Even 'smart TV' harms baby brains, doctor says

Programs for infants overstimulate and raise risk of Attention Deficit Disorder
It took just a few hours of watching CNN while cradling his colicky son to make Dr. Dimitri Christakis suspect parents should severely limit the time infants watch TV.

Now he hopes 25 years worth of research will finally prove it.

In one of the most extensive reviews of its kind, the Seattle pediatrician says infant-aimed DVDs such as Baby Einstein, and even award-winning kids' shows like Sesame Street, can do more harm than good to children under the age of 2.

In fact, the sensory overload of all those colours, sounds and sights – be it Big Bird or Baby Mozart – may be at least partly to blame for the tenfold increase in cases of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the past 20 years. It now affects between 5 and 20 per cent of American children.

He even accepts some of the blame. He believes scientists such as him have helped create the trend.

"There is now an obsession with having smart kids," Christakis said in a telephone interview yesterday.

"I think we scientists have managed to convince people, rightly, that these early years are really important. But the problem is we've created a neurosis around optimizing them and that's spawned industries that essentially now prey on people's obsession and fear."

Nine out of 10 children under the age of two watch TV regularly – some spend up to 40 per cent of the daytime in front of the tube – "despite ongoing warnings" from the American Academy of Pediatrics that they shouldn't, he says in his review of 78 studies done over 25 years – including his own survey of 1,000 U.S. families – in the January issue of Acta Paediatrica, a monthly pediatrics journal. In his survey, published in 2007, he found 29 per cent of families let infants watch TV because "it's good for their brain," while 24 per cent use it as a "babysitter."

In 1971, the average age that children started watching TV was 4 years old. Today, it's four to five months, he says. Now that there's so much scientific evidence that too much, too early, is "rewiring" infants' tiny brains he's calling for tough regulation. France, for instance, recently moved to curtail the broadcasting of shows aimed at children under 3, which has affected 24-hour channels such as Baby TV.

The sale of "baby DVDs" in the U.S. alone is now a $500 million industry. Millions of dollars in marketing by such giants as Disney-owned Baby Einstein and Georgia-based Brainy Baby, whose officials couldn't be reached for comment, have helped persuade too many parents – with no proof – that they're doing a good thing for their children, says Christakis. Studies have shown the opposite is true, that baby programs can actually delay language development (infants learn better from "live presentations") and harm attention spans.

The "flashing lights, scene changes, quick edits and auditory cuts" may be "overstimulating to developing brains," says Christakis, who suspected this 11 years ago when he was homebound with his colicky son and looked to CNN for relief. He noticed the baby was mesmerized by the light and sound show, and wondered why, since "he obviously didn't understand what was being conveyed."

"The truth is that we're in the midst of a large, uncontrolled experiment on the next generation of children. We're not going to know for years what the effects of all this exposure to TV will mean, in a scientific sense. But I'm concerned that we're not going to be pleased with the results."

This is, of course, an endless debate amongst parents, such as Toronto mother Naomi Lieberman, whose now two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Julie, tried the Baby Einstein DVDs and wasn't wowed, and Whitby mother Lesley Kelz, a graphic designer who works at home with two young children and considers TV "my friend."

"If there were deadlines, I've had to say, `Go watch TV.' I was in the same (family) room. But there's such guilt. That drove me crazy for so long," Kelz says.

Lieberman and her husband, on the other hand, try to stick to books, games and puzzles and are grateful for a toddler and a four-month-old baby who don't seem to care about the big screen.

"But I know they're going to watch TV eventually. It's just a question of time."

Are you addicted to Facebook?

Facebook has become an indispensable way to find new and old friends, schedule events, play games and even send virtual gifts.

But if you’re doing more living online than off, it might be time to reassess things. Many students are now seeing Facebook more as an addiction than a useful networking tool, and some psychologists agree.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Are personal relationships taking a backseat to Facebook?
Do you think about Facebook even when you’re offline?
Do you use Facebook to escape problems or homework?
Do you stay on Facebook longer than a couple of minutes?
Have you ever concealed Facebook use?

If you answered yes to any, you may have an addiction.

Frequently logging onto Facebook actually cause something that psychologists refer to as "intermittent reinforcement".

Notifications, messages and invites reward you with an unpredictable high, much like gambling does. That anticipation can get dangerously addictive.

Rob Bedi, a registered psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Victoria, said that Internet addictions are common on university campuses, often helped by free high speed internet access, web-based assignments and unstructured blocks of time.

Rob Bedi said there’s a difference between procrastination and addiction. If you’re losing assignment time to Facebook, though, that’s a problem.

The key may be as simple as diagnosing your triggers and changing your habits.

“Find out what’s missing from your life,” said Bedi. “Whether it’s having too much free time, not knowing anyone or just "escaping reality", think about what made you resort to Facebook, and what you could be doing instead.”

Rob Bedi suggests keeping a log to track your Facebook usage time. If you’re shocked by what you see, try the following: List your Facebook goals. Why did you originally sign up? Record what you actually do on Facebook. Make a Facebook schedule. Limit time to maintaining your original goals. Update your account e-mail addresses to avoid relying on your Facebook messages.

Rob Bedi also suggested changing your password to something unfamiliar, including numbers, writing it on a piece of paper and placing it out of reach to make checking Facebook a chore. Repeat if necessary to curb your behaviour.

“This is not something you can quit cold turkey,” said Bedi. “While a cocaine addict can put down his drug and an alcoholic his drink, you can’t preach abstinence to a student society that functions on Internet usage. What you can do is practice control.”
For some people, talking with someone might be the answer. Many universities offer addiction counselling through student services.

