Impact of various media on health

Congress Considering $95 Million for Study of Technology's Effects on Children

A bipartisan bill now in Congress would give the National Institutes of Health $95 million over five years to fund studies on how media and technology effect children.

How Teens and Parents Navigate Screen Time and Device Distractions

Amid roiling debates about the impact of screen time on teenagers, roughly half of those ages 13 to 17 are themselves worried they spend too much time on their cellphones. Some 52% of US teens report taking steps to cut back on their mobile phone use, and similar shares have tried to limit their use of social media (57%) or video games (58%), a new Pew Research Center survey finds. Fully 72% of teens say they often or sometimes check for messages or notifications as soon as they wake up, while roughly four-in-ten say they feel anxious when they do not have their cellphone with them.

The wild west of children's entertainment

An explosion of new digital options for kids' entertainment has pulled children's attention away from live TV to instant, on-demand programming, bringing with it new challenges for producers, policymakers and parents. TV networks are trying to modernize in order to keep up with kids' viewing habits. And a recent Federal Communications Commission proposal would relax kids' TV rules to let traditional broadcasters compete with digital channels, like Netflix, Amazon or YouTube, that do not have to follow those rules.

Broadband internet, digital temptations, and sleep

A study of the causal effects of access to high-speed Internet on sleep. Playing video games, using PC or smartphones, watching TV or movies are correlated with shorter sleep duration. The researchers exploit historical differences in pre-existing telephone infrastructure that affected the deployment of high-speed Internet across Germany to identify a source of plausibly exogenous variation in access to broadband. Using this instrumental variable strategy, they find that access to high-speed Internet (DSL) access reduces sleep duration and sleep satisfaction.

Stories From Experts About the Impact of Digital Life

Technology experts and scholars have never been at a loss for concerns about the current and future impact of the internet. Over the years of canvassings by Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center, many experts have been anxious about the way people’s online activities can undermine truth, foment distrust, jeopardize individuals’ well-being when it comes to physical and emotional health, enable trolls to weaken democracy and community, compromise human agency as algorithms become embedded in more activities, kill privacy, make institutions less secure, open u

Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse

Internet-connected locks, speakers, thermostats, lights and cameras that have been marketed as the newest conveniences are now also being used as a means for harassment, monitoring, revenge and control.  In more than 30 interviews with The New York Times, domestic abuse victims, their lawyers, shelter workers and emergency responders described how the technology was becoming an alarming new tool.

FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection Staff Submits Comment on Internet of Things and Consumer Product Hazards

In a comment to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) about potential safety issues associated with Internet-connected consumer products, staff of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) warned that poorly secured Internet of Things (IoT) devices could pose a consumer safety hazard and outlined ways to mitigate such risks. BCP Staff submitted a response to the CPSC as part of the agency’s Request for Comments on potential safety issues and hazards associated with Internet-connected consumer products.

Almost seven-in-ten Americans have news fatigue, more among Republicans

Almost seven-in-ten Americans (68%) feel worn out by the amount of news there is these days, compared with only three-in-ten who say they like the amount of news they get. The portion expressing feelings of information overload is in line with how Americans felt during the 2016 presidential election, when a majority expressed feelings of exhaustion from election coverage. While majorities of both Republicans and Democrats express news fatigue, Republicans are feeling it more.

Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018

Until recently, Facebook had dominated the social media landscape among America’s youth – but it is no longer the most popular online platform among teens, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Today, roughly half (51%) of US teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, notably lower than the shares who use YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat. 

Social media copies gambling methods 'to create psychological cravings'

Social media platforms are using the same techniques as gambling firms to create psychological dependencies and ingrain their products in the lives of their users, experts warn. These methods are so effective they can activate similar mechanisms as cocaine in the brain, create psychological cravings and even invoke “phantom calls and notifications” where users sense the buzz of a smartphone, even when it isn’t really there.

Santa Fe aims to improve broadband, cell coverage

A wave of new telecom infrastructure is en route, and in a city where famously spotty cellular and internet service has long bedeviled 21st century businesses, residents and tourists alike, there’s optimism Santa Fe (NM) will soon turn the great connectivity corner.

Inside President Trump’s private meeting with the video game industry — and its critics

Republican lawmakers and conservative media critics pressed President Donald Trump to explore new restrictions on the video-game industry, arguing that violent games might have contributed to mass shootings like the recent attack at a high school in Parkland (FL). In a private meeting at the White House, also attended by several video-game executives, some participants urged President Trump to consider new regulations that would make it harder for children to purchase those games. Others asked the president to expand his inquiry to focus on violent movies and TV shows too.

