GLOW KIDS: Examining Screen Time and Addiction in Children

Dr. Nicholas Kardaras | GLOW KIDS: Examining Screen Time and Addiction in Children

Thursday, March 30, 2017 at 7pm

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Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, one of the country’s top addiction experts, details how compulsive technology usage and reliance on screens can neurologically change the developing brain of a child the same way that drug addiction can. Through extensive research, clinical trials with diagnosed screen addicts, and experience treating a variety of other types of addiction, the author explores the reality of how children could be “stunting their own creative abilities” by constantly turning on and tuning in. Dr. Kardaras offers practical solutions and simple ways to protect our children’s brains without ignoring the reality of screens in our environments. Through his book and lectures, Dr. Kardaras is igniting a lively dialogue among educators, school administrators, health professionals, and parents, challenging us to rethink how we approach screens in our culture. Join us in exploring this topic!

“We’ve all seen them: kids hypnotically staring at glowing screens in restaurants, in playgrounds and in friends’ houses―and the numbers are growing. Like a virtual scourge, the illuminated glowing faces―the Glow Kids―are multiplying. But at what cost? Is this just a harmless indulgence or fad like some sort of digital hula-hoop? Some say that glowing screens might even be good for kids―a form of interactive educational tool.”

—Dr. Nicholas Kardaras

About Dr. Nicholas Kardaras

Dr. Nicholas Kardaras is an internationally renowned speaker, one of the country’s foremost addiction experts, the Executive Director of the Dunes in East Hampton, N.Y. — one of the world’s top rehabs, and the founder and Executive Director of Hamptons Discovery -a progressive adolescent treatment program. A former clinical professor at Stony Brook Medicine, he has also taught neuropsychology at the doctoral-level, and is the author of “Glow Kids” (St. Martin’s Press, 2016) and “How Plato and Pythagoras Can Save Your Life” (Conari, 2011).

In his academic career, he has taught the Treatment of Addiction, Psychopathology and Human Behavior at the master’s level, and Theories of Personality, Self, Collective and Global Psychology and Philosophical Issues in Psychology on the doctoral level. Dr. Kardaras embraces a perspective that values an integration of both traditional Western therapeutic methods combined with Eastern approaches to health and well-being. This includes integrating psychotherapy with meditational approaches like Zen Buddhism or mindfulness. Dr. Kardaras has studied martial arts for many years under sensei Hidy Ochiai, and he has traveled extensively.

Beyond his career as a mental health professional and university professor, Dr. Kardaras has, admittedly, lived a colorful life: he’s a former AAU National Karate champion, a recovering NYC nightclub owner and a coma survivor.

Having once owned celebrity-studded New York nightclubs where he had mingled with the likes of JFK, Jr., Uma Thurman, and Tom Cruise, Kardaras emerged from that glamorous-yet-self-destructive world to discover the powerful and transformative teachings of ancient philosophy. He’s a lifelong seeker who has explored many of the world’s wisdom traditions in an effort to become “awakened” and devotes much of his professional time towards helping others who are struggling with addiction or who are in psychospiritual crisis to become “awakened” as well.

In his clinical work with adolescents – he’s worked with over 1,000 teens over the last decade – he began to realize that many were suffering from a screen-induced malaise. He began to see that many were suffering from genuine psychiatric disorders such as screen addiction, anxiety, depression and even psychosis-like symptoms as a result of their screen dependence. Dr. Kardaras began to understand that this new digital drug was just another variation of addiction and escape for young people.

In researching the effects of screens on the brain, he found that the effects neurologically mirror substance addiction and were especially problematic in young children with their still-developing brains.

Dr. Kardaras lives with his wife and twin sons in Sag Harbor, N.Y. He is a frequent presenter and lecturer on the subjects of philosophy, mental health, and both substance and screen addictions.