NUMBing us down and DUMBing us down How computers decrease memory, limit our focus and concentration and are even damaging us physically   A small sampling of the PROBLEMS ...

Video games diminish beta brainwave activity. When beta brainwave levels are low (as you might find with people in pain in hospitals), attention spans are shortened, individuals are more easily angered and have difficulty concentrating on outside stimuli or focussing generally.      The impact of color can be different psychologically, emotionally, physically, neurologically, etc. (eg: too much ‘friendly’ green, over a period of several hours can shut down those centers of the brain associated with learning).  It is good to think of color as a pharmaceutical -- it can be both dramatic and subtle; it can be both a powerful drug as well as a gentle but effective homeopathic.

Screen layouts can require your brain to spend more electrical and chemical energy processing what you see and where on the screen you see it, than the energy you spend thinking about what it might mean. We can design screen layouts that are easy on the brain.

Of the six most common menu styles, randomly arranged words (dog, rat, cow) process slowest and with the highest degree of both optical and mental difficulty.*      Most list and menus are randomly arranged words --  the most neurologically chaotic menu style possible!

Normally, when children play, they usually have brief cycles of play and completion. At the end of play, or completion of a cycle of play, win or lose, the brief stress of the experience is released with laughter, tears, jumping up and down in frustration or joy, or whatever. These responses are switches for the body to begin release of the toxic stress chemicals that eventually come out through the lungs, the pores and urine.      But in the case of most computer games, instead of the emotionally healing fulfillment and satisfaction of completion or resolution in five or ten minute cycles, many of these games last for hours without resolutions, or just more levels of play. No release, just toxic build-ups.  There are ways to design games that will limit negative effects.

As with NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), we can use the lessons of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming) to do things like wake up the mind and focus attention more efficiently. We can help people process information more easily and more healthfully, simply by requiring them to move their eyes in specific patterns that support more effective mental processes.

Computer stress is on the increase.       Stress limits our focus, exhausts our energies, diminishes our experience, disrupts our feelings, lowers our resistance to illness and shortens our lives.      Joining it at the high end of a list of emerging 21st Century lifestyle disorders are Internet Addiction, which is costing businesses and governments tens of billions of dollars annually, and Computer Depression, which takes a toll on millions of individuals and families connected to the web. Other issues include eye problems, other physical issues such as carpal tunnel syndrome and more.       But stress is at the top of our list since it initiates then exacerbates a tremendous degree of physical pressure and mental distraction, and more pressure and distraction is not what we need when we are on the computer. There are screen strategies that initiate little or no stress.      ... so let's remember: this book is about SOLUTIONS!     about the author

*G. Perlman, 1984; A. J. Hornoff, 1999