The Origins of Screen Culture
- The origins of “Indoor Children”
- Difference between passive TV viewing and immersive/interactive modern screen experiences
Neurological Impacts of Technology Addiction/Overuse
- The role of dopamine in addiction
- The dopaminergic effects of screens on the brain
- A view of screens as “digital drugs”
- Brain imaging research and the effects on the frontal cortex
- Hormonal impacts of tech overuse
Clinical Research: Technology Addiction/Overuse Impact On:
- Depression and social media
- ADHD and screen-time
- Anxiety and screen-time
- Thought disorders and video games as well as Internet “sensory overload”
- Increased aggression and video games
Assessments and Observational Tools
- Current tech addiction assessment tools
- The difference between “overuse” and “addiction”
- A comparison with substance addiction assessment
Technology Addiction/Overuse Intervention
- Not all tech addiction is the same
- Specific digital usage problem, stressors, triggers
- Underlying and co-morbid issues
- Residential vs. outpatient treatment:
- Pros and cons
- How to implement a “Digital Detox”
- Dr. K’s “Dopamine Replacement Therapy”
- Importance of nature, meditation and exercise
Technology in the Classroom: Pedagogical Impacts of Screen Time
- Research on educational outcomes of classroom technology
- Phones in the classroom and standardized test scores
- Screens in the classroom and impact on reading and comprehension
- Comparison of “Low Tech” schools and one-to-one screen schools
- Ed Tech: a $60 billion annual industry
- The Los Angeles “iPad Fiasco” and the Amplify initiative by Rupert Murdoch
Working with Families and the Family Dynamic
- Validate that the issues harming families are indeed real
- Address dysfunction contributing to the problem
- Family psychoeducation
- “Family Intervention Plan”: The solution needs to be a collective one
“Mindful Digital Usage”: How to Reintegrate Back into Healthy Tech Usage
- Individualized digital “re-entry” plan: Hands-on activity
- Help the child to identify healthier “Digital Vegetables” vs. “Digital Candy”
- Measure progress and what to do if there is a setback
Case Study Review
Learn interventions and strategies to handle:
- Mood-dysregulated 13 year old male, DX Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED)
- Violent adolescent male, DX ADHD and conduct disorder, video gamer, school refusal, assaults parents
- Suicidal adolescent female, DX depression, disordered eating and self-injurious behavior, social media platforms 8-10 hrs a day
- Twenty-five-year-old graduate student, very politically-interested, stays up all night “hyper-link” surfing, hears voices, paranoid
- Social-media obsessed mom, neglects young children, marriage is suffering, children acting out



