Rumble’s CEO, Chris Pavlovski, announced on Sunday that he has left Europe following the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov.
In a post on Twitter, Pavlovski said that France had “crossed a red line” with the arrest.
“I’m a little late to this, but for good reason — I’ve just safely departed from Europe,” Pavlovski Tweeted.
“France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech.
“Rumble will not stand for this behavior and will use every legal means available to fight for freedom of expression, a universal human right. We are currently fighting in the courts of France, and we hope for Pavel Durov’s immediate release.”
Pavlovski used a subsequent Tweet to highlight the censorship of Rumble around the world.
“Free speech is under major assault and I will not stop fighting for it.”
Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris on Saturday, on charges related to the spread of illicit material via Telegram. He was arrested after arriving at Le Bourget Airport on a private plane from Azerbaijan.
In a statement on Telegram on Sunday, the company said, “Telegram abides by EU laws,” adding, “Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide.”
Analyst Mike Benz believes the US State Department is ultimately behind the arrest, because it wants to control Telegram.
“What they [the State Department] want to do is not kill Telegram like they wanted to kill Wikileaks,” Benz said in a video posted to Twitter.
“They want to control it. And the problem was, they didn’t have the ability to put sufficient pressure on Pavel to break his will. So he was living in Dubai. Now they have leverage. I believe that’s the purpose of this prosecution: not to establish a legal precedent that for every encrypted chat app its founder is personally responsible for all illegal conversations or transactions on the platform, but rather to force Telegram to become WhatsApp.”
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said that Durov “miscalculated” by thinking he could be a “brilliant ‘man of the world’ who lives wonderfully without a motherland.”
“For all our common enemies now, he is Russian—and therefore unpredictable and dangerous.”
“Durov should finally realise that one cannot choose one’s fatherland,” Medvedev added.
In this installment of our series ‘Our Digital Future’, Alistair Harding speaks to financial guru Catherine Austin Fitts about the unified ledger, programmability, and the possibility of central bank control over how we spend our money.
In the rapidly digitizing era, many nations are eyeing Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as the future solution for payment systems. However, Nigeria’s case illustrates that transitioning to CBDC isn’t a straightforward path, especially for developing countries.
Based on an analysis by Nicholas Anthony on Coindesk, the Nigerian government attempted to propel a transition to a cashless economy by implementing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Yet, the imposed cash usage restrictions led to public protests demanding the restoration of paper money. Despite the government’s efforts to boost CBDC adoption, such as removing access restrictions and offering payment discounts, these initiatives proved fruitless.
Moreover, with cash withdrawal limits and currency redesigns, the situation worsened, triggering a cash shortage and escalating public dissatisfaction. Consequently, CBDC adoption in Nigeria remains abysmally low, with less than 0.5% of the population using it, while over 50% have embraced cryptocurrency. What can we learn from Nigeria’s CBDC failure?…
Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin earlier this year said Congress will stop Trump on January 6, 2025 and create “civil war conditions.”
The February 2024 video of Raskin was making the rounds on Monday.
Raskin said Congress will use the insurrection clause to stop Trump from taking office even if he wins the 2024 election.
“What can be put into the Constitution can slip away from you very quickly and the greatest example going on right before our very eyes is section three of the 14th Amendment which they’re just disappearing with a magic wand as if it doesn’t exist even though it could not be clearer what it’s stating,” Raskin said earlier this year at author Rick Hasen’s book talk and reading at Politics and Prose book store in Washington, D.C.
Raskin then said Congress will stop Trump on January 6, 2025 and issued a thinly veiled threat to US Supreme Court Justices.
“And then they want to kick it to Congress so it’s going to be up to us on January 6, 2025 to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he’s disqualified and we need bodyguards for everybody in civil war conditions all because the nine justices – not all of them but these justices who have not many cases to look at every year, not that much work to do – a huge staff, great protection, simply do not want to do their job and interpret what the great 14th Amendment means,” Raskin said.
WATCH:
Rep Jamie Raskin says Congress will stop Donald Trump on J6 using the 14th Amendment and create “civil
war conditions”
These uniparty snakes are the greatest threat to our country that’s ever existed
On August 4, 2024, veterans of indie media with combined experience totaling nearly 80 years came together to discuss the ramping up of political propaganda surrounding Donald Trump and the U.S. Presidential (s)election.
They discuss the importance of understanding the divide and conquer tactics, 5th Generation Warfare, and the “Mainstream Alternative Media”.
The group also discusses some ideas for real solutions outside of the political puppet show.
Pfizer’s former vice president and chief scientist for allergy and respiratory, Dr. Michael Yeadon, has blown the whistle to warn that there is “no evidence” that COVID-19 “actually exists.”
Yeadon joined a growing number of top scientists who are speaking out to assert there is no sufficient evidence that either the COVID-19 virus or any other virus exists.
As a result, there was never any evidence to support a pandemic during the Covid era.
Despite this, Yeadon says the Covid pandemic led to the killing of many with “a monstrous, long-planned attack on helpless civilians by coordinated, lethal, central planning.”
“Face it. The evidence is that our governments hate us and want us dead,” the retired executive said in a statement.
Yeadon spent over 30 years working for the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.
He rose to the most senior research position in his field at Pfizer before resigning in 2011.
Yeadon left Pfizer to start his own biotech company, Ziarco, which he later sold to Novartis in 2017.
The British scientist is well-known for his acute criticism of the COVID-19 “supranational operation.”
