Digital Dementia

Psychiatrist Kim Dae-jin at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital recently
diagnosed a 15-year-old boy with symptoms of early onset dementia due to
intense exposure to digital technology — television, computer,
smartphone and video games — since age 5. He could not remember the
six-digit keypad code to get into his own home and his memory problems
were hurting his grades in school. 

“His brain’s ability to transfer information to long-term memory has
been impaired because of his heavy exposure to digital gadgets,” the
psychiatrist told the Korea JoongAngDaily.com. 

South Korea is highly wired — 65 percent of teens have smartphones
– and doctors said they were finding a growing number of cases of
memory problems, attention disorders and emotional flattening among
children and teens who spent a lot of time Web searching, texting and
using multimedia. 

“Overuse of smartphones and game devices hampers the balanced
development of the brain,” said Byun Gi-won, who runs the Balance Brain
Center in Seoul, which helps those with cognitive problems related to
computers and smartphones. 

Youth might be at more risk than adults because up to age 25, their brains are still developing.

“From the early 2000s, I’ve seen a drastic increase in patients with
reduced memory spans, especially young people. When I looked at it, most
of them were exposed to the heavy consumption of digital gadgets,” Dr.
Kim Young-bo at Gachon University Gil Medical Center’s brain research
institute in Incheon told the newspaper. 

“The gadgets ease the burden of memorizing tedious information but if
we don’t use our brain functions, the overall cognitive skills of being
aware and perception will ultimately decrease.”