SERVING HENDRICKS COUNTY SINCE 1847
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The Dark Side of Social Technology How Screen Time and Social Media is Addictive and Hurts Your Mental Health
The Republican
Voices
We offer Voices as a place to share a story, a memory, an idea, a comment, a criticism, or a solution. Contributors must include name, address & phone number.
Thursday, May 27, 2021
ASK MR. TRAFFIC By Chet Skwarcan, PE, President/ Founder of Traffic Engineering, Inc. Chet@TrafficEngineering.com
By Chase Cotten, Executive Director at The Willow Center, 317-852-3690 “Ping!” followed by the inevitable “Bzz…bzzz” in your pocket – sound familiar? According to research studies completed in the past three years, most of us check our mobile devices over 50 times daily, and spend upwards of 4-5 hours on average looking at our devices or other screens per day. In the United States, children under the age of 14 spend twice as much time using a mobile device than talking with their family members each day. Unfortunately, this amount of screen time, especially when spent using social media, is facilitating addictive behavior in our brains and hurting our mental health and relationships. Mobile devices and social media, which typically go hand-in-hand, have undeniably changed the world in both positive and negative ways. The positives have more to do with increased accessibility, the raising of voices that are typically silenced by society, and common-interest based communal activity. Positive Examples: • We are more accessible to each other than ever before. Mere decades ago, the thought that we could be “friends” with someone and stay in touch with them from the other side of the globe was just a pipe dream. • News travels fast. When something is wrong, we all know quickly and can pitch in to help. • Nonprofit organizations and other charitable causes can share stories and raise funds in an easy and engaging way for their supporters. • Social Justice movements can hold the public accountable for their actions and influence compassionate change with the click of a button. The negatives have more to do with our decreased mental wellness, increased physical and emotional isolation, unconscious addictive behavior development, and severe societal impacts. Negatives Examples: • Intentionally fake news articles spread up to 6x faster than true or proven news articles in social media spaces, and are often written and posted by nefarious sources. • Prolonged, habitual social media use has shown direct correlations to increased rates of eating disorders, alcoholism, and negative self-esteem – most particularly for young people. • Regular screen time and social media use has been linked to delayed and decreased cognitive ability both for developing children and for fully developed adults. • 89% of mobile device users admit to using their device in the middle of their last social gathering. • Most social media algorithms are built to steer users toward continuing to use the platform, and continuing to view increasingly extreme and/or negative content the longer one uses it. • The number of social media users, especially young users, who encounter hate speech directed to them online has doubled in recent years. • Children who experience bullying online are about 3x more likely to contemplate suicide than their peers. • Long-term social media use and screen time is directly correlated to increased rates of depression and selfharm. The reader may already be able to see that the list of negative examples is dramatically longer than the list of positive examples. This is not due to the author’s lack of trying to find positive examples! Perhaps it is best to end with a poignant quote, as cited from Yale professor, Edward Tufte, in the recent Netflix documentary on this subject titled “The Social Dilemma” -- “There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software.” We have work to do, for our own good and for our children’s good. Delete the apps. Turn off the notifications. Go outside. Have a family dinner. Let’s start with the simple things. Primary References: https://www.humanetech.com/learn-more https://ledger.humanetech.com/ https://www.bondcap.com/pdf/Internet_Trends_2019.pdf _____________________________________________
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A Note From Bee I have several memories of Memorial Day. I was born in 1939 and in those days we called Memorial Day Decoration Day. I can remember my grandmother being worried that she would not have enough peonies or flags (Now called iris ) to decorate the graves. My husband and I bought a house in 1961 and I spent that Memorial Day cleaning the house getting it ready for us to move in on June 18th, the day after we got married. My husband to be was in the hospital being treated for some sort of blood infection. In retrospect we think it was mono. Many a year after our children were old enough we would be at a u-pick it farm picking strawberries. Forward to 1974, there was a new bank in Brownsburg and they had a coloring contest. First prize was 2 tickets to the race. Second prize was one race ticket. My oldest two children won first and second prize. Of course they were thrilled. I found out later they were the only two contestants. If I had known that I would have had our third child enter the contest. Dad was chosen to take the kids to the race. I probably should not admit this but I never was interested in the race. Unfortunately it started to rain but fortunately the cars had enough laps in that a winner was declared. Of course we used to have family get togethers at our house every Memorial Day but unfortunately that doesn’t happen very often any more because everybody is too busy or not everybody has had their covid shot. Bee Jones ______________________________________________ A few years ago we were told that Ulen Country Club was open to the public