CrossCurrent Digital

Pediatrican Ben Carson: parents literally thought their kids had ADHD when they were simply on social media too much: Ben Carson: Before I retired, I noticed a lot of parents were coming to me, saying, “Should we put our kids on this [drug], because they’ve been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder?” You know, that used to be a rare thing, and now it’s like every fourth kid. And I’d ask them a couple of questions: I said, “Can they watch a movie?” “Oh yeah, they can watch movies all day.” “OK. Can they play video games?” “All day and all night.” I said, “They don’t have ADD.” I said, “Here’s what I want you to do: wean them off that stuff and substitute time with you, reading a book and discussing it. And then let’s talk about it in three months.” Almost to a person, they would come back and say “it’s a different kid.” Why? Because nowadays as soon as a kid can sit up, we prop them in front of the TV. And what do you see? Zip, zip, zip; zoom, zoom, zoom. As soon as they get a little older, and they have some dexterity, we give them the controls for the video games. Zip, zip, zip; zoom, zoom, zoom. Now they’re in school, there’s a teacher up front, not turning to something every few seconds. You think they’re going to pay attention? Their brain is on “super zoom,” so they’re not going to pay attention. You’ve got to slow it back down, and get it to a point where it can now grasp and digest the material. And you’ll find that reading is actually much more entertaining than the electronic media because you have to use your imagination to create the scenery, and you can create it the way you want, and it’s really a lot more fun. You’ve just got to slow them down long enough to get them involved in doing that." mindmatters.ai/2024/05/a-wor…