By Andy Furman
NKyTribune staff writer
Dr. Ed Connor is worried. And he wants you to be as well — he says, “Today, people enter life through cell phones.”
At least that’s what he told the shocked Covington Rotary audience at a recent meeting.
Dr. Ed Connor is a forensic psychologist in private practice in Northern Kentucky. He was initially trained in psychotherapy at the Vallmotorp Foundation in Katrineholm, Sweden. He served as a clinical consultant in Thailand and New Zealand for the United Swedish Therapeuteic Community.
Now Dr. Connor is more concerned with cell phones – and how they affect today’s young people.
“Back in the day,” he told the group, “You got up in the morning, and go out into the world, and gather your experiences.”
Today he claims all you need is a cell phone.
“On your phone,” he explained, “you can order groceries, get the news, look up recipes, talk with your peers, pay your bills, online banking, watch TV and clothes shop.”
In short, there’s no need to even go out into the world to start your day.
“Children ages 11 to 14 spend nine hours a day in front of a screen,” he said, “and children ages 15 to 18 spend seven and a half hours a day in front of screen.” (Those were numbers attributed to OSF Health Care, Alton, Ill.., January, 2020.)
“Dr. Kardaras’ book, ‘Glow Kids,’ was published August, 2016,” he said. “During 10 years of clinical research, Dr. Kardaras found that ‘The seductive and addictive pull of the screen has a stronger gravitational pull than real life experiences.’”
And screen use differs by income and ethnicity, he added.
“Children from households earning less than $50,000 a year spend twice as much time with screen media than households earning $100,000 or more per year,” he said.
But what about health?
Obesity rates for children in the United States ages two-to-19 years old rose from 17% (2007-2008) to 21% (2021-2023), the doctor said.
“A U.S. child in 2023 was 15%-20% more likely than a U.S. child in 2011 to have a chronic condition such as anxiety and depression,” he said.
The study showed American kids have become increasingly unhealthy over nearly two decades – including suffering from increases in sleeping difficulties, limitations in activity, physical symptoms, depressive symptoms, and loneliness.
“Children continuously exposed to tech screens at a young age showed higher levels of substance abuse,” he added, “as well as stress, poor academic performance, ADHD, anxiety, depression and increased aggression and even psychosis.”
“Perhaps most shocking of all,” said Dr. Connor, who earned his bachelor’s degree psychology at Thomas More University, “is recent brain imaging studies conclusively show that excessive screen exposure can neurologically damage a young person’s developing brain the same as cocaine addiction.”
Increases in dopamine levels, one of the key neurotransmitters associated with our pleasure/reward pathways, is also a key factor in neurotransmitter addiction dynamics.
“One study showed that video games raise dopamine to the same degree that sex does and almost as much as cocaine,” said Dr. Connor who earned his doctorate degree in clinical psychology from the University of Denver. “The combo of adrenaline and dopamine are a potent 1-2 punch in addiction.”
Concerns? Of course. Dr. Connor cited fragmented families. Lack of creativity.
“What happened to imagination, when our younger generation is fed with information,” he said. “Creativity and imagination have been suffocated.”
And with the cell phones, we now face FOMO, he added – the Fear of Missing Out.
“That’s why kids are on their devices so long,” he said.
Can it be fixed? And by who?
“Yes,” he said, “and it starts at home, with the parents, watching the use of the mobile devices.”
Perhaps abolitionist Frederick Douglass said it best in 1855: “It is easier to build strong children than fix broken men.”