for Sunday brunch from 11-2. We enjoy trying new places to eat. Ulen is a neighborhood in Lebanon. We were not disappointed in the brunch. There was not only breakfast food, which included among other foods omelets, sausages, bacon, hash browns, and pancakes. Also they offer soup, salad, an entree, a couple of vegetables, and several delicious desserts, including home made ice cream. All delicious. The price is very reasonable and after having I think 5 brunches, a bonus of a free brunch is given. A senior citizen discount is offered. We have a small family only about 13 people. When we want to celebrate special family events we request the library. No cooking or washing dishes. The service is excellent. The atmosphere is very pleasant. We were so disappointed when covid put an end to the brunch. It started back up last Sunday. We were sooo glad. Give it a try. I think you will add it to places you want to eat. Reservations are appreciated but not necessary. 765482-5310. Ulen is located at 100 Country Club Drive, Lebanon, Ind. Bee Jones ______________________________________________
Editorial from The Past 100 Years Ago On May 31 and June 1, 1921, an incident in Tulsa, Oklahoma led to what has been called one of the worst incidents of racial violence, with more than 35 square blocks of the Greenwood district, made of mostly Black homes and businesses, was destroyed by mobs of white residents. Julian Hogate, editor of The Republican, published the following about the event. THE RACE RIOTS Tulsa is the scene of the last outbreak of the kind which is designated as a race riot. As the people of two races recall the terror of two days and survey the square mile of burned and ruined homes and bury the dead, they must be impressed with the folly of it all. And the people of the Nation must be impressed. “The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that serve Him.” The people of this country are still paying for the awful crime of human slavery. The third generation is paying. Shall the fourth and succeeding generations continue to pay? We are not blaming whites or blacks. We are referring to the senseless idea that these flare-ups must come. Springfield, Ohio, had one. Omaha had one. Chicago had one and now Tulsa. The black man is here and he is a citizen. He did not come here of his own choice. He came in irons as a slave. The Nation permitted a nameless crime. The awful horrors of civil war failed to atone for the sin. Must the people live on in fear of these outbreaks, still paying for the Nation’s sin?” June 9, 1921 _____________________________________________ A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless. James Baldwin
Drive on Purpose Not by Accident Granted, a percentage of drivers on the road, right now, because they must be someplace at a specific time. Certain employers are usually to blame for this. These employees have no option but to drive to work during the busiest part of the day. In traffic engineering lingo, we refer to this as the “peak hour.” You will never see a traffic engineer on the roadway during the peak hour. That’s because we have access to secret traffic data telling us when to go places so we seldom encounter another vehicle (as an example, Taco Bell at 2 a.m.). This brings me to my point — if you must drive during peak hour, make the best of it. Listen to great music (“American Pie”) or learn a new language (sign language?). Keep in mind, “traffic engineering” can only go so far. The person behind the steering wheel is in control when it comes to reducing congestion — the power to flatten the curve (as they say). So why are there (sometimes) so many cars on the road? Where are they all going? In other words, what is the purpose of all these trips? Nobody knows. But, assuming the trip is essential, how can we reduce the distance between where you are and where you need to go? There’s only one way — make it shorter. And the way you make it shorter is to bring your destination closer to your origin. You can either live closer to where you work and shop or provide opportunities to work and shop closer to where you live. It all comes down to the purpose of the trip. If you work for an employer who expects you to show up on time, so be it. But for the rest of us, buy your groceries and make your appointments when traffic is light, or, better yet, shorten the distance between where you live and where you work and shop. Heck, maybe you could even walk to work from where you live (but don’t walk to the gas station — that doesn’t make sense). ______________________________________________
A Squirrel About Town By Archy “Have a seat!” I heard Archy’s voice but didn’t see him. “Right here,” the voice said, and I suddenly saw a faint shadow of a squirrel on the retaining wall next to the steps on the east side of the court house. “Just practicing my Cheshire cat skills,” he said with a giggle. The shadow grew into substance. “This is new,” I thought. “We squirrels have the ability to become invisible, but we don’t make a practice of it. It comes in handy sometimes, I must tell you, when a lot of people are around. One can only take so much fawning over how cute we are.” I said he carried his burden well. “I’ve seen people who can become invisible,” he countered. “Yourself, for instance.” “How do you know that?” I wondered, not sure if I wanted to know the answer. “You start by being quiet. Most people like to surround themselves with noise, so they don’t notice you. Then, you look at everything around you. People walk around not looking at anything, which gives you the advantage to see them.” I had the feeling that Archy had been watching me for a long time. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll keep your secret.” He looked up at me and grinned until the grin was all that I could see. ____________________________________________
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