A RENOWNED Clare healer believes technology should come with a warning label, as screen time among children has sky-rocketed since the pandemic.
By Emma Lernihan
Bio-energy healer Michael O’Doherty told The Clare Echo he is alarmed by the effects too much screen time may have on the brains of young people.
Data from a National Institutes of Health study, highlights that children who spend more than two hours a day on screen-time activities scored lower on language and thinking tests. It was also discovered that some children who spent more than seven hours a day in front of screens experienced thinning of the brain’s cortex, the area of the brain related to critical thinking and reasoning.
“What I see in my clinic all the time is a huge struggle with children and parents regarding their time on screens. The amount of time that the children spend on the screens and what it is that they are looking at, reading and what influences them sometimes is not positive. It can really be a disadvantage to children,” Michael said.
Young children learn by imitating the actions of adults and exploring their environment. However, excessive screen time could not only hinder a child’s ability to observe and experience new things, but may also affect how they interact with others by narrowing their ability to focus, believes Michael – who came to national prominence after his work was championed by Irish dancing legend Michael Flatley.
Micheal claims that “screens are like a drug”, explaining, “We as human beings have addictive personalities. We are all addicted in some way. We all get that hit by surfing the net or by scrolling through different situations or articles or posts on our social media. And what happens is, the more we do that the more the brain programmes itself and in a way then it is like a drug because it stimulates the secretion of dopamine.
“They have clearly seen through SPECT scans the damage that this does to the brain. All addiction be it alcohol, drugs and sugar. We are seeing in scans that the brains of the people who spend prolonged periods of time on platforms that their brains are changing. And as a result of that could cause a huge amount of anxiety, insomnia and the food behaviour changes as well alongside that”.
Micheal concedes, “There is huge positivity in screens and there’s huge positivity in platforms if used for the right purposes. However even the time we spend learning can have a negative impact as the light can affect our sleep patterns. If we are on screens for a long period of time, our choice of food can also be sugary food and all simulants. You have to have down time, as if we don’t get people to manage these things correctly they really can be weapons of mass destruction”.
Michael believes that it is not possible to ‘wean’ a child off of technology, “we are never going to wean children off technology as the reality is that’s their future. What we need to do is equip parents with the skill to understand the dangers and then to communicate that back to their children”.
Micheal adds that children should not be allowed access to social media until they are aged 12, noting the presence of cyberbullying, abuse and narcissism which “is coming through those screens”.
