{"id":5333,"date":"2012-12-24T10:33:10","date_gmt":"2012-12-24T16:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=5333"},"modified":"2021-09-06T12:02:37","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T17:02:37","slug":"digital-excess-and-cognitive-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/24\/digital-excess-and-cognitive-decline","title":{"rendered":"Digital Excess and Cognitive Decline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Try this experiment. Sit somewhere unobserved, like a Starbuck\u2019s or a doctor\u2019s waiting room, and just watch people. If you see someone sitting alone, likely she\u2019ll be checking her smart phone or laptop or plugging into music. People sitting in groups of two or more will interrupt themselves to glance at their phones, text-checking. If someone\u2019s phone actually rings or vibrates, watch for the sudden startle response, a mini-version of the fight-or-flight response that protects us from muggers and marauding bears, now mainly used for phone answering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, devices seem to always trump personal interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think about it, just about everyone in your field of vision does something during the day that involves something digital. Many are engaged in what\u2019s widely called multi-tasking. Of course when we multi-task we don\u2019t really perform two or more tasks at the same moment. We simply spend less time on each effort, incessantly shifting focus and attention. And after a day in the digital world, we return home, where we continue to use our electronic devices for personal use, TV\u2019s 800 cable channels and 50,000 Netflix movies at the ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the latest data, kids 8 to 18 spend 7.5 hours every day amusing themselves with screen time (TV, video games, phone) and listen to most of their music (and conduct phone conversations) with ear buds in position. This prepares them well for the adult digital life we observed in our earlier Starbuck\u2019s\/doctor\u2019s office experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is a life like this–incessantly audiovisual when young, nonstop screen and phone checking as we get older–\u201cbad\u201d for us? Are there long-term health consequences? Since the digital world that dominates our lives hasn\u2019t been around long, we simply don\u2019t know. But given what we\u2019re observing now, we can make some educated guesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital-free camping<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For example, when psychologists took a group of 20-somethings on a five-day, digital-free camping trip, based on well-conceived psychological testing there was a 50% increase in their creative skills when they returned<\/a>. You really can\u2019t interpret a study like this to prove that a 24\/7 digital world will necessarily result in a decline of creativity, but our minds do need stimulus-free down time to develop new ideas. In a beautiful phraseology, the study\u2019s authors write: “Our modern society is filled with sudden events (sirens, horns, ringing phones, alarms, television, etc.) that hijack attention. By contrast, natural environments are associated with gentle, soft fascination, allowing the executive attentional system to replenish.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its own way, being on a nature trip like this, freeing your mind to wander or concentrate as you desire, is similar to practicing mindfulness meditation<\/a>, a brain exercise anyone can learn that also has been shown to boost creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of research has been done on mindfulness meditation, perhaps most exciting its ability to rewire your brain (no matter how old you are), activating the prefrontal cortex so that your brain functions like that of someone younger than you. Practicing mindfulness meditation also increases connectivity in the very areas affected most dramatically by the cognitive decline of aging and Alzheimer\u2019s. It\u2019s even tempting to conjecture that cognitive decline could be prevented by 15 to 30 minutes of daily mindfulness meditation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can\u2019t practice mindfulness meditation and text-check at the same time. The question then might be asked, \u201cAre we even capable of being digital-free for a block of time each day? Is it too late to change?\u201d Apparently, changing is a lot harder than we think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital detox, now with analog games<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The New York Times recently reported that an enterprising couple, themselves once severe digital addicts, were organizing device-free \u201cDigital Detox<\/a>\u201d parties. In addition to the standard party fare of drinks and munchies were all sorts of analog distractions for idle hands, including board games, colored thread for friendship bracelets, and manual typewriters. And yes, it was very (very!) difficult for many people. The reporter writes that a woman who worked the entry door checking in digital devices \u201cthought she had seen the unpretty face of addiction\u201d and withdrawal, with one guest reporting \u201cMy whole life is on this phone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We really don\u2019t know the long-range effects of 7 \u00bd hours of daily screen time on young people. Nor do we know what happens to our brains when we\u2019re endlessly interrupted by  miniaturized startle responses. But let\u2019s face facts–it doesn\u2019t sound healthy. Are we in the foothills of a collective cognitive decline, just like we all might be going deaf from ear buds?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve certainly observed the stress response in my patients who come into the examining room having forgotten to turn off their phones. One was in the midst of relating a troubling health issue when her phone rang (I\u2019ve never been able to completely enjoy Ode to Joy from Beethoven\u2019s Ninth since phones started blasting it). She embarrassedly fumbled with her handbag to silence the monster. Two minutes later, it rang again. \u201cDamn, I thought I\u2019d turned it off. I\u2019m so sorry.\u201d Now she\u2019s lost track of what she was telling me. Two minutes later, again. Now she\u2019s really startled. \u201cI am so sorry, Dr E, it\u2019s a new phone and I can\u2019t seem to get the off button right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These events seems to upset my patients far more than me, but as I sit and watch I worry that anyone could actually live like this. After this visit, my patient will leave the office, turn her phone on (correctly), and all day long be besieged by ringing or by its more ubiquitous cousin, \u201cchecking,\u201d \u201cchecking,\u201d \u201cchecking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This might be a good time to consider your own personal digital detox. Immerse yourself in nature by taking a trip or simply going for an untethered walk in the park. Consider a course in mindfulness meditation. Open up a few new brain pathways and\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be well,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Edelberg, MD<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Try this experiment. Sit somewhere unobserved, like a Starbuck\u2019s or a doctor\u2019s waiting room, and just watch people. If you see someone sitting alone, likely she\u2019ll be checking her smart phone or laptop or plugging into music. People sitting in groups of two or more will interrupt themselves to glance at their phones, text-checking. 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