The Myth of Normal 157

that one would think it came out of a satirical film or novel: Dopamine Labs. “It was started,” she said, “by a neuroscientist and software developers whose entire business platform is to consult companies to help them engage and release dopamine . . . It’s called persuasive design.” Addiction, of course, is the whole point. Viewed from a corporation’s bottom line, one could not imagine a more desirable consumer profile than those who can’t get enough of what they don’t need but feel they must have. A 2019 study published in the prestigious journal JAMA Pediatrics was among the first to investigate the neurobiological effects of screen watching on children. “In a single generation,” the authors wrote, “through what has been described as a vast ‘uncontrolled experiment,’ the landscape of childhood has been digitalized, affecting how children play, learn and form relationships . . . Use begins in infancy and increases with age, and it was recently estimated at more than 2 hours per day in children younger than 9 years, aside from use during childcare and school . . . [The] risks include language delay, poor sleep, impaired executive function and general cognition, and decreased parent-child engagement, including reading together.” The study, conducted with preschoolers by means of advanced brain imaging, found increased screen time associated with poorer whitebrain-matter functioning “in major fiber tracts supporting core language and emergent literary skills.”[12] Mari Swingle treats many youths with troubled behavior, attention issues, and addictive patterns. A neuropsychologist, she is the author of perhaps the most comprehensive book on the brain and the digital culture, i-Minds: How and Why Constant Connectivity Is Rewiring Our Brains and What to Do About It. “We’re seeing autistic-like characteristics in children without autism,” she told me. “Lack of smile response, delayed verbal skills, what I used to affectionately call ‘busy children’: now these are just kids that are kind of running around aimlessly or conversely zombified when they’re not on the tech . . . You have kids—for that matter, adults now—that are used to being on the tech for extensive periods of time. A walk won’t do it, canoeing won’t do it, even speed skateboarding—a lot of things—skiing, even those are now challenged.” Dr. Swingle, too, is very concerned about the impacts