Since the pandemic, he has been speaking out to warn the public that Covid mRNA injections are intended to “maim and kill deliberately.”
In a 2022 interview, Yeadon shared that as a result of conversations with fellow scientists.
The scientists came to the conclusion that virology itself was based on the unestablished premise that “viruses” actually exist.
And after significant personal research he eventually “realized over time” he could “no longer maintain” his “understanding of respiratory viruses.”
After obtaining further information, this “collapsed the possibility that respiratory viruses, as described, exist at all. They don’t,” he concluded.
In recent decades, some medical scientists have pointed out that “no particle has ever been sequenced, characterized, studied with valid controlled experiments and shown to fit the definition of a virus.”
Therefore, virology “has consistently failed to fulfill its own requirements to prove” viruses even exist.
Furthermore, Canadian researcher Christine Massey has made Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to hundreds of scientific institutions in 40 different countries.
The requests are “asking for any records of anyone in the world ever finding this alleged (SARS-CoV-2) virus in the bodily fluid or tissue or excrement of any people anywhere on earth by anyone ever.”
“To date, we have responses from 216 different institutions in 40 different countries,” she said.
“And so far, no one has been able to provide us with even one record.”
“They can’t cite any record,” she notes.
“So they have all admitted that they don’t have a sample of the alleged virus and they don’t even know of anyone else who ever did obtain a sample of this alleged virus.”
Massey and her colleagues followed up to make similar FOIA requests seeking “any record of any alleged virus that supposedly infects humans being purified from a sick person.
“And they admitted that they didn’t have any whatsoever.”
Yeadon was asked by world-renowned cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough to respond to a statement defending the dominant view that viruses have been demonstrated to exist.
He provided an extended reply seeking to offer readers further challenging arguments to consider for themselves.
In proposing one point in his reasoning, McCullough said:
“For those who are kind of denying the presence of the (COVID-19) virus, I think we’re approaching 300,000 peer-reviewed papers on the topic.
“I mean, this is a mountain of evidence to dismiss out of hand.”
Yeadon replied, proposing:
My initial concerns are mainly with the attempt to pretend that lots of papers asserting the same unproven thing bolsters the unproven claim. It simply doesn’t.
Back in the day when people thought the earth was stationary and the sun orbited earth, had there then been ‘peer reviewed papers’, all the reviewers would pass papers on earth centric systems.
The numbers don’t make it correct.
Merely that once group think sets in, almost everyone will interpret evidence in that light.
This continues until unequivocal evidence emerges to counter the errors of thinking.
Yeadon, a doctoral expert in respiratory pharmacology and a specialist in toxicology, argues that the Covid pandemic was a crime against humanity that should be viewed as an attack.
However, he warns that “the perpetrators are going to do it again.”
Whitney Webb says she does not trust Elon Musk as he is a military and intelligence contractor for the US government and built the satellite spy network. Jimmy Dore pointed out that he “bends the knee for Israel.” Webb explained that Musk bought Twitter, not to promote free speech, but to collect user data. His goal has been to verify all humans and link government-issued ID to Twitter accounts.
She said that Peter Thiel’s Palantir decides who goes on the domestic terror watchlist for the CIA based on individuals’ internet activity. In the second video, Webb linked all of the heads of the major social media platforms with Jeffrey Epstein.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has come under fire for its decision to route Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests through a biometric identification system provided by ID.me. This arrangement requires users who wish to file requests online to undergo a digital identity verification process, which includes facial recognition technology.
Concerns have been raised about this method of identity verification, notably the privacy implications of handling sensitive biometric data. Although the IRS states that biometric data is deleted promptly—within 24 hours in cases of self-service and 30 days following video chat verifications—skeptics, including privacy advocates and some lawmakers, remain wary, particularly as they don’t believe people should have to subject themselves to such measures in the first place.
Criticism has particularly focused on the appropriateness of employing such technology for FOIA requests. Alex Howard, the director of the Digital Democracy Project, expressed significant reservations. He stated in an email to FedScoop, “While modernizing authentication systems for online portals is not inherently problematic, adding such a layer to exercising the right to request records under the FOIA is overreach at best and a violation of our fundamental human pure right to access information at worst, given the potential challenges doing so poses.”
Although it is still possible to submit FOIA requests through traditional methods like postal mail, fax, or in-person visits, and through the more neutral FOIA.gov, the IRS’s online system defaults to using ID.me, citing speed and efficiency.
An IRS spokesperson defended this method by highlighting that ID.me adheres to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines for credential authentication. They explained, “The sole purpose of ID.me is to act as a Credential Service Provider that authenticates a user interested in using the IRS FOIA Portal to submit a FOIA request and receive responsive documents. The data collected by ID.me has nothing to do with the processing of a FOIA request.”
Despite these assurances, the integration of ID.me’s system into the FOIA request process continues to stir controversy as the push for online digital ID verification is a growing and troubling trend for online access.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is spreading fear by declaring an “emergency disaster” in response to reports about the alleged spread of highly pathogenic bird flu in northeastern Weld County.Polis “verbally” declared the disaster after “an avian flu outbreak in a commercial poultry facility in Weld County,” reads an official statement from Polis’ office on July 8. The statement does not name the facility that was allegedly impacted by H5N1.
The emergency disaster declaration allows Polis and his regime to use emergency powers to “take all necessary and appropriate state actions to assist with response, recovery, and mitigation efforts.”
The Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) confirmed that 1.78 million chickens were “impacted” by the bird flu strain, which of course means that the food fowl were slaughtered to keep everyