Developmental Themes in Addiction

Addictions are developmental disorders, essentially. Treatment and prevention of all addictions is most important during adolescence, due to the various developmental challenges and vulnerabilities of the adolescent period.

It is also during adolescence that most people choose the cultures with which they will affiliate. These affiliations will continue, for the most part, into adulthood and sometimes for the duration of people's lives.

Like the cultures of technology, substance use is also cultural. Both wine tasters and binge drinkers are sub-groups within the cultures of alcohol (scotch drinkers are yet another group). Recreational marijuana users and potheads are members of the same culture. Cigarette smokers share a culture. Users of stimulants and opiates and benzodiazepines are members of various cultures of devotion and consumption.

Counsellors and other social service providers who work in the field of addictions typically exert great effort to understand and empathize with the cultures of substance use. But the cultures of technology remain foreign, strange, and uninviting.

The cultures of counsellors and social service providers are essentially technophobic.

Screen Time

Children ages 8 to 18 spend more time (44.5 hours per week) in front of computer, television, and game screens than any other activity in their lives except sleeping (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005).

Approximately 30.3% of children (ages 6 to 11) are overweight and 15.3% are obese. For teens (12 to 19) the rate is almost identical: 33.4% overweight, and 15.5% obese (American Obesity Association, 2006).

Children watching 2 to 4 hours of TV per day have 2.5 times the odds of hypertension compared with children watching 0 to 2 hours. The odds of hypertension for children watching 4 or more hours of TV are 3.3 times greater than for children watching 0 to 2 hours of TV.

Research into the negative effects of early childhood screen time is startling and ongoing.

Tips for Parents

  • Demonstrate curiosity about the cultures of technology that children and adolescents join. Let them show you the games they play. Participate with them in online activities. Assist them in developing awareness of the risks and benefits of online cultures.
  • Educate yourself about the evolving and complex worlds of online cultures. Spend time developing healthy online habits for yourself (this includes paying attention to parental cell phone use and television watching habits, which are both technology cultures).
  • Keep all computers and televisions in public, family spaces (no computers in bedrooms except under direct supervision and collaboration).
  • Limit recreational screen time (ages 1-5, roughly 5 minutes daily; ages 5-12, roughly 20 minutes daily; ages 13-16, roughly 30 minutes daily).
  • Model and encourage physical exercise practices (sports) for kids and physical activity (exercise) for adults. The ideal is one hour daily for everyone.
  • Explore the emotional benefits that kids derive from online cultures and find ways of meeting those emotional needs also in the non-online world (through sports, for example, or community involvement, or reading, or any number of healthy activities).
  • Recognize that kids will find ways around all types of computer surveillance strategies implemented by parents. Focus on education and awareness of risks.
  • Recognize that some type of access control (to prevent viewing inappropriate content, for example) may be required and that kids are not fully capable of self-control (they are kids...). Use access control transparently. Involve kids in developing an access control system and assist them in learning self-management skills.
  • Avoid hypocrisy whenever possible. If you view inappropriate content, or involve yourself in online activities that are not healthy, your kids will very likely find out about it. Try to avoid this credibility disaster. Practice good mentorship.
  • Recognize that the psychological development of anyone born after 1990 is different from those born prior. Technology cultures are foundational to childhood and adolescent development today. The solution is not to avoid technologies but rather to understand them. Be an informed consumer and parent.

Videos of Technology Addictions Presentation

These videos were created by George Passmore and Richard Dubras at a recent technology addictions presentation sponsored by Richmond Addictions Services. The resources shown on the screen in the videos are from the technology addictions pages here on this site.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5