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Five Tech-Free Snow Day Activities!

blanket fort

Since most of the schools here in the New England area are closed today, we wanted to share five fun snow day activities that don’t involve technology! Instead of turning to the computer or T.V. and zoning out today, we invite you and your kids to get creative and have some good ole fashion family fun!

  1. Bundle up and check out some snowflakes! Bring a microscope and dark fabric along and discover that no snowflake is alike. (Parents Magazine shows you how)
  2. Play some of your favorite board games! Let everyone pick their favorite game to play and then let the winner decide the next snow day activity.
  3. Bake a wintery snack! Here are six Easy Cookie Recipes provided by the moms at Popsugar
  4. Make a blanket fort, and perhaps some pirate costumes to go along with it! Follow these how-to steps by the art of simple, or simply make it up as you go along!
  5. Enjoy a delicious cup of hot chocolate and read some of your favorite book! An adventure to your favorite fairy […]
By |December 10th, 2013|Dr. Dave's Blog|Comments Off on Five Tech-Free Snow Day Activities!

Kids, Limits, and Boundaries around Internet and Digital Media Use

parent monitoring child's computer useOne of the chief factors involved here is the reversal of general hierarchies and boundaries in the family; for the first time in history kids know about a topic better than their parents and this creates and knowledge (and therefore power) imbalance in the family system; for our kids, whom I call Generation-D, this technology, is like a toaster is to those of us who were not weaned on digital media and video game technology. This lack of knowledge can be a complicating factor when parents attempt to understand or intervene with their children’s Internet and video game use. Specialized treatments are necessary and appropriate for those children, adolescents, young adults, as well as adults, to address this growing problem. Although more research is clearly needed, […]

By |December 2nd, 2013|Dr. Dave's Blog|Comments Off on Kids, Limits, and Boundaries around Internet and Digital Media Use

What is Cyber Bullying?

Cyber Bullying be easily accomplished online as the Internet affords an indirect (non-confrontational) method to express a variety of emotions without actually facing the person; I call this threshold reduction and it is a hallmark of why the Internet promotes cyber bullying so easily. There is no one to look at in the eye or to face when bullies make these comments and the Internet medium creates a sense of disinhibition, which along with threshold reduction make it fertile ground for the damaging effects of cyber bullying; and this is further amplified by the fact that the Internet implies indirect intimidation. Cyber bullies often utilize Facebook as an ideal platform. Facebook is the world’s largest peer-comparison platform. People are both attracted and repelled to it, but everyone uses and sees it. Facebook and other social media outlets including You Tube, Instagram, Twitter and others make it too easy for anyone to broadcast, without permission, anything they want about anyone they want. This power is far too intoxicating for many bullies, and far too damaging some the their victims of such destructive postings.

What is cyber Bullying? It can include social exclusion, social comparison and competition, defamatory statements, and/or sexual harassment. The […]

By |October 9th, 2013|Dr. Dave's Blog|1 Comment

Mindfulness In A Mechanized Age

Mindfulness In A Mechanized Age


Mindfulness teaches the ability to stay present in the moment and to practice the skill of experiencing living in the here and now. Although not an easy task, there are well documented medical and psychological benefits from practicing mindfulness. The use and over-use of digital technology, like a Smartphone, is the antithesis of being mindfully present.  When you are online or on the device  you are not really present to yourself, your environment, or others’ around you.

You are shifting time and space and when you are on your Smartphone texting, emailing, tweeting, or surfing—the implied message to the world around you and your you own nervous system is that it is NOT ok where you are in the moment and that you’d rather be somewhere else.

Instead of always looking for immediate and accessible digital distraction and if you want to be present in your real-time life, you’d be pausing and experiencing what was actually around you and not on a screen. The net effect of screen-living is that we end up missing out on our lives because we […]

By |October 3rd, 2013|Dr. Dave's Blog|2 Comments

Growing Up ‘GTA’

There’s been three decades of violent video games and as Grand Theft Auto, the reigning king of all of them, releases its fifth installment, we have to wonder, how have these games actually affected this generation?

By |September 27th, 2013|Dr. Dave's Blog|Comments Off on Growing Up ‘GTA’

Should internet addiction be officially recognized?

Click Here To Listen

North America’s very first internet addiction rehab program opened in Pennsylvania earlier this month — and the program’s founder says there’s no shortage of users seeking help.

While some hail the program as a trailblazing service, others argue that the still-controversial diagnosis doesn’t belong in the same category as alcoholism and drug addiction.

To debate the division, we’ve convened a Q debate. Joining us today are:

  • David Greenfield: a pioneer in the field of Internet addiction. He’s the founder of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.
  • Allen Frances: is a former chairman of the task force for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which sets the standard for the psychiatric profession. He’s the author most recently of Saving Normal: An Insider’s Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life.

Do you see yourself as an internet addict, or know someone who might be? Or are you skeptical about the diagnosis, and/or concerned that everyday life is being pathologized?

(originally posted on CBCradio)

By |September 17th, 2013|Dr. Dave's Blog|Comments Off on Should internet addiction be officially recognized?