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Managing Screens and Gaming

Digital Media or Digital Distraction?

On this page, we are thinking about digital media. By 'digital media', we mean all of those things like mobile phones, social media, video platforms, and gaming. We are looking at how digital media can negatively affect your attention when you are trying to learn. We are also looking at how it can negatively affect your emotional state when your relationship with digital media gets out of balance.

Knowing that digital media can be helpful, like a good science doco, we will sometimes refer to social media, video platforms, and gaming as 'digital distractions' when appropriate. This is simply because they can take you away from your learning, and lead to emotional states that are unhelpful for learning.

Whether digital distractions are a major issue for you... or if they are something you consciously and skillfully manage, by reading this page and reflecting on your experience, you will be equipped with more understanding and positive coping strategies.

We all want to be more in control of our attention

and feel emotionally more balanced in life.

What Does Science Tell Us About Digital Distractions?

"But I'm super good at multitasking!"

Computer processors can do tasks in parallel, that is a fact.

When we try doing more than one thing with our conscious mind, we work sequentially, not in parallel. We switch between tasks, sometimes quickly, but there is always switching. Our subconscious mind does many things, breathing, and sensing... but we only have one focus for any task that requires the use of all of our conscious mind. To do another task requiring conscious thinking, we must switch to it. If you are trying to learn, and you check your notifications or simultaneously scroll through social media or sing along to a song, you are multitasking, or task-switching.

Charlie Swift of MindTools explains that multitasking and "this task switching plays havoc with our ability to do either task effectively:

Our total productivity can be reduced by up to 40%.
We suffer an IQ drop of around 10 points.
We are very poor at retaining new information while multitasking.
We make many more errors than if we do the same tasks with all of our focus" (2016).

Some tasks can be handled by your subconscious, true, but absolutely minimising the multitasking we ask of our brains is a fast track to improving the quality of your focus, the productivity and the effectiveness of your study; this also reduces the fatigue we experience from learning.

Reduce your multitasking by trying the following strategies when you are learning:

Turn off your mobile phone and put it in another room.
If you are using a computer, turn off notifications, and close everything you do not need.
Aim for a clean workspace with minimised distractions.
If you use music to cover disruptive noises in your environment, listen to music without singing as we are biologically hardwired to notice voices and listen for danger. Go calm instrumental, try ambient... Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon is a soothing balm and study buddy I know well!
Use the Pomodoro Technique when you can. Do cycles of study for 25 minutes, break for 5 minutes - hydrate, hug a loved one, stretch... if you are detoxing from digital distractions, you might reward yourself with a little 'distraction', but use a timer, when finished leave it out of your study space, and gradually reduce this less healthy break activity and increase the healthier break activities and you will be better for it!

For an optional mini-deep-dive on multitasking and neuroscience, click here.

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Dr Daniel J. Levitin, (neuroscientist, musician & author). He was asked "what exactly is happening in our brain when we multitask?" Here is Levitin's response:

There is a structure in the brain that allows us to switch between different modes. It is located in the part of the brain called the insula located at the very top of your head, about an inch below the surface. That's responsible for all this task switching. Each time you switch what we call your attentional set, what you are focusing on, it burns up glucose. There is a switch in the brain, it's a neurochemical switch but it's kind of like a light switch, and the glucose gets burned up when you switch tasks, and the glucose is in limited supply.

After a bunch of rapid shifting between emailing and texting and driving and talking and all the other things we do, if you feel depleted and tired it's because you have literally depleted this glucose source. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is released as a result. That clouds your thinking. Among other things, it shuts down higher cognitive activity. Cortisol is associated with the fight or flight reaction. You are not meant to be pondering and solving complicated problems in a fight or flight situation, you are meant to either punch somebody in the nose or run away so they don't punch you. (Click here to read the whole article)

Why Are These Digital Distractions So Addictive? And How Can We Manage Them?

In order to explain this, let’s look at Jamie Waters' review of the book “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence” by Anna Lembke, Waters review appeared in The Guardian (2021). He explains how digital media, mobile phones, social media and gaming are all major triggers for our brains' reward system. Here are excerpts from the article:

"To understand addiction, you must first understand dopamine… the chemical, sometimes referred to as the “feelgood” hormone... Rather than giving us pleasure itself, as is commonly thought, dopamine motivates us to do things we think will bring pleasure. As the brain’s major reward and pleasure neurotransmitter, it’s what drives us to seek pizza when we’re hungry… Scientists use dopamine to measure “the addictive potential of any experience… the higher the dopamine release, the more addictive the thing.

