Bogna Białecka: Smartphones are for addiction

The unnaturally stimulating nature of the electronic screen, regardless of content (but depending straight on the number of observed changes and interactions) causes real havoc in the developing tense strategy and intellectual wellness of the child – says Bogna Białecka, psychologist, president of the Foundation for wellness Education and Psychotherapy, in an interview with Piotr Relich.

In public space, attention is increasingly paid to the issue of the dependence of minors on digital information technologies. Do we truly have origin for concern?

– Definitely. And what's more frightening, it's not a problem that comes solely from our way of utilizing modern tools. Digital technologies, especially smartphones and social media, are precisely designed to become addictive. This process is called Persuasion designwhich involves utilizing methods developed by behavioral psychology to change our behavior. Children whose brains are inactive in improvement are peculiarly susceptible to these mechanisms.

Could you give an example of specified persuasion design?

– Here you go: 13 years old Ola makes a chaotic fuss erstwhile her parents effort to limit the time she has to access her smartphone. Why? The girl in the course of digital training began to consider the electronic tool as an extension of her cognitive system, as did her hand, nose, or eyes.

This is described in the book entitled Tempted. How to make consumer habits Nira Eyala. The author presents tricks to be utilized to make the usage of the application a permanent habit.

One of the basic principles can be explained by the example of social media. Let's take a look at the 13 - year - old. At first, Ola reaches out after Instagram, due to the fact that there is an external stimulus – a notification, for example, that her best friend has just placed a photograph there. So he looks around, he's a small disappointed, due to the fact that it's another selfie, same as hundreds earlier, but right below, there's a rotation of cute kittens, so it starts looking. The occasional interesting photos and videos not only give a condition of dopamine, but the satisfaction that you saw something truly nice. Then walking down the street, Ola sees a cat mama carrying her baby in her mouth. It comes to her head that it could be filmed. He pulls out his smartphone and records the video on Instagram. Now she is the creator, and her rotation gains hundreds of hearts and affirmative comments. After a while, Ola stops even for a minute to wonder, and as shortly as something interesting happens, immediately reaches for the smartphone to immortalize it on Instagram. She doesn't even request an outside stimulus in the form of notifications anymore, due to the fact that she's made a habit. Reaching for your smartphone becomes full automatic.

Actually, it looks like training...

– John Hopson, a scientist who works in the production of digital games, put it brutally and honestly in the article Behavioral Game Design. Describing the usage of behavioral psychology, he compared players to laboratory animals. He proved that there are general learning principles that can be applied to both humans and rats. In this case, the goal was to continually keep the player's interest.

Key in the processes described above is to convince people that they can meet their needs – specified as social contacts, building a sense of value or success – in an easy and easy way with a given application. Easier than offline. So why invest time in building a relationship relation with a friend erstwhile I can evidence TikTok about relationship and collect thousands of gratitude for valuable advice? Why put effort into building careers and achievements, for example, sports, erstwhile without much effort I can feel similar, going through the next levels in the video game?

The rules of the game are simple – the developers want users to spend as much time in the digital environment as possible. Therefore, they offer us faster, easier and frequently even more attractive substitutes of reality. However, investigation shows that everything has its price. besides common contact with the digital planet can lead to serious developmental and emotional problems.

How do smartphones affect us? What does the addiction to dopamine and adrenaline manifest in this context?

– Smartphones are designed to continuously stimulate our reward strategy in the brain. This mechanics is based on the secretion of dopamine – a hormone liable for a sense of motivation for action and pleasance – erstwhile we experience a new, interesting stimulus, for example, notification of a fresh Instagram lair, winning the game and so on.

The more the brain is stimulated in this way, the more it becomes addicted to “dopamin shots”. This peculiarly affects children and adolescents, as their prize arrangement is more delicate than in adults. There is besides an overproduction of adrenaline that stimulates the body to respond immediately to fresh stimuli, leading to constant tension.

What are the consequences of the abuse of digital technologies; social media, games and the like? What is FOMO and Electronic Stress Syndrome? Does a smartphone change our brain forever?

– The abuse of digital technologies can lead to serious effects, both intellectual and physical. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is simply a fear of missing something crucial on the web – which turns our request to be constant online. Digital burning is simply a state of emotional and physical exhaustion resulting from constant force to be active in the digital world. Its maintenance hinders the improvement of the ability to concentrate and regulate emotions for a long time, and can besides lead to behavioral addictions.

However, a very crucial concept is the word created by the kid psychiatrist Dr. Victoria Dunckley, namely: Electronic Stress Syndrome. The unnaturally stimulating nature of the electronic screen, regardless of the content (but depending on the number of observed changes and interactions) causes real havoc in the developing tense strategy and intellectual wellness of the child.

The Electronic Stress Syndrome is simply a disorder of deregulation, i.e. the child's inability to modulate his mood, attention and level of agitation in a healthy way. Interactive (or/i) dynamic screen stimuli turn the tense strategy into mode Fight or run. erstwhile this happens often, the hormonal and tense strategy disorganizes and disorganizes – which creates or strengthens ADHD-type disorders, depression and so on. Even little susceptible children experience "subtle" harm – the consequence is chronic irritability, impaired concentration of attention, general marazm, apathy and a condition of being both agitated and tired.

Are parents aware of the scale of the problem?

- Absolutely not! Even if parents are frequently aware of the problem, they do not always realize its full scale. Many of them are tired of the regular conflict to limit their children’s screen time and feel helpless. They frequently mistakenly believe that allowing a kid to usage technology, they meet social expectations, or they supply peace at home. Meanwhile, children and young people – as investigation shows – see the problem themselves, admitting that they are addicted. But at the same time they don't want or can't do anything about it. They rebel against any restrictions imposed by their parents on this matter.

In another words, our children are already trained by their own smartphones, games, social media and applications.

How do psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists respond to all this?

Well... they pretend there's no problem. The American intellectual Association has not yet issued even the most general message regarding the participation of psychologists in the plan of addictive applications and technologies. Similarly, the Polish intellectual Society is silent, even though the preamble to the Code of Ethics includes a declaration: A scientist resigns from taking professional action, erstwhile their consequence may be to harm another man.

No 1 informs parents or children that the reason why they cannot leave their smartphones, games, social media and another applications is that they have been specially designed and designed for this purpose. The participation of psychologists in this process is unethical.

What is prevention like in this area? What can we do to prevent our children from being sucked in by the “black mirror” of their phone?

– Prevention is based on awareness of the problem and the introduction of clear, strictly respected rules on the usage of technology. It is crucial to set zones and time free from technology, for example during meals, in the bedroom or during household meetings. It is besides worth introducing time limits for utilizing devices and regularly monitoring how our children spend time online. Parental control programmes and ongoing discussions on the healthy usage of technology are helpful.

What can parents of children already addicted do?

– Parents of kid addicts should first search professional help. In the case of advanced addictions, it may be essential to have digital detox – i.e. a complete shut-off for respective weeks. It is besides worth taking care of alternatives to the digital world, specified as developing interests and passions in the planet offline. A consequence is besides crucial – even if a kid rebels against restrictions, long-term wellness benefits are invaluable.

For both prevention and assistance, the free mini-guides are: Children on the virtual network and Teenagers in a virtual tunnel, which can be downloaded free of charge from the Foundation for wellness Education and Psychotherapy Parents.CO (parents.co/mini-guides-for-parents). I will besides urge this year's book: Bogna Białeck, Aleksandra Gil, Helping a kid in a cybertrap.

Thank you for talking to me.

The text was published in the magazine "Polonia Christiana" – number 101 (November-December 2024).

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