ISSUES
: The Internet of Things
Chapter 1: Digital issues
14
showed the condition is associated
with structural abnormalities in
the brain. “Grey matter volumes
… and white matter changes …
were significantly correlated with
the duration of Internet addiction in
the adolescents with IAD,” said the
authors.
Another academic paper, published
in
Current Psychiatry Review
in
2012, says IAD “ruins lives by
causing neurological complications,
psychological disturbances and social
problems”. The paper goes on to
claim there is increasing evidence that
there can be a genetic predisposition
to addictive behaviours and that the
symptoms show overlap with other
behavioural addictions.
Another doctor trying to help
technology addicts is Dr Henrietta
Bowden-Jones, honorary senior
lecturer in theDivisionof BrainScience
at London University’s Imperial
College and founder and director of
the National Problem Gambling Clinic
based in London. This is the UK’s only
NHS clinic for problem gambling.
Gaming is definitely themost common
technology addiction problem area,
she says.
“Such people are typically obsessed
with the activity. They think about it
virtually all the time; even when not
playing. They suffer from irritability,
anxiety or depression if they are
stopped from playing and spend
more and more time playing, isolated
from other people.”
One reason gaming is thought to be
the worst culprit for addiction stems
from the nature of the activity itself;
an inherently competitive process
structured to create winners, which
is known to stimulate neurobiological
reward mechanisms (the release of
dopamine) in the brain.
Apart from gaming, the other major
problem area for technology addiction
is gambling, although this was
obviously an activity that has caused
addiction problems for many years
before the Internet appeared.
At the moment, there is no treatment
for Internet addiction available on the
NHS, although there are private clinics
that provide such services.
“I think there is a need for that and
the NHS should provide it at some
point,” says Dr Bowden-Jones. “We
are developing some treatment
protocols and would love to use them
but, currently, there is no funding
available to treat Internet gaming
addicts. It would be great to see a
centre of excellence established. If
someone goes to their doctor today
for treatment, they will probably
be referred to see a psychological
counsellor, who will typically offer a
formof cognitive behavioural therapy.”
Looking at the problem from the
slightly broader view of ‘technology
dependence’isRemyOudghiri,French
director of the Trends and Insights
Department at market research
company Ipsos (Ipsos MORI in the
UK). His team has researched how
many people consider themselves to
be dependent on it.
“The number of such people has
increased over the last five years. In
most advanced countries, around
80% of people need to connect
every day, otherwise they cannot
work, communicate or do lots of their
everyday tasks.”
Oudghiri feels a turning point occurred
around 2010, when the smartphone
revolution took off.
“A major consequence was that
people became connected all the
time and, in our survey, some 10%
go to sleep with their mobiles, saying
they ‘feel more secure’.”
He says the situation poses a key
question for us all: how can we keep
control in a society that is becoming
hyper connected, where being
connected is not just a possibility, but
an obligation and a necessity? How
to do this is the subject of a book by
Oudghiri published last year.
“Our surveys show an increasing
proportion of people say they are
losing control due to a lack of time,
concentration or creativity. There is
always a ‘lack’ and, when you try to
dig deeper, there is a direct correlation
to their use of technology.”
Clearly, technology addiction is
a growing problem, even if the
vast majority of us manage to use
technology without getting addicted.
But it might just be that the powerful
attraction of electronic games could
be put to positive use. This is certainly
the view of the man whom many see
as the father of gaming. Atari founder
Nolan Bushnell has formed a new
company, called Brainrush, to exploit
the power of games as an educational
tool.
Bushnell believes that combining
gaming techniques with brain science
will change education more in the
next five years than it has in the last
3,000. “It's a perfect storm,” he says.
Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games,
who has taught at Carnegie Mellon’s
Entertainment Technology Center,
says it is already happening, with
educational games being the fastest
growing part of the market.
“People see the power that games
hold. They see the engagement.
Parents say ‘I wish they were as
excited about algebra as they are
about
Call of Duty
’.”
Similarly, a project targeted at girls and
underway at Northeastern University
in Seattle has a self-explanatory
acronym: GAMES – Girls Advancing
in Maths, Engineering and Science.
There is already something of a
track record for this approach, with
some hugely successful girl-oriented
games. For example, Seattle-based
Her Interactive has sold more than
nine million copies of one such game.
Finally, the Center for Game Science
at the University of Washington
specialises in developing scientific
discovery games and cognitive skill
training games.
Fromwhatever viewpoint, addiction or
education, electronic game playing is
clearly no longer a trivial matter.
23 April 2014
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The above information is
reprinted with kind permission
from
David
Boothroyd,
NewElectronics. Please visit
for
further information.
© David Boothroyd,
NewElectronics 2016