Commissioner Clyburn Remarks at HIMSS 2018 Conference

Four years ago, I urged the Federal Communications Commission  to create what is now known as the Connect2HealthFCC Task Force under then-Chairman Tom Wheeler. This is a dedicated, interdisciplinary team, focused on the intersection of broadband, advanced technology, and health. I am grateful to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for his continued commitment to the Task Force and his enthusiasm for bridging the digital divide in health care. 

President Trump raises concerns about impact of violent movies: 'Maybe they have to put a rating system for that'

President Donald Trump warned about the influence of violence in movies while discussing school safety and mass shootings, suggesting it could be a contributing factor to recent mass shootings.  "We have to look at the internet, because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds, and their minds are being formed, and we have to do something about maybe what they're seeing and how they're seeing it. And also video games," President Trump said. "I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts.

The Father Of The Internet Sees His Invention Reflected Back Through A 'Black Mirror'

In 1984, two men were thinking a lot about the Internet. One of them invented it. The other is an artist who would see its impact on society with uncanny prescience.First is the man often called "the father of the Internet," Vint Cerf.

America’s Real Digital Divide

[Commentary]  If you think middle-class children are being harmed by too much screen time, just consider how much greater the damage is to minority and disadvantaged kids, who spend much more time in front of screens. While some parents in more dangerous neighborhoods understandably think that screen time is safer than playing outside, the deleterious effects of too much screen time are abundantly clear.

Critics shame Silicon Valley firms over addictive technologies

Tech industry critics spent a daylong event on Capitol Hill Feb 7 airing concerns that Facebook, Google, Apple and other major companies are peddling addictive products that damage young minds. Critics are seeking some sort of policy to address the problem. “Should there be some common sense regulation of the tech industry? Obviously,” said Jim Steyer, the head of Common Sense, the group that organized the conference. Franklin Foer, the author of a recent book critical of tech powerhouses, said that a “sense of shame” would shift norms in the industry.

Sponsor: 

Common Sense 

Date: 
Wed, 02/07/2018 - 15:00 to 23:00

9:00 a.m. Registration

 

9:30 a.m. Welcome and opening remarks

  • Dr. Loel Solomon, vice president, community health, Kaiser Permanente
  • James P. Steyer, CEO and founder, Common Sense

 

10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. The Truth About Tech: Industry's Role in Shaping Health and Democracy



Early Facebook and Google Employees Form Coalition to Fight What They Built

A group of Silicon Valley technologists who were early employees at Facebook and Google, alarmed over the ill effects of social networks and smartphones, are banding together to challenge the companies they helped build. The cohort is creating a union of concerned experts called the Center for Humane Technology.

Cancer Risk From Cellphone Radiation Is Small, Studies Show

Despite years of research, there is still no clear answer to the question: Do cellphones cause cancer? But two government studies, one in rats and one in mice, suggest that if there is any risk, it is small, health officials said. These two studies on the effects of the type of radiation the phones emit, conducted over 10 years and costing $25 million, are considered the most extensive to date.

Why Trump Tweets (And Why We Listen)

[Commentary] President Donald Trump is an odd man, and he may turn out to be a one-of-a-kind celebrity president. But his symbiosis with Twitter carries weight as a portent. Compulsive, manipulative and effective, the president’s tweeting heralds a politics of increasing fractiousness, irrationality and risk. You could blame it on one needy, attention-seeking leader. Or you could call it a step into a very unsettling future.

[Nicholas Carr is the author of The Shallows and The Glass Cage.]

With Your Smartphone, Fear Is Never Far Away

In a blink of an evolutionary eye, radio and television then give way to smartphones—all of the world’s threats in your hand, all the time. “The smartphone, especially, more than pretty much any other technology that existed before, is constant,” says Barry Glassner, a professor of sociology. “For many people, at least, notifications come and updates come pretty much nonstop. It’s a very far cry from picking up the daily paper,” let alone the town square. 

Silicon Valley Reconsiders the iPhone Era It Created

The smartphone has fueled much of Silicon Valley’s soaring profits over the past decade, enriching companies in sectors from social media to games to payments. But over the past year or so, a number of prominent industry figures have voiced concerns about the downsides of the technology’s ubiquity.

Social Media Has Hijacked Our Brains and Threatens Global Democracy

[Commentary] The so-called social media revolution isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Sites like Twitter and Facebook exacerbate emotions like outrage and fear—and don’t help democracy flourish. Social media too easily bypasses the rational or at least reasonable parts of our minds, on which a democratic public sphere depends. It speaks instead to the emotional, reactive, quick-fix parts of us, that are satisfied by images and clicks that look pleasing, that feed our egos, and that make us think we are heroic.