A recent survey published this week from the Pew Research Center reveals some eye-catching statistics about teen online habits. Nearly half of the surveyed teens, aged 13 to 17, report spending almost all their time online, which is up from about 24% just ten years ago. While parents, teachers, healthcare professionals and politicians have expressed … Continue reading New Pew Research Reveals High Usage of Social Media Among Teens →

The 2024 Oxford Word of the Year - 'Brain Rot'

According to the study published in Nature Human Behaviour, the relationship between mental health and web-browsing is causal and bi-directional. Self-guided browsing of negative content online is associated with poorer mental health and continued browsing of negative content. Study results “show that browsing negatively valenced content not only mirrors a person’s mood but can also … Continue reading Browsing Negative Content Online Linked to Poor Mental Health →

Traditionally, health professionals across the world have used ultrasound as a means of monitoring the development of unborn babies and assessing the health of patients’ internal organs. Over the decades, its uses have expanded to evaluate blood flow and check for blockages in arteries and veins, assess joint inflammation and metabolic bone disease, help diagnose … Continue reading Ultrasound: Potential Use as Search and Treatment Tool for the Brain →

A recent ‘Letter to the Editor’ to MDEdge from a Maine Pediatrician reminds us that our use of technology that consumes so much of our attention is indeed taking a toll on our human interactions. Dr Willkoff describes two scenarios that troubled him but, as he points out, may also be so ubiquitous that perhaps … Continue reading Technoference →

New studies demonstrate that approximately one in five older British teenagers involved in one study displayed problematic phone use (PSU), which resembles an addiction. This can mean they feel panicky or upset when their phone is unavailable, find it difficult to control their screen time and use their phone to the detriment of other meaningful … Continue reading New Studies: Teen Smartphone Problems Revisited →

Smartphones are ubiquitous in modern society. It seems that as soon as we sit down on a bus or wait in a line at the Post Office, the first thing we do is pull out our phones. A number of studies have shown that the average American checks their phones almost 100 times a day … Continue reading Strangers Trust Others More When They Put Down Their Phones →

A recent article by Pamela B. Rutledge Ph.D., M.B.A., Professor and Director of the Media Psychology Research Center at Fielding Graduate University, challenges the recent recommendation by Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy who called for warning labels on social media platforms, similar to cigarette packaging. Dr Rutledge recommends that “digital literacy will protect kids better than fear … Continue reading Do Warning Labels on Social Media Miss the Mark? →

This week in a New York Times Opinion Piece, Dr. Vivek Murthy said that social media is a contributing factor in the mental health crisis among young people. He has called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms similar to those now mandatory on cigarette boxes. Implementing a surgeon general’s warning label, requires … Continue reading Surgeon General Asks Congress to Require Warning Labels for Social Media →

Published this month, ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has joined with the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) to develop “Computer Science Curricula 2023” (CS2023). CS2023 provides a comprehensive guide outlining the knowledge and competencies students should attain for degrees in computer science and related disciplines … Continue reading World’s Leading Technology Associations Publish Comprehensive Curricular Guidelines for Computer Science →