Brain Biology regarding Video Gaming Addiction and Excessive TikTok-ing

How do we know when we have a clear case of Tiktok, or time spent online passing us by? How does our brain react to to know when video game playing has become excessive? What can families do to ensure healthy video game play? What is the super engaging allure of social media like TicTok videos?

In her new FREE Podcast series exploring the complexities of growing up in the digital age and ways to promote healthy tech use, Physician Delaney Ruston, producer of the documentary Screenagers, kicks off her free subscription audio series exploring these and other timely issues.

Dr Ruskin begins by taking a closer look at TikTok, the smorgasbord of creative-user weirdness that is today’s most downloaded app in the USA among smart phone/device users. She speaks with two teenager girls who explain TikTok’s skyrocketing popularity from a teen’s perspective. Delaney puts on her Doctor’s hat when both girls share that they want to change their behavior on TikTok and helps them decide a plan of action.

For those who have been living under a rock since TikTok’s launch in 2016, you can pit yourself against its irresistible pull here, daring to take a quick look what TikTok is and how it works.

Dr Ruskin discusses a new model of brain biology that helps explain the reward system of the brain, in other words the Dopaminergic pathways of the brain, and the importance of learning how to balance high dopamine and low dopamine activities.

When we know how technologies can affect our brain function we can begin understand the “addictive high” amassing followers and perceived massive social approval on social media, and we can better understand video gaming personality and subsequent irritability and boredom-with-real-life that is associated with video gaming.

We hear from teens along with psychiatrist Dr. Clifford Sussman who specializes in helping young people regain tech balance. We also hear from Andrew Fulton who was featured in the film, Screenagers, when he was getting treatment at an internet rehab center, and is now working at the same center helping others recover from video game overuse.

Join Delaney Ruston, MD, a leading authority on parenting in the digital age as she explores strategies for raising screen-wise and tech-balanced youth. Through interviews with researchers, thought leaders, and digital device users themselves, the Screenagers Podcast delivers the latest in science along with practical tips and important insights that parents will want to share with their kids and teens.

Listen Online or Subscribe to Screenagers Podcast FREE

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