The Deadly Cost of Screen Addiction

While screen addiction is often associated with addictive behavioral disorders, it is impacting our culture at an alarming rate. Tech companies often make the most out of advertising which incentivizes them to make their apps and devices increasingly more addictive. Tristan Harris is the co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, an organization dedicated to pushing for more "humane" technology. He was interviewed by NPR's Steve Inskeep discussing that he saw the tech industry turning toward something "less and less about actually trying to benefit people and more and more about how do we keep people hooked." You can read the full article here.

Even more alarming is that there is a common misconception that affluent kids are primarily the victims of screen addiction, but in reality it is children from lower income families and children of color that use technology more frequently. Per this New York Times research piece: Lower-income teenagers spend an average of eight hours and seven minutes a day using screens for entertainment, while higher income peers spend five hours and 42 minutes, according to research by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit media watchdog. (This study counted each screen separately, so a child texting on a phone and watching TV for one hour counted as two hours of screens being used.) Two studies that look at race have found that white children are exposed to screens significantly less than African-American and Hispanic children.

It isn’t just teens that are addicted, parents and all generations can be prone to screen addiction. The numbers aren’t far off, according to Pew Research Center, 15% of parents admit to being distracted at work because they are checking their cell phones compared to 8% of teens admitting to being distracted during school. These distractions become increasingly more deadly with age as our responsibilities increase. Technology isn’t just interfering with our ability to interact on a human-level, but it is also impairing our ability to safely operate motor vehicles. In fact, according to the National Safety Council (NSC), on average year over year the number of collisions due to distracted driving is increasing and that number is only anticipated to grow if we don’t act fast. 

Mobile distractions are contributing to a staggering number of fatalities each year and it isn’t just drivers that are at risk of death. Our most vulnerable are at a significantly higher risk of being fatally struck by a distracted driver. In fact, according to this study by the CDC the average annual pedestrian traffic death rates from motor vehicle collisions during the studied period were 1.4 per 100,000 population for residents, 1.1 for visitors, and 30.7 for homeless persons. The homeless are about 30x more likely to be killed by a motor vehicle than the average person. It isn’t just the homeless and other drivers that are at risk, it is our children too. According to the CDC, for children 5 to 19 years of age, the most injury deaths were due to being an occupant in a motor vehicle traffic crash. 

With distracted driving being the leading cause of collisions in the United States, we cannot afford to continue to sit back and put this burden on our judicial system. We have a mental health crisis in this country that needs to be addressed by our leaders in healthcare. Those suffering from screen addiction need help curbing these behaviors and unfortunately punishment for wrongdoing isn’t leading to lasting and impactful change. In this Education and Human Development Master's thesis by Lindsey Rumfola, it was concluded that through positive reinforcement it is proven that forms of punishment and yelling are void. While positive reinforcement may take longer to yield results, the results of the behavior management are sustained throughout time.

Positive reinforcement can lead to sustained long-term behavioral change. It is for this reason that the app SAFE 2 SAVE and other technologies that help curb the screen addiction through positive reinforcement are crucial in cultural change.