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i-Minds, 2nd edition

How and Why Constant Connectivity is Rewiring Our Brains and What to Do About it

The way we use i-technology is affecting our health and happiness. While programs, devices, information, and constant connectivity can offer us ease, liberation, and efficiency, they can also rewire our brains to feel restless, disconnected, unable to sleep, anxious, and depressed, with new illnesses like FOMO (fear of missing out), and electro sensitivities appearing.

Engaging and entertaining yet scientifically rigorous, this fully revised and updated second edition of i-Minds comprehensively explores an era of screen-based technology’s assimilation into our lives, pondering it as both godsend and plague. Addressing theory, popular media, and industry hype, i-Minds demonstrates:

How constant connectivity is changing our brains

The dangers of unchecked connectivity

Positive steps to embrace new technologies while protecting our well-being and steering our future in a more human direction.

i-Minds is a must-read for anyone interested in fostering health and happiness, or who is struggling with the role of screened technology in our lives.

Contributors

Mari K Swingle

Dr. Mari Swingle is a practicing therapist, researcher, lecturer, and author who has been working in the fields of mental health and education for over 25 years. She is a renowned expert on the effects of i-technology, and holds a PhD and MA in Clinical Psychology, an MA in Language Education, and a BA in Fine Arts. She resides in Vancouver, Canada.

Chapter Title Contents Contributors Pages Year Price

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 My objective? To have us all pondering and examining. To “rise in arms” not against the i-tech industry but to our own blind acceptance or complacency, to our apparent apathy, and the … 1 $0.10

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 Every era has an innovation that changes the face of society: the way we think, the way we act and interact as individuals, as a community, and as a culture. As the innovation is introduced, it … 11 $1.10

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 At the onset of the i-tech phenomenon, most of us first noted surface changes. For example, what we perceived as an emergent shallowness of information, a subtle lack of depth and length of … 12 $1.20

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 The process of the medium, of i-tech itself, is what is attractive; it draws us in. And this draw, or pull effect, is what has the potential to alter behavior. For example, the central concept in … 9 $0.90

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 Dings, and bings, various ringtones, and device alert our brains. They make us react. Not merely attentionally but neurophysiologically as well. The two are strongly biologically attached. The … 19 $1.90

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 I am going to get down to the hard science: what really goes on in our brains when we overengage in i-tech. To this end, I will introduce modalities that permit us to examine the i-phenomenon at … 21 $2.10

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 Anxiety and its little buddy stress are on the rise in adults and, most troubling, increasingly also in children, adolescents, and youth. We are all now consistently revving at much, much higher … 17 $1.70

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 In this chapter, I am going to speak of a critical dynamic that i-media has with play, learning, and creativity. This is a dynamic that concerns mostly digital natives, and the now very young: … 12 $1.20

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 In this chapter, I will discuss my discovery of the signature for modern excess: a form of brain deregulation purely associated with excessive use of i-media. 16 $1.60

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 How do you measure creativity if you never find it in the first place? I have noticed over the past five to eight years is that youth are progressively less aware of their creative potential. … 26 $2.60

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 We want to teach children not only how to use technologies, but how to choose technologies, and how to make them. We also want to teach them the caveats including biological hijacking and … 24 $2.40

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 Epigenetics simply means is how our individual genetics mix with all the potential influences in our individual environment. As we are increasingly learning, epigenetics are not only important, … 16 $1.60

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 In this chapter, I would like to speak to my greater concern. Not changes in temporary brain state(s), or vulnerabilities that leave us all somewhat liable, not even the differences in … 17 $1.70

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 With a little walk through history, and a little more developmental theory, I will explore larger cultural shifts in parenting and family systems, expand on the blurred lines of learning and … 22 $2.20

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 In this chapter, I will start a discussion on how, in the name of discipline, safety, and humaneness, i-tech has found yet another niche. How, for better or for worse, i-tech is now the principal … 21 $2.10

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 In this chapter and those following, I will continue to build on these arguments but also build further upon the argument of the importance of people: that i-tech should not replace human … 20 $2.00

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 I am going to go a bit deeper exploring the specifics of the supposed benefits of gaming as they relate to learning. Within this I’m going to put a microscope over some of the gaming … 17 $1.70

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 We need more fun in our lives. But, when gaming morphs into obsession, replaces and supersedes multiple forms of physical and mental leisure activity, adversely starts to affect physical health, … 16 $1.60

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 Excessive screen usage (gaming and beyond) is highly related, if not correlated, with the development of anxiety, depression, and ailments on the obsessive-compulsive spectrum. So here I present … 20 $2.00

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 Media feeds were no longer resembling information distribution (fun or otherwise) they were starting to sound a lot like propaganda. Everything was now far too sweet to taste like truth and now … 16 $1.60

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 It is time to have closer look at i-tech in caretaking, healthcare, and perhaps in caring in its larger sense too. Let’s start with healthcare. 4 $0.40

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 A huge issue that permeates all angles of the i-tech industry is that of trust. Both primary branches — the entertainment branch (e.g., the gaming industry), the social communication branch … 26 $2.60

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 The biggest commodity of the digital age is not our money but our data. This is true, but the not-so-secret reason our data is so valuable is that it offers access to our attention. Attention is … 9 $0.90

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 It is more than likely that the majority of the brilliant minds of Silicon Valley, were completely unaware that their work would be, could be, weaponized. Many of these people including those who … 15 $1.50

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 Tuning in at the moment is no longer sufficient. The media want our attention extended, continued, and reengaged after necessary absences such as work and sleep. 12 $1.20

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 Electromagnetic concerns receive little attention because indeed they are hard to present in lay terms. Here is my attempt. 13 $1.30

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 When we look at the changes in our own behavior due to i-tech, the first thing to very seriously consider is that the whole concept of social media was thought up by an individual who many … 20 $2.00

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 What I am concerned about are the changes in our attitudes and our desires that go far beyond the frameworks of curiosity and a bit of fun. The central issue once again concerns … 15 $1.50

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 The viewing of sexual activity or erotica online actually reduces, not raises, the interest in and the performance of real-life sexual activity. Lastly, and this was the eye-opener, in my study … 13 $1.30

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 It seems, with every passing decade, children are growing up faster. Innocence has been long lost with the aid of television and the music industry. Increasingly sexualized music videos for … 9 $0.90

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 Who benefits from the propagation and consumption of sextech and pornography? And who loses? The industries involved, as too all spinoffs of depersonalized touch (such as massage parlors, … 9 $0.90

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 The realm of i-tech is not just a new space that allows for the extension of boundaries of communication and the maintenance of distal relationships; it is a new space, or rather a new world, one … 18 $1.80

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 There are other alterations in behavior that don’t quite qualify as illness, but ones we should also be watching: Of note are increases in self-orientation and self-concern. From … 14 $1.40

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 I want to close this book by coming full circle back to what I feel are our most urgent issues: First and foremost are our collective children; the next generations and how we individually and … 14 $1.40

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 I believe we owe it to ourselves to keep one face, one mind, firmly fixed on the past while the other mind bravely looks forward, embracing change. 5 $0.50