Irresistible Hoops; Where Have All The Players Gone?

March Madness is upon us as the regular college basketball season draws to a close. Conference Championships, brackets, rankings, and the Big Dance are harbingers of Spring.

But the game of basketball is much more than an organized sport. It has been a unique rallying point for kids of all ages. It once called for TVs to be turned off in favor of outside neighborhood play. No matter how many people showed up, a game was on. 

I’m from East Central Illinois where basketball is a religion. Most of us were born with a ball in our hands. Birthing is a challenge, under those circumstances, I’m sure. Though I never heard a mother complain. There was no necessity for a net on the hoops we wore out. Backboards were made of wood with no breakaway rims, and courts were not measured off. They were mounted on garages mostly, measuring somewhere close to regulation ten feet off the ground. The favored home court was at Gary Cox's house. It was flat, wide, and long enough for some major tournaments. A few broken garage door windows were the only casualty over the years. Mr. Cox never seemed angry about replacing them. I think he enjoyed having all of the boys around.

Our neighborhood also was home to Schlarman High School, so we were very often part of the sixth man team of fans. There were bigger games at Danville High, holiday tournaments, and the occasional visit to University of Illinois George Huff Gymnasium (and after 1963, Assembly Hall) to watch the masterful Illini dominate Big Ten play. At least that's how I remember it. Regardless, basketball was a year round experience even during baseball and football seasons. It was true on about every block in about every town. If you dribbled a ball around and shot a few times, kids would show up.

I grieve the loss of spontaneous play.

We recently drove up to Naperville on a visit to my daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. My eyes were peeled, as we drove through the country and stopped in little towns. But there was never one hint of anyone playing basketball outside and no evidence that kids even existed. This is no surprise to me. We live in a suburb of Memphis, and I rarely see anyone playing anything that isn't organized and closely monitored by adults. My old friends back home in Danville sadly confirm that school playgrounds and courts we used to haunt are all but abandoned.

Parents seem terrified that someone will snatch up their child if their grip lock and hovering are relaxed. I get it. But the facts are that such a risk is miniscule. According to the Polly Klaus Foundation, "Only about 100 children (a fraction of 1%) are kidnapped each year in the stereotypical stranger abductions you hear about in the news." Stranger Danger is no more threatening than it was 60 years ago. 95 percent of all child sexual abuse comes at the hands of family, friends and acquaintances. This number hasn't risen either. But with all the hysteria surrounding lurking predators, we have ushered kids to an inside world. Sure, they are carted around to team sports and community activities under the watchful eyes of grownups. But we have lost something precious as independent play has all but disappeared.

I don't know that there is any answer to the problem. Mike Barnicle, the columnist, author and TV personality, said that we need baseball. "We need that pressure valve to be popped open for a little relief." He has a good point. I think we need basketball for the same reason. Maybe we really could change things around and bring kids back into the sunlight for some pure friend-to-friend unmonitored, unconstrained delight.

Perhaps all it would take is for the adults to put hoops up over their garages or at the end of driveways. Then we could put an orange ball in the hands of kids all across the country. We could unlock the doors and tell them to go outside. My guess is that if they dribble and shoot for awhile something wonderful might happen. To paraphrase a favorite movie line...If we build it, they will come…because hoops are irresistable.

Knowledge at Our Fingertips; You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

We have spent the first half of June exploring concerns and dangers of our ever-emerging digital world.  This is the first of four articles which looks at the incredible benefits it brings us. There are plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Learning things, gaining knowledge, and wisdom which came with great patience and effort only a few years ago now lies at our fingertips.  Information once stored away at libraries and museums is just as easily accessible as your favorite television show.  Poetry, literature, art, science, and technology can be studied and explored at a whim from the comfort of home. How miraculous and exciting to live in such an age.

Some of my grown children and spouses make a living in the technology fields.  One is a Data Quality Manager, another Director of Technology Recruiting and a third is an Account Executive Manager of Cloud Technologies.  Our son, who just came back from an international convention in Nashville, was explaining to us how a new program solves logistic problems as easily as organizing Lego's.  His father-in-law, an accounting professor, chirped in that he was lost in whatever Steven was describing.  Though not exactly lost myself, our techy pro was telling the story of languages and applications which mystify me in so many ways.

I am no neophyte to computers.  My experiences began with them back in early 1971 when, as a young behaviorist working with troubled boys, I learned Fortran in an effort to use computers to predict adolescent behavior.  It didn't work.  My guess is that even the newest programs and languages explained by our son couldn't accomplish that heady task.  But you never know. Long story short, I was hooked on the burgeoning technology right then and there.  Over the years I have modernized hospital communications between treatment teams using personal computers, created programs to diagnose the severity of addictive illness while inventing individual strategies for recovery, and on and on.  But here I am today, swimming in a sea of technological evolution which overwhelms my head, heart, and gut.  Extraordinary wonders await us which are just around the corner...and we are at that corner already. It is developing at lightning speed and not a single aspect of life is devoid of tech influence and guidance.

