Dim the Screen, Brighten the Future: Helping Teens Develop Healthy Digital Habits

SHOW GUESTS: Jeff Smith & Mont Criddle, LMFT

We live in a fascinating time and culture. Technology has given us immediate access to unlimited information, the ability to communicate world-wide, and the ability to connect with billions of people. It has substantially shrunk the world and provided tools to be more productive than thought imaginable. It also has had many notable negative consequences.

According Jeff Smith and Mont Criddle, from Logan River Academy's DART Program, with all the great tools and opportunity that technology provides, who would have thought it would cause so many problems. Most of us have probably experienced both the positive and negative aspects of being connected to the digital world. Unfortunately, for many, the negative aspects of our modern digital culture has led to destructive consequences. Social isolation, exposure to nefarious influences and individuals, compulsive behavior, addictive behavior, anonymity enabled conflict, and depression, are just some of the issues impacting those who are unable to maintain balance in their lives when it comes to being connected.

The genie is out of the bottle. Modern society is finding it necessary to find ways to manage these digital pitfalls while still reaping the many positive benefits of rapidly increasing technology and an ever-changing world. Smith and Criddle are trying to make a difference in the lives of adolescents that have succumbed to the darker and more debilitating consequences of living in a digital world. They represent Logan River Academy’s DART program which provides treatment for these issues.