Tiny Little Addicts

Anyone who enrolls a child at Philomath Montessori School , within a fairly short time, gets to hear why I am so opposed to children, especially under the age of 6, when most brain development occurs, being exposed to screen entertainments such as educational video games, educational TV programs or movies.  I try not to harp as I know people are going to do what they are going to do and I don't wish to sour our 3-4 year professional relationship - longer, if they enroll multiple children.  The gist, though, is this:  When the growing brain receives stimulus, (and everything is stimulus) whether counting to ten, brushing one's teeth, touching a worm or eating spaghetti, the stimulus enters the brain through the senses.  Once in the brain, the information seeks a neural path.  As it travels this path, it leaps from neuron to neuron.  It jumps over the synapses (gaps) between the neurons and as it does so, a myelin sheath begins to form, creating a tube around that gap.  Each time information passes through that synapse, more myelin is laid down, eventually creating a swifter and surer path for that information to travel.  Same and similar stimuli tend to follow that same path.  Information moving around the brain tends to take the path of least resistance, the already myelinized path.

When viewing a screen, whose essence is movement and light and noise, that stimulus travels to the lower regions of the brain responsible for emotion and the fight/flight response.  It continually stimulates these regions, laying down lots of myelin  here, creating  neural superhighways in this area.  Since this area becomes so well myelinized, it becomes the area of choice for future information (the path of least resistance.)  What about the rest of the brain such as the areas more towards the crown and forehead where language and higher cognitive thinking take place?  They tend not to be stimulated, activated, myelinized and connected because the information is stuck rambling around the lower, more reptilian brain which has been so well-traveled by all this screen time.  So, you see, the ramifications of screen time last long after the viewing is over.  The viewing has rather short-circuited the cognitive areas of the brain and has prevented stimuli from reaching it, giving it little to work on to myelinize itself. 

Now it gets worse.  Last Sunday, on ABC News, I heard a report about women who play this video game called "Candy Crush."  It  seems pretty mindless, having to do with matching up pretty candies, getting 3 in a row and eliminating certain ones.  Women are becoming addicted to this game!  They are neglecting their families, imperiling their careers, forgoing sleep, damaging their health and abusing their relationships because the lure of this game is so irresistible.  You see, the bright colors and movement and the little rewards/celebrations that the game provides when you have a small success (and don't children's educational games provide this same sort of positive feedback? These same bright colors and movement?)  stimulates the pleasure centers in the brain, releasing dopamine, the feel-good chemical.  Just like drugs, alcohol, sex or a flaky pastry crust does.  It creates addiction.  We know, of course, that alcohol use in the young is especially dangerous because as the young brain is still in development, exposure to alcohol is much more likely to create dependence than if one waits until adulthood to try it.  We don't have to move the dots very much closer together to see that any addictive habit is more likely to take root the younger we are when exposed to it.  Are you alarmed?  Me, too!

Those of you whose children or who you, yourselves, already have the video game bug will probably dismiss this as alarmist poppycock.  You really enjoy your technology and you enjoy the peace and quiet that the technology provides in your household while your children are engaged with it.  This is human nature.  It is much easier to choose to believe this habit is harmless than it is to make change.  I have succumbed to the siren song of denial many, many times in my life, too.....     But I don't have kids and the stakes are not as high.  I invite you to do your own research on how TV, videos and tech gadgets affect the young child.  You can probably write an even better blog post and publish it here.  We don't want to rear an army of tiny little addicts, jonesing for the next video fix, obsessing with when they can have their next hour of movie time, missing out on the life that is right there in front of them in all its glory.  The shackles of addiction keep us from appreciating the beauty and wonder and challenges of life itself.  We certainly don't want to set our children up for such a fate.

Best Regards,
Doni