Five Awesome Digital Wisdom Revolutions

1. Human Brain Project: Research neuroscientists are mapping the brain creating a 3D atlas stitching together thousands of brain cross-sections showing details as small as a human cell. This will advance neuroscience medicine in ways unimaginable a decade ago.
2. Three Dimensional Printing: Architecture, engineering, medicine, aerospace, and the auto industry (to name a few) are all using this amazing technology to make things in new and innovative ways.  Home users are creating projects that are mind-blowing.  You can get an industrial grade 3D printer on Amazon for $1,500 and have it shipped with a guaranteed delivery date in four days.  Yikes.
3. E-Learning for Anyone: It's not just for school kids anymore.  E-Learning (technology-based learning) is an industry that has been embraced by schools, corporations, teachers, and students of every ilk. Lee Ann Obringer, Communications Director of The Walking Classroom Institute says that "E-learning is to classroom learning as cell phones are to a pay phone at the bus station." It provides self-paced programs at low cost in convenient locations with continually updated content. What a benefit for traditional and non-traditional learning milieu.
4. Artificial Intelligence: AI is the replication of human intelligence by computers.  The technology allows machines to learn from experience in part by recognizing patterns.  New Deep Learning software recognizes speech, identifies images and makes predictions.  Self-Driving cars, medical diagnosis, nanorobots, design/security systems, and personal assistant robots (here comes C-3PO) are all on the AI horizon.
5. DNA Engineering: Gene editing technology is giving scientists the ability to change our DNA. They can add to, edit or remove genetic material.  There is such great interest in this miraculous medical engineering as it offers new hope in curing diseases such as cancer, sickle cell, mental illness, and HIV among many others. Ethics concerns are valid of course and have halted research in many countries.

There is a seemingly endless list of dynamic digital technologies happening and developing right now.  Managing them in our micro and macro lives are daunting.  Each of us is responsible to the extent of digital impact on ourselves and our families. But one thing is certain...our reality is changing dramatically and will continue to change regardless of any effort to slow it down.  I suggest this...Hold on and enjoy the ride.

Getting Soft; Casualties of a Digital Age

This is the fourth of four articles about concerns, or the down-side of the digital age in our series, “Mastering our Digital; Recovering the Real World.” 

We spend a lot of time in front of one sort of screen or another every day.  Michigan State University, which has gathered the largest concentration of media psychologists in the world to analyze digital impact, reports that the average American spends at least six hours a day absorbing electronic media. 

There are consequences. 

Too much screen time is creating significant health-related problems.  This is especially worrisome in children and adolescents as the influence of technology increases.  Parents have some big decisions to make when it comes to how much exposure kids have to screens. All of us need to take stock of what we are doing to our bodies and brains as we spend so much of our lives sitting and interacting with these digital devices.

Soft Brains

The most complex computer ever created is the human brain.  It is changing and developing from the time we are in the womb until death. Research tells us that the most rapid time of neurological growth goes on for the first decade of life.  Every experience contributes to who a child will become.  But the changes don't stop there.  The adolescent brain undergoes dramatic brain pruning and trimming in which as much as ten percent of gray matter is cast off as unnecessary.  Neuronal connections are remapped and higher processing and executive functioning are refined.  Even in mid and old age, the brain is constantly recreating and adapting.

So, here is the problem.  We are overloading our sensory circuits with too much screen time.  In addition, studies confirm that our overuse of digital technology is shrinking gray matter which controls higher functions and impulse control, slowing down signals between brain hemispheres, reducing cortical thickness, and impairing dopamine production causing a declining sense of well being.  Overuse of screen time is even said to be contributing to depression and suicide ideation.  The bottom line is that we are making soft brains that are maladaptive.

Soft Bodies

It seems obvious that our bodies are not going to respond well to inactivity due to digital abuse.  Here are three issues we face as a result:

1. Weight Gain and General Health~ Inactivity while interacting with screens creates a low-calorie burning scenario.  Sedentary habits lead to appetite disruption, decreased muscle mass, obesity. heart disease, diabetes, some types of cancer and links to heart disease. 
2. Sleep Disturbance ~ Digital light suppresses melatonin and sends messages to the brain that it is daytime.  Insomnia in adults and children is widespread.
3. Eye Strain ~ Our eyes are impacted by staring at a screen for long periods of time followed by dry eyes, blurry vision, and headaches.

Toxic Trends

Excessive use of social media has been connected to risky and bad decision making according to Dar Meshi at Michigan State.  Inactive bodies and neurologically challenged brains leave us at our most vulnerable. Misinformation and so-called fake news promulgated on the internet and television cause people to develop worldviews and opinions that are not grounded in truth.  Once people believe that something false is true it is very difficult to persuade them otherwise. 

When these ideas are constantly reinforced on screens we watch for so many of our waking hours, the more divided and unreasonable we become.  With Deepfake Videos becoming widespread, the line between what is real and what is not blurs. The threat to our democratic government could be at stake as the next federal election nears.  But there is plenty we can do to break the habit and regain control of our lives. Our screens cannot pass sentence on what we are to become unless we allow it.