If you’re not quite ready for that, you could join one of the 155 Facebook Addicts Anonymous groups on Facebook itself – but that might defeat the purpose.


Are you an Facebook addict? 5 signs to look out for are:

1. You are late for meetings because you are on Facebook

If you ever late for a meeting or an appointment because you were checking your updates on your Facebook wall or watching a related video on Youtube then you know you are addicted. This is classic addict behavior. It's time to get help.

2. You think about it when you are offline
You're at work, shopping, out having a meal, and you find yourself wondering if you have any messages in your Facebook inbox, your wall posts have gotten any replies, or if anyone has posted to your wall... You have an addiction

3. Your friends and family comment on your excessive internet use
When other people around you start to notice that you have a problem it is generally a pretty accurate indicator that you are losing it. If your mate, coworkers or family members have made comments about how much you use the net then you need to continue to read the rest of this post.

4. You check your accounts from your Blackberry
A Blackberry is designed as a business tool. It is supposed to allow you to check your important emails and work materials without having to be in the office. It is not for checking Facebook updates while you are waiting in a store shopping line as your purchases are being scanned. If you use your Blackberry for monitoring your social media accounts then you need to help.

5. You get stressed when a Facebook “friend” doesn’t add you
Have you ever noticed yourself getting stressed over something that has happened on Facebook? Do you ever feel like your online life is more real than your offline life? If you have been stressed about what how many drinks you've been sent or how many "pokes" you've gotten or the magic egg someone sent you then it is time to open your eyes.

Now that you have established that you have a problem you need to get yourself some recovery tools. The strategies and tools that are presented here are some simple ways you can beat the Facebook Syndrome.

1. Admit that you have a problem
Take a deep breath and then repeat after me. Seriously, repeat this out a loud - even if you are in your office or an internet cafe.

"I have a Facebook problem"

2. Write down exactly how much time you spend on each site
This task is a littl more difficult than you might think. Usually we have a work window open, a Facebook window open and then maybe some windows with our favorite blogs waiting for them to update. (doubledoublethoughts.blogspot.com perhaps) What you need to do is close the windows and only open them once you have written down the time. Then when you close the window you need to write the time down again. At the end of the day add up how much time you have been on your chosen site and record it in a little book.

The reason it is important to know how long you have been on the sites is because it gives you a solid measure of how bad your addiction is. Recovering gamblers do the same thing. They write down how much money they spend in a day. We need to write down our Facebook hours!

After a few days, weeks and months this number should decrease.

3. Give yourself a set time of the day to visit
We need to realize that spending time on these sites is not entirely a bad thing. Done in the right amounts it can be a lot of fun and even quite healthy. However, if you start to notice that your school assignment is still not done because you have been watching Tom Cruise’s infamous "jumping on Oprah's sofa" video on Youtube all night then it has gone beyond a joke.

Instead of banning the site altogether why not give yourself a set period of time to visit? For example, you might give yourself the first 20 minutes of the work day you check all your updates and then not log on for the rest of the day. Or you might decide that the last 30 minutes of work is Facebook and email time as a reward for a long day of very productive work.

Banning your addiction outright often leads to a Facebook relapse. We definitely don’t want this. Give yourself some set times to visit and don’t break the limits.

4. Turn off email notifications
Email notifications are like little red devils coming to sit on your shoulder and begging you to come back and visit Facebook. Turn them off. You don’t need to be notified every time someone sends you a message. If it was that important they should email you or, *GASP* use the telephone. You also don’t need to be notified every time someone rates your sexiness, adds a fish to your aquarium or sends you a new bumper sticker!

Turn off email reminders so you can get on with your work.

5. Meditate as soon as the thought arises
One of the most powerful ways to beat Facebook Syndrome is to look directly at the tempting thought as soon as it arises in your mind. You do not need to judge it or try to push it out - just look at it. The thought might arise as a worrying thought that begs you to check your updates so you don’t offend anyone. Or it might appear as a carefree thought saying that one quick look won’t hurt. Whatever it arises as the meditation is to just look at it. When you can do that the power of the thought will be drained well and truly.

6. Get off the computer
Do you need to be spending that much time on the computer? Honestly ask yourself that. Instead of getting home, making a hot mug of coffee and sitting in front of the computer to check your updates you could go for a refreshing walk, hit the gym or go and see a movie. There is so much more to do in life than watch your hatching egg grow. Really there is... just try it, you'll see!

7. Write down what you used to do before Facebook
Something that can be really useful to do is write down a list of things that you used to do BEFORE you got addicted to Facebook. For example, some people might write, “I used to meet new people”.

Try and reconnect with what you used to do before Facebook became such a big part of your life. Some of you will be quite surprised at how much you now do not do because you are spending so much time on the internet (so THAT'S where that larger waistline came from!!)

8. Block sites the REAL way
Your computer allows you to block certain sites. Sure, you can unblock them straight away if you wanted to but the more barriers you put in your way the better. However, if you want to seriously block these sites from your computer you can do it the REAL way:

Click START and then select RUN. In that box type notepad c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. A neat little Notepad will appear with a bunch of computer jargon on it. Scroll down to the last line of that code and type 127.0.0.1 facebook.com. After that Facebook will never show up on your PC again. You can substitute the domain for any other domain that you do not want to view.

(another thing you might want to do now, is NOT print this part of this page, so you can't get back in here to change it again!!)

The above techniques are just some techniques to cut back on the time wasted online. I am sure they will work for you but if you know of any other then i'd love to hear your thoughts, as always, using the link below, you can be paid for your comments,critiques and reviews of my blog!

Until next time........