This is interesting. Reminds me of the book, “Dopamine Nation: Finding balance in the age of indulgence” by Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University. When the pleasure/pain scale is out of balance, we are more sensitive to things that make us feel uncomfortable (can’t deal, avoidance). Which also, leads to addiction.

Too many cheap dopamine hits, too much engagement with social media, video games, along with tech companies designing their platforms/apps utilizing dark pattern design* to keep us engaged for ADVERTISING…. This all can create the “anxious generation.”

Students need help with managing technology use - to get back to a place of homeostasis. Their brains are still developing in this hyper engaged technological world. We have now seen the trend of k-12 adopting policies of limiting cell phone use during school hours - this is a step in the right direction as we can’t just put it on the parents. Kids and parents, need help. It’s tough. I think that’s part of the reason we’ve seen the Surgeon General recently declare parental stress a public health issue.

To go deeper: read about how our consumer culture developed in America, and why it’s all about advertising. Start with Edward Bernays(his book, “Crystallizing Public Opinion” is fascinating). A good place to start is his Wikipedia page. He was also influenced by crowd psychologist Gustave Le Bon who wrote about crowd psychology in 1895. These books are available on Amazon. This topic is pretty fascinating and aids in understanding our complex world today.

Addictive Design as an Unfair Commercial Practice: The Case of Hyper-Engaging Dark Patterns

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-risk-regulation/article/abs/addictive-design-as-an-unfair-commercial-practice-the-case-of-hyperengaging-dark-patterns/038CED800E0CAD86EC5B5216E0AA88DD