Three Simple Ways to Reset and Restore

1. Daily Chores and Routines ~ Set a minimum time for family activities and chores every day while limiting screen time for everyone.  Anything more than one hour online is too much.  More than an hour of television is enough.  Thirty minutes of assigned chores will make your home a happier place.  Another thirty minutes of active play inside or out is a must to maintain healthy bodies. Add in thirty minutes of board games, card games or reading together. There are an hour and a half in which digital is out and bonding is in.
2. Enforce Good Sleep Habits ~  All WiFi should be turned off an hour before bedtime.  Studies show that WiFi signals may suppress melatonin and increase arousal levels.  Set bedtimes for kids.  No junk food or other eating before sleep.  Keep rooms as dark as possible.
3. Be and Play Outside ~ One of the best ways to reset the computer in our heads is exposure to sunlight, play, and exercise.  Blood pressure decreases, perspectives are broadened, memory improves and vitamin D levels increase.  All the really good stuff is outside after all.

Digital Life; Challenges of A New Frontier

The topic we are investigating in June is "Mastering Our Digital; Recovering the Real World."  In a series of four articles and four follow-ups, our hope is to better grasp the nature of this barely charted course before us in order to maintain at least one firmly planted foot in the material dimension where we live and breathe.

We have a dilemma. Portable screens, social media, internet gaming, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and cable television have intruded to a point that we seem beyond the control of them and of ourselves.  Even elections are compromised by dark forces bent on influencing who we are and what directions governments should take.  It's all pretty overwhelming, especially to skeptical generations which lived most of their lives without these machines. Though the dilemma may appear insoluble, it is not. Or at least it doesn't have to be.  After all, these 'things' are designed to make our lives better.  The quandary is whether we should fully embrace, begrudgingly accept, or run away screaming as this New Frontier of Digital Life looms before us.

There is a wonderful story about President Eisenhower which circulated among my IBM friends back in the early 1980s. Ike had commissioned an early supercomputer for the Pentagon.  When completed, an entire section of one subterranean floor was devoted to the machines.  A master control station was set up behind impenetrable glass walls.  According to legend, the President came to see his creation and asked to be alone with it for a minute.  He typed out this question, "Is there a God?" and the computers all started flashing and whirring.  After several minutes, a single card spits out of its' slot toward Eisenhower.  It said, "There is now."

Bill Moyers queried renowned author, historian, and professor, Joseph Campbell during a 1988 PBS documentary called "The Power of Myth." concerning computers and the role they might play in the future.  Campbell looked over at his computer screen and said: "To me, that machine is almost alive. I could mythologize that damn thing." but went on to say, "The first time anybody made a tool, I mean, taking a stone and chipping it so that you can handle it, that’s the beginning of a machine. It’s turning outer nature into your service. But then there comes a time when it begins to dictate to you." It seems that Joseph Campbell had already foreseen thirty years ago what might happen in a computer age.  But there is no reason to rage against the machine.  With the Eisenhower story and Campbell's warning in mind, what we must take charge of is the extent to which we allow the digital world to dictate our daily life.

Trying to find a good perspective of the digital era involves looking at some of the negative and positive aspects of its landscape as we experience it today.  This is an early stage of technological development really. We have a better chance to guide and adapt now than if we wait very much longer.  I am reminded of the popular modern myth "Game of Thrones" which just finished its' final season on HBO.  Despite a chorus of voices that warned "Winter is coming" everyone procrastinated.  Old ways of dealing with conflicts, security, and enemy threat persisted even when the almost invulnerable White Walkers were in plain sight and civilization seemed doomed. Myths like this one have the power of validating or maintaining a society while providing a path forward (as Campbell tells us). Now is the time for action as we master our digital and recover the real world.

This is the direction we will take over the next four weeks together.  Hopefully, our eyes will be opened a bit and we will be able to better navigate the seas ahead without too much upheaval. Follow the content link on each of the 'concerns and celebrations' below as you experience one of the many wonders of the digital age.  Instant information.

Four Areas of Concern
There are plenty of areas in which we can focus our concerns about modern digital life. These are four which stand out as ones deserving of our attention:

1. Digital Addiction/Electronic Screen Syndrome
2. Personal Privacy and Security/Real Stranger Danger
3. Global Cyber Crime/Hacking our Future
4. Physical and Mental Health/Soft Brains and Bodies

Four Areas of Celebration
It's a small world after all.  Our digital world has connected us in ways we could have never imagined.  People who are not like 'us' become potential friends as we forge into this new frontier.  Here are four of many reasons to celebrate our screens.

1. Wisdom at Our Fingertips; The Future of Research, Learning, and Education
2. Alternative Environments; Family Enrichment by Work-at-Home Providers
3. Social Media; Staying Close and Keeping In Touch with Old friends and Family
4. Medical Miracles; From Diagnosis to Treatment OnLine.