ACHES has been set up to promote, enhance, and protect human and environmental wellbeing. ACHES provides a forum to raise awareness and advance the truth about legal, medical and scientific information relating to current and emerging technologies. ACHES “Weekly Picks” highlight the most relevant news pieces from our partners and collaborators to raise awareness of the health harms caused by such technologies, and offer much-needed solutions to enhance our health.
Solitary Screen Time: Perilous for Children
Earlier this week on the Children’s Health Defense a small, but important study was published. It showed that preschoolers and kindergartners with poor communication skills and reduced vocabularies developed more behavioural problems over 6 months if they spent more time alone on screens. The study was published in the journal Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology. Boys spent more time alone on screens and showed more behaviour problems than girls. Even just 10 to 30 minutes per day of solitary screen use on tablets, phones or televisions had a notable effect. Ultimately, the study showed that solitary screen use may worsen developmental skills, such as reducing opportunities for critical social interactions that support language and cognitive growth, emotional regulation, and relationships.
Close Screens Open Minds
A recent podcast video discusses how crucial it is to remove screens and tech from schools and the educational curriculum. Oprah Winfrey talks to the actress Sophie Winkleman and Dr Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist from the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. Sophie explains how online learning, which blossomed during covid and lockdowns, has been disastrous for students and is destroying the education system from within. She has seen first hand what works and what does not in the classroom. Lessons conducted without technology enabled children to be engaged, with good attention, and display calm behaviour. By contrast, children taught with technology were agitated, angry, and lacked concentration. Children also suffer physically from the online onslaught in schools. Books, handwriting, and teacher-led education—rather than Ed Tech—is far better!
Most are not aware that many technology executives do not send their children to schools that allow screens. Parents are not happy with technology in schools and Sophie together with actor Hugh Grant are campaigning to stop the plan to put all national exams online. For over a decade, Dr Lembke has championed removing smart phones from schools. There is hope, as many schools around the world are now banning smartphones. Still, the idea that integrating technology into the way we teach will enhance teaching is not valid; data shows that children in all areas of learning and creativity are doing worse. Instead we are creating a generation of distracted children who don’t know how to learn. Emily Cherkin describes Ed Tech as Big Tech in a school uniform!
Not So Smart Electricity Costs of Smart Meter
Contrary to being a cost-saving ‘green’ initiative, households with smart meters could be paid to use more electricity. In a bizarre development, consumers will instead be rewarded for using more electricity when the grid risks being flooded with excess electricity. The reason provided is that when solar panels and wind farms generate more power than the country needs—during sunny or breezy periods—households will be nudged to switch on appliances. While renewable power has lowered emissions, it has also made supply far less predictable. Solar power is creating headaches, as rooftop panels feed into local networks, meaning it is harder for operations to track and control. Incentivising households to use more electricity instead is hardly a ‘green’ policy. Energy costs are not the only headache, as smart meters are known to cause a plethora of symptoms and harms.
World Digital Detox Day (WDDD) Initiative
A recent post by Safe Tech International has highlighted this website: World Digital Detox Day (WDDD) Initiative, which provides a 1:1:1:1 formula for how to limit reliance on digital devices: The WDDD Digital Fasting Formula is a simple, proven way to reset your digital habits—without quitting technology. See here for details: in summary:
1 hour after waking — stay screen-free
1 hour before sleeping — rest your mind
No mobile use during meals — reconnect with people
1 full day each week — practice family digital fasting
Rallying Against Digital ID: Saturday 25th April
Save the date: Saturday 25th April. The threat of compulsory Digital ID is ever present: it is not about convenience, it is about control. The Together Declaration is organizing a series of rallies across the UK on Saturday 25 April (2–5pm) in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast. ACHES has prepared a free flyer of ways we can resist Digital ID. The linchpin for ushering in digital technological control requires the latest generation technology (5G), which enables biometric scanning and backhauling of data. Please spread the word and share our flyer.
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