https://www.cbc.ca/news/health...rain-nov14-1.7029406 Dr. Murthy, US Surgeon General identifies social media as an important driver in the youth mental health crisis. On average, women 18-22 in Canada 56% would be considered "clinically addicted" to their phones - use disrupts sleep, learning, relationships. This is true for about a third of men of the same age group. Changes to the brain including decreased serotonin hypothesized. This matters since there are many poor mental health...

generally speaking the benefits outweigh the risks in matters of technology. Yet i am concerned it dehumanizes us ,in particular the young , formative brains of children and adolescents. They live in a virtual world , which is disconnected from the real one. The technology can be cold and impersonal. I am going to a northern Ontario hospital for locums. There they had a nice program for local artists , be they patients , visitors , doctors , nurses etc. On a big wall , they were exposing...

This research study is about addressing loneliness and social isolation among older adults. It was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic to measure the impact of technology to address loneliness and social isolation. The results indicate a need for technology-assisted interventions to be designed and delivered with older adult’s values, motivations and capabilities in mind. The main findings of the study indicate: - Addressing loneliness and social isolation among older adults was a key...

I found this video interesting because it doesn't just touch on what is happening in our brains that is changing due to phone use, but it also talks about the change in our physical appearance due to phone use. I found the very first fact very interesting that out of the 7 billion people on earth 6 billion have a phone and only 4.5 billion have access to a toilet. This also made me wonder if these were mobile phones or if this was also regular phones as I felt this number was rather high. I...

I chose the video below because it clearly talks about how social media and our phones are feeding our dopamine fixes. This is what makes us continually look at our phones. I was also very interested in how he said the algorithms of social media are very smart in the way they keep us wanting to look at social media. This is almost an uphill battle. We may want to stop and look away however our brain and body are telling us "No we like it keep watching", the creators behind these apps are...

Recently, I was surprised to learn that there are teams of psychologists involved in social media development and ongoing maintenance, in a similar way that they are involved in video game creation. Social media is designed to be engaging, and uses psychology to keep us in a state of constantly wanting more. It's wild!

This study explored social media's role in feelings of fear during COVID. 86% reported fear or panic (many females) regarding health information (misinformation) that was posted on social media. Levels of fear response differed by age and gender with more females reporting higher levels of fear, which can have implications on mental health.

https://ctrinstitute.com/blog/how-to-overcome-social-media-addiction/ Internet Use, Social Media, and the Brain Due to the effect that social media and internet use has on the brain, these activities can be both physically and psychologically addictive. brain receives a rush of dopamine which causes us to feel pleasure(ie update/notifications). Social media and the internet provide immediate access to information and endless amount of instant rewards in the form of attention from others for...

Hi everyone, I'm wondering if anyone has some resources available to share? My colleague and I will be working with a person who has problem gambling issues, whose first language is Arabic. This is a first for us so we have no resources in this language and although we will be utilizing an interpreter for the sessions, some resources in Arabic would be so helpful. I have asked COSTI already and they didn't have anything readily available to share. Thanks!