids up for failure as they become adults. They won’t be able to function without social media, they will have addictive tendencies and will have trouble in social situations and interactions. This is not how we want our next generation growing up.

The dangers of digital technology are real, and they are slowly controlling us as we become more susceptible to addictive tendencies. If we continue to see children being exposed to trauma inducing situations, we can only expect them to be more addicted to their phones and devices. I want the best for the next generation, and I believe one way in doing that is limiting the internet and social media until they are older. I personally don’t think it’s necessary to be online at such a young age when they should be exploring the world. Social media and the internet will always be around, we just have to know how to set boundaries.

As I prepare to start writing my first white paper on the troubles of technology in the workplace, this chapter made me realize that a lot of the digital issues stem from growing up with the internet and we just don’t know any other way. It’s going to take a lot of effort to change our habits and our daily routines if we hope to better our relationship with technology. But luckily, we have the power to change and the tools to do it! Hearing all the positive reviews from people who have done a digital detox and have limited social media have inspired me to permanently change my ways and I hope it sparks something inside of you dear reader as well.