Clinton Dorny, Executive Director, and Thomas Holmes, Family Service Coordinator and Media Manager, both with Discovery Ranch, Utah, a therapeutic Boarding School for Boys and Girls, explained to Lon Woodbury on Parent Choices For Struggling Teens on L.A. Talk Radio and the blessing and curse of online media for developing the teenage brains in the digital world. The key question was: "It's here to stay - now what?"
What's Going On With The Teenage Brain in the Digital World?
The chat began with a remarkable story concerning a young adult who was the third best player in the world in the World of Warcraft game. He spent 17 hours before the computer system, and he was unhealthy, very thin, and angry when he appeared at Discovery Ranch. Throughout his first couple of days, he verbally assaulted everybody around him.
The visitors clarified exactly how Discovery Ranch concentrated on detoxifying teens from modern technology. Findings showed that teens spent approximately 81/2 hours making use of electronic innovation. If you added in television, the numbers go up to 11 hrs. In one intensive research study done in the United Kingdom, as many as 1000 college students from 12 unrelated campuses were unable to refrain from using a cell phone or PC within a one day period, despite a promise to refrain/. They apparently experienced sensations of extreme misery, anxiety, and helplessness.
Much of this dependence on technology is a psychological coping skill since it helps adolescents retreat from life problems and ignore their own unsolved emotional issues. Discovery Ranch severs this dependency on technical innovation by making kids go mountain climbing, hiking, rappelling or do equine therapy.
When teens first arrive at Discovery Ranch, they are told that they will not have any technology privileges. This news impacts them strongly. They feel flustered and upset, and either act out aggressively or passively.
Excessive media use is considered a process addiction. Withdrawal from digital devices creates emotions that are similar to withdrawal from drugs. Digital addiction results in low communication skills, especially in interpersonal skills. Equine therapy helps them read non-verbal messages. They are literal thinkers, very black and white.
Retraining the digital brain consists of equine therapy. This therapy helps teens develop coping skills, develop self-confidence, and get out of their comfort zones. There are also team building activities to help them learn how to get along with others.
Some things that parents can do to limit this obsession with modern technology is to have no laptop computers and no mobile phone's. Computer systems should be protected with passwords and positioned in public locations like the living-room.
What's Going On With The Teenage Brain in the Digital World?
The chat began with a remarkable story concerning a young adult who was the third best player in the world in the World of Warcraft game. He spent 17 hours before the computer system, and he was unhealthy, very thin, and angry when he appeared at Discovery Ranch. Throughout his first couple of days, he verbally assaulted everybody around him.
The visitors clarified exactly how Discovery Ranch concentrated on detoxifying teens from modern technology. Findings showed that teens spent approximately 81/2 hours making use of electronic innovation. If you added in television, the numbers go up to 11 hrs. In one intensive research study done in the United Kingdom, as many as 1000 college students from 12 unrelated campuses were unable to refrain from using a cell phone or PC within a one day period, despite a promise to refrain/. They apparently experienced sensations of extreme misery, anxiety, and helplessness.
Much of this dependence on technology is a psychological coping skill since it helps adolescents retreat from life problems and ignore their own unsolved emotional issues. Discovery Ranch severs this dependency on technical innovation by making kids go mountain climbing, hiking, rappelling or do equine therapy.
When teens first arrive at Discovery Ranch, they are told that they will not have any technology privileges. This news impacts them strongly. They feel flustered and upset, and either act out aggressively or passively.
Excessive media use is considered a process addiction. Withdrawal from digital devices creates emotions that are similar to withdrawal from drugs. Digital addiction results in low communication skills, especially in interpersonal skills. Equine therapy helps them read non-verbal messages. They are literal thinkers, very black and white.
Retraining the digital brain consists of equine therapy. This therapy helps teens develop coping skills, develop self-confidence, and get out of their comfort zones. There are also team building activities to help them learn how to get along with others.
Some things that parents can do to limit this obsession with modern technology is to have no laptop computers and no mobile phone's. Computer systems should be protected with passwords and positioned in public locations like the living-room.
About the Author:
Find out more about Struggling Teens. Lon Woodbury has the recorded the entire interview on his L.A. Talk Radio show for people to listen to at any time.
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