ITEST Webinar
How does social media affect children?
This webinar was presented on April 13, 2024.
Our presenters
Sister Marysia Weber, RSM, DO, MA
Screen Addiction: Why You Can’t Put Your Phone Down
Sister Marysia Weber is a Religious Sister of Mercy of Alma, Michigan. She is a physician, certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She completed her residency and fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She has a Master’s degree in Theology from Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. She currently serves as vice president of mission and ministry for Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She also serves as chair of the board of directors of MyCatholicDoctor and as part of the Seminary Formation Council forming seminary formators.
Abstract
Is the increasing number of hours that children are spending using smartphones having any effects on their brains and psychosocial well-being? Research is telling us that the answer to this question is a resounding yes! This presentation will address how excessive use of digital devices is impacting psychosocial maturation and is altering brain development in ways similar to the alterations noted in substance use disorders. Practical means of addressing these detrimental effects will also be highlighted.
Kevin Powell, MD, PhD, FAAP
How Social Media Affects Children
Kevin Powell, M.D. Ph.D. FAAP, is a retired pediatrician who specialized in the care of hospitalized children. Prior to medical school he worked as a chemical engineer in industry and academia, earning a Ph.D. in Medical Engineering from a joint program of Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alongside clinical care, for 18 years he served on or chaired hospital ethics committees and was a clinical ethics consultant. His last academic position was on faculty at Saint Louis University and Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. He is Lutheran.
Abstract
Technology changes communication and social lifestyles. This has been true since the invention of the printing press and the telephone. Technological progress will have both positive and negative effects on society. It is not enough to measure harms and act like outraged Luddites. Ethical societies measure and balance the positive impacts. It is not enough to weigh pros and cons. Communities should regulate technology so that positives are appropriately rewarded, negatives are mitigated, and just remediation is provided for economic externalities that generate profit for some while harming other people, society, and the environment. Laws are not enough. Moral formation needs to be updated and augmented to enable beneficial development and adoption of technology. Children, who have never known anything different, are the most strongly impacted by the harms, the least able to resist trends, and the most in need of the moral formation.
Webinar resources
Sister Marysia Weber’s Resources
Screen Addiction: Why You Can’t Put That Phone Down by Sister Marysia Weber, RSM
Dr. Kevin Powell’s Resources
An umbrella review of the benefits and risks associated with youths’ interactions with electronic screens
The kids aren’t all right. Are phones really to blame?
First He Came for Cancel Culture. Now He Wants to Cancel Smartphones
Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?
How Much Does Screen Time Really Affect Child Development?
Other Resources
Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?