Addiction in Society

At a local music bar in Chester NJ the other night, I couldn't help smiling at a young lady who was texting while on the dance floor. Her partner didn't seem to notice.

Stanton Peele makes several excellent points, but alas, he ends on a hopeless note.

I strongly believe that parents can exercise control over their children's diet of electronics--especially prior to high school. They can make sure that their children do not gorge on the electronic buffet. If they are willing to be in charge, they can make an enormous difference.

Very interesting and relevant article. As a father of two kids, this certainly something that interests and concerns me. I agree we are changing society extremely quickly (and quicker every day), and raising kids in such a very different way, that it's hard to predict how things will be couple generations from now. But at the same time, psychology should also evolve to help understand the impact of all these. For example, I always think that movies for kids are design to make them "movie junkies", by having all those "strong feelings" scenes, full of strong emotions which kids would normally not experience, thrilling rides, and lots of addrenaline. And eveyday movies are more and more realistic, now even 3D! How will their (and even our) brains, particularly the primitive parts of the brain, tell the different between real life and those strong emotions they see in all kind of movies? What impact will this have long term? Again, I hope psycologists help understand and control this at some point... Because the need for that is great, and getting bigger every day.

Finally, just to say I really cannot believe that kids spend >10hrs/day ON AVERAGE consuming TV+INTERNET+MUSIC. That's way too much... I suspect something might be wrong in that study. At least here in Europe, my kids and all their friends, consume WAY LESS than that (while still being more than they probably should).

Thx for the interesting article,
MM

...human race will then have to adapt to the new challenges.
Pls allow me to insist that psycology and psycologists will then HAVE TO play a key role to explain that not all entertainment is healthy, and that some of it can have terrible consequences, perhaps some day even worse than smoking (by screwing up kids/adults reward/dopamin systems, etc). It will be the time in human history for psycology to play a huge role (and I'm not a psycologist btw). Similar to doctors today who regulate more and more what we eat, the dangers of fast food, etc (which will also have to get better btw. And I even bet that the FDA and similar organiations will at some point take responsibility on the mental health side, as strongly as they take it today in the physical/body side of health. And that will include studying and regulating all those ENTERTAINMENT things which (just as cocaine, which is great entertainment) will be proven dangerous and detrimental to human health.
Will take time, but I think the NEED for this will become so strong soon (with suicidal kids, tons of psycology disorders, and exponential growth of those in developed societies), that is will simply become a MUST. And at the same time Psycology itself will finally reach a point where it will be able to explain, predict and treat all sort of disorders in a "really" effective way (which I believe is not there yet today).
After having the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, but we're living in the INFORMATION/INTERNET/MEDIA REVOLUTOIN, and later we'll have to go through this MIND/PSICOLOGY REVOLUTION.
My 2 cents anyway...
But again, very interesting article, and I do agree with your concern, completely! I just believe humans will have to (and finally be able to) react to that upcoming mental disaster. I hope....
MM

just noticed lots of misspellings, sorry for that. English is not my native language, plus I wrote it in a real rush because I had to make a call quickly which I already finished. Anhyway, not meant to be disrespectful/careless with you or your readers ;-)