Returning to sanity from ‘digital madness’

Your teenage daughter isn’t studying because she’s on TikTok non-stop. Or perhaps she’s texting incessantly to her friends trying to know what everyone is doing this weekend.

Maybe your son is a “gamer” and appears to have withdrawn from the real world.

A lonely senior is online chatting with a lovely person who then asks her to withdraw money from her bank account.

Nick Kardaras, Ph.D, an acclaimed digital expert, whose most recent book, “Digital Madness: How Social Media Is Driving our Mental Health Crisis — and How to Restore Our Sanity,” will be speaking at the Shelter Island Library on Aug. 25  at 7 p.m. in person and on Zoom. As part of the Friday Night Dialogue Series, he will be interviewed by popular local NPR station 88.3 WLIW host, Gianna Volpe.

This important program is being sponsored by the Shelter Island Public Library, several affiliated East End Libraries, the Shelter Island School, and the Shelter Island Health and Wellness Alliance.

In the past 20 years, social media has transformed many lives. People have reconnected with lost friends and relatives. Communication without the need of a telephone has become so easy.  And how nice to see pictures of your college roommate’s cat!

But as Dr. Kardaras will show, the negative side has been psychologically destructive and sometimes deadly. He estimates that in 2019, 200,000 people in the U.S. died from “deaths of despair” (suicide, overdose, and alcoholism). While all these deaths cannot be tied to electronic devices, there are numerous documented cases of people feeling left out and bullied, leading to drugs and suicide.  

Dr. Kardaras writes that early in his research he noticed that many young people were angry, lonely, empty, confused, and self-medicating.

Further study showed people lacking nuance in their thinking, sorting the world into black and white (similar to the simplistic clicks of “like” and “dislike”). This kind of binary thinking has obviously become a problem in our country, and social media is certainly not helping.

Admittedly there is a difference between over-reliance on devices (where so many of us are guilty) and an actual addiction. Dopamine, the brain’s neurotransmitter of pleasure, affects many parts of behavior and physical functioning.

Drugs such as opioids and cocaine trigger the release of dopamine, giving the brain unnatural pleasure which often leads to addiction. Studies have shown that other social stimuli can activate the same pathways in the brain. A “like” to one’s post on Instagram can release dopamine leading to a never-ending involvement with the device.

Projecting oneself on social media and waiting for the positive responses has been described as a “rush,” in other words, a dopamine flow.

This summary is just the tip of the iceberg. Dr. Kardaras will explain the problem in much greater detail, and more importantly, will discuss solutions. He will share his analysis of the damage caused by overdependence on digital devices and suggest steps toward a happier, healthier future for people of all ages. This includes those who are addicted and those of us who would like to reduce our screen time.

Please register for this event by visiting silibrary.org and select whether you are participating on Zoom or in person.

Nancy Green is a member of the Shelter Island Health and Wellness Alliance along with Lucille Buergers, Jim Colligan, Laurie Fanelli, Trish Gallagher, Alexandra Hakim, Steven Sacks, and Bonnie Stockwell.