Cell Phones and Social Media: Opening a Dark Box

July 28, 2025

Part 2: Addiction, rewiring, brain damage

“Beware of your kid’s screen consumption time – it’s a matter of life and death – of psychological life and psychological death. Raise them in a way that they do not lose their sense of community in the fake crowd of hashtags and emojis.” ―Abhijit Naskar

A Washington Post editorial stated that, “Entertainment is destroying society.”

If you followed this journalist into the gym six days a week, you would see that anyone under 30 “choking on their cell phone screens.”  America’s young are amusing themselves to death.

In Aldous Huxley’s incredible book, Brave New World, he talked about people living their lives under the drug “Soma” that allowed them to be happy all the time.  Why not be “high” and happy all your life…no troubles, no worries, no responsibilities?!

“One author, Neil Postman would not be surprised to see that our version of Huxley’s addictive Soma drug comes in the virtual variety: TikTok’s infinite scroll, Facebook, cryptocurrency speculation and content streams designed to blur time and lull us into a flow state.”

Writer Zickgraf wrote. “Every flick of the thumb offers a micro-hit of novelty, outrage or reward. Karl Marx called religion the opiate of the masses, but we killed God and began worshiping the murder weapon instead.”

There’s another problem with cell phones not yet studied, but will prove as deadly in the years ahead.  EM Waves.

“Electromagnetic (EM) waves are disturbances that transfer energy through space by oscillating electric and magnetic fields. They travel at the speed of light and encompass a wide range of frequencies, collectively known as the electromagnetic spectrum. This spectrum includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays.”

Notice that kids average 7 hours 22 minute daily with that cell phone Super-Glued to their ear.  That’s a lot of disruptive electrical energy from the battery that invades their brains.  Any kind of electrical current disrupts brain cells. If you continue that disruption for hours, days and years—-you’ve got a problem. You don’t know what it is at the moment, but years down the road, it will surface.

How much time should a teenager spend on their computer?

“Screen time can impact on myopia development and progression, and is also linked to dry eye syndrome, digital eyestrain, and poor head and neck postures which can cause pain. Teenagers are recommended to have no more than 2 hours of sedentary, recreational screen time per day.”

When a person’s brain reaches overload of information, that person must deal with emotional, psychological and physical problems that stack up over time.

“Unlike the millennial generation — which largely absorbed technology as destiny, first in its techno-utopian promises, later in its gigified disappointments — these Gen Z refuseniks are not trying to reform the system. They’re walking away from it,” researcher Zickgraf added. “That’s why the No Kings demonstrations often look like the world’s largest retiree convention. This new group’s politics, to the extent that it has any, are not oriented toward revolution or regulation, but toward restraint, retreat and restoration. They want silence. They want limits. And if there is any hope of clawing back a shared reality from the hall of mirrors that is the modern internet, it might lie with them.”

What are the growing consequences of endless screen time?

“Excessive screen time in teenagers can lead to a range of negative physical and mental health consequences. These include sleep disturbances, eye strain, neck and back pain, and increased risk of obesity. Mentally, it can contribute to anxiety, depression, social isolation, and difficulties with attention and emotional regulation. Additionally, excessive screen time can interfere with academic performance and social development.”

Another item that distresses this journalist about cell phones: comparison to others!   When you watch young people, there are the high school cheer leaders and sports stars.  The rest of us are mere mortals.  If you look at all the fancy movie stars, the glitz and glamor, there’s no way to measure up. You’ve heard the term, “I’m not good enough.”

The one thing about such horrific hours on a cell phone, that young person loses “relationship” skills of talking, sharing, making a best friend, feeling important in the eyes of another.  You just don’t get that sense of “community” by playing all those video games.

What are some of the guidelines for screen time for kids?

The World Health Organization recommends that children under 5 spend no more than one hour per day on screens, with the recommendation being less for younger children. Specifically, children under the age of 2 should have no screen time (except for video calls) and children aged 2-5 should have no more than one hour per day of sedentary screen time.

If you are a parent, you really need to place limits and discipline on your children so they may grow up with a sound mind, exercised bodies, emotional balance, spiritual stability and a sense of themselves.

“The very existence of social media is predicated on humankind’s primitive drive of attention seeking. And when they successfully monetize your attention, they end up with billions of dollars and you end up with a screwed up mental state. And if we don’t do anything about it now, the next generation will be a generation of mentally unstable glass creatures.” ―Abhijit Naskar

Again, as a former teacher, I promote a total ban on cell phones in schools.  They ruin a young person’s mind for learning.  They ruin their necks. They ruin their physicality as to exercise. They ruin their food intake by promoting junk foods. Cell phones promote pornography, violence and loss of critical thinking.  Cell phones waste 7 hours and 22 minutes per day in useless, mindless and stupidness of allowing a person’s brains to dive into a Dark Box of Nothingness.