We experience a hike in dopamine in anticipation of doing something as well as when we do the thing itself, which makes us want to continue doing it. As soon as it’s finished, we experience a comedown or dopamine dip. That’s because the brain operates via a self-regulating process called homeostasis, meaning that “for every high, there is a low,” says Lembke. In this comedown state, “we really want that second piece of chocolate or to watch another episode,” she says, but if we’re not severely addicted, the craving soon passes.

Our brains haven’t changed much over the centuries, but access to addictive things certainly has. Whereas our ancestors put all their efforts into seeking a mate and tasty food, we can find those, and much more besides, with the click of an app. When we binge on pleasurable things, homeostasis means “our brain compensates by bringing us lower and lower and lower,” says Lembke. Each time the thing becomes less enjoyable, but we eventually become dependent on those stimuli to keep functioning. We spiral into a joy-seeking abyss. The digital world enables bingeing on a previously unseen scale because there are no practical limitations forcing us to pause.

As well as compromising our attention spans, Lembke says our obsession with instant gratification means we’re constantly living in our limbic brain, which processes emotions, rather than in our pre-frontal cortex, which deals with future planning and problem-solving and is important for personality development. When we’re confronted with a complex or unsettling issue in our work or social lives, our digital companions are always there to help us escape the stickiness of life with an easy distraction… “It’s very different from how life used to be, when we had to tolerate a lot more distress,” says Lembke. “We’re losing our capacity to delay gratification, solve problems and deal with frustration and pain in its many different forms.”

Want to kick your habit? Like my phone-in-locked-drawer situation, you should start with a period of fasting, from 24 hours up to one month (the longer, the better). Make sure you can’t access the thing during the first 12 hours, when cravings are most acute – willpower is only so strong.

The purpose of that time away, says Lembke, is to reset our brain’s pathways and gain perspective on how our dependency affects us. The goal is generally not to banish it forever, but to figure out how to enjoy it in moderation – that most elusive of things… You might try putting barriers between you and the vice, like removing all screens from your bedroom, putting your phone on airplane mode, or committing to only using the thing at certain times, like at weekends. These will be more manageable after your initial fast. It’s “easier to go from abstinence to moderation, than from excessive consumption to moderation,” says Lembke.

Lembke is sanguine that we can beat our digital dependencies by embracing a more monastic mindset. She advocates replacing some pleasure-seeking vices with“painful” pursuits. When we do things that are challenging – going for a run, having an ice bath, talking to a stranger, reading a book on philosophy – instead of receiving a dopamine boost beforehand we experience it afterwards. “Doing things that are hard is one of the best ways to pursue a life worth living, because the pleasure we get afterwards is more enduring,” she says. We tend to forget that earned highs are that much sweeter."

Click here to read the full article.

Does the following statement ring true for you? "Mobile phones, social media, video platforms, and gaming are a big part of our lives"...

Maybe you read this and agree 100%, maybe you feel like digital distractions are something that you can use occasionally, or happily go without.

As we can see from the article above about digital media and its relationship to dopamine, it genuinely can be difficult to go without.

Consider the social aspect of digital media, they connect you with family, friends, and all the randoms who populate social media, video platforms, and online gaming, and this can be fun; but digital media can also be distracting and even affect how we feel.

Digital media can also affect our ability to concentrate, our openness to new experiences, and our availability to be present for our friends when they need us. It can also feel like digital media can be addictive... one more level, just a little more scrolling, one more video. Of course 'one more level' can be procrastination, it is the thing you do when you don't take on the task you really need to do.

There is also the aspect of how we can have digital media around us as a ride-along buddy. Do you ever stop doing that learning task because a notification has called you away... or find yourself singing along to a song?

Following is a list of resources that you can use to learn more about all of this, and importantly, strategies and tools that you can learn and use to be the boss of your own mind and all this tech. Many of the resources are focused on gaming, but they mostly apply to all of the digital media that we have been talking about.

