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Gambling, Gaming & Technology Use Community of Interest

The Gambling, Gaming & Technology Use Community of Interest brings together addiction and mental health service providers, researchers and subject matter experts in the fields of gambling, technology/Internet use and video gaming to collaborate and share knowledge on emerging trends and clinical best practices.

CBS reviews research that is being done on the impact of screen time on youth

This is how CBS introduces this segment on their website: "If you have kids and wonder if all that time they spend on their smartphones endlessly scrolling, snapping and texting is affecting their brains, you might want to put down your own phone and pay attention"

They interview several researchers who are spearheading different studies on the impact of screen time on our brains and the impact of the "bells and whistles" to apps and how they draw in children.

The long term results from these studies will be interesting as right now, there are only hypothesis about the long term impacts.  

If you could formulate a research question about gambling, gaming or technology use what would it be?

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Interesting question Beth, I wish I could ask questions all day and someday see the answers to them. On this particular topic, I would have several questions, one of them being:

How does one hour of screen time a day impact children 0-2 later on in childhood?

I know the recommendation is that there should be no screen time until they are 2 years old, but I find as a mom of a 1.5 year old that the recommendation is just not feasible. I do try and limit screen time, but I am always curious about how some screen time before aged 2 will impact him. And what the impact is as you go from .5 hour, 1 hour, 2 hours a day.

I've always loved this debate! I've always been pro-screen time but as Twenge states in the article, "it should be a tool you use. Not a tool that uses you."

There are a few arguments I want to make here - having worked with children with developmental disabilities, I've seen first hand the benefits of using iPADs. Whether it be for learning receptive-identifying skills, developing fine/gross-motor skills, using video modeling to teach tasks, or tacting responses, digital applications make learning attractive and engaging for all children, especially ones with DDs.  Secondly, my personal view has always been to "go with the times or get left behind." (Un)fortunately we live in a digital generation where the online world has taken over. From doing our banking to sharing pictures of food, the online presence has a huge influence on not only our economy but our social value. Is this a problem? Perhaps. To me, not really. 

This leads me to replying your question Beth. I would like to see a comparison study on children growing up in the absence of screen time versus control. I would assume there would be a huge trade-off for those without access to screen time. Our mere social interactions depend on what we see on our smartphones, and it's not necessarily a bad thing! 

 

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