Headspace Tools for Understanding and Managing Difficulties with Digital Media

How to balance screen time (for a healthy headspace)

"Healthy gaming can bring structure and routine into our lives and give us some beneficial downtime, relaxation and fun. The research is unclear how much screen time is too much. What is clear however, is that it is important to keep a healthy balance of online and offline activities in our lives. Not all screen time is the same..." click here to read more.

Maintaining healthy gaming

"It can help to check-in with yourself to see how your gaming is impacting on your life. Ask yourself questions like:

Is it a fun activity that’s helping you feel good?
Does your gaming support you to have a healthy life or take away from it?
How’s your balance with other activities?
Are you feeling more or less connected with others?

There are lots of tips that can help keep your game time in balance. Time on screens can sneak up without you realising it. Here are some things that you could consider:

Treat it as a reward
Leave your gaming time for after your activities/jobs are done.
Decide in advance how much time you want to spend.
Set a timer or an alarm to give yourself a finish time.
Set up times in your day to be screen free.
Explore other hobbies and interests
Get up and move regularly.
Doing some simple stretches can really help.
Make sleep a priority
Charge your devices outside of your room or leave them outside your bedroom. You’ll reduce the temptation to be online instead of sleeping." Click here to read more.

How to manage sleep and gaming for a healthy headspace

"Sleep is important for our physical and mental health. Although it varies from person to person, if you’re aged between 12–17 years, you should be aiming for 8 to 10 hours sleep per night and 18–25 year olds should try to get 7 to 9 hours... Good sleep habits take consistent practice. It can be tough when your sleep isn’t great to get back on track, but there are things you can do to enjoy gaming and continue to get a good night’s sleep, don’t be disheartened if it takes a while it’s worth keeping at it." Click here to read more.

Mindfulness as a Simple but Powerful Tool to Help You

The NSW Department of Education has a webpage with a great collection of tips and tools to learn mindfulness techniques. We highly recommend this page as an introduction to mindfulness, it has easy to understand descriptions, videos that guide you and links to places to learn more.

Click here to read more. Here are two videos from the webpage:

Science Proven Tool to Help You: MoodGym

Are you interested in really digging deeper into the space of learning how to understand and manage your emotions for better mental health? We are talking about the big feelings, frustrations, anxieties, anger, depression and all of those tricky emotions that can take the shine off your day. And remember it's very common for people to feel these things as a result of interacting with or missing things like social media, gaming, YouTube and all that... MoodGym is a highly credible research-proven way of dealing with these difficult emotions whatever the cause. Here's the blurb from MoodGym:

MoodGym is an interactive program designed to help you:

Identify whether you are having problems with emotions like anxiety and depression.
Learn skills that can help you cope with these emotions.

MoodGym is based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Interpersonal Therapy which have been shown to be successful in preventing and treating depression and anxiety. There is broad evidence supporting the effectiveness of MoodGym in improving wellbeing and reducing depression and anxiety symptoms in users. Here are some research proven reasons why MoodGym is an effective tool for helping:

Using two or more modules has been linked to significant reductions in depression and anxiety symptoms, and these benefits have been shown to still last after 12 months.
Research trials have been undertaken in a range of settings (e.g., schools, universities, Lifeline, NHS Choices online); across the mental health care spectrum (from prevention to treatment); with different age groups (adults, adolescents); with a range of population groups (e.g. students, primary care patients, community users); in different countries; and with and without guidance.
A 2016 meta-analysis of 12 studies confirmed that MoodGym is effective at reducing depression and anxiety symptoms in adult populations, with evidence suggesting that it is also effective at reducing general psychological distress.

To learn more about Moodgym, click on this link: https://moodgym.com.au/

Needing help does not indicate that you are not intelligent, but reaching out for help when you can't solve problems yourself does indicate that you are intelligent!

At Smith's Hill High School, if you need help with your wellbeing, please speak to your Year Advisor, a trusted teacher, or you can make a request to see the school counsellor via email (provided to you by the wellbeing team), or use the paper referral form available from Student Services Reception in A Block. This paper referral is also available outside the school counsellor's door (top of A-Block). Talking to a parent, carer or GP is a great strategy for help outside of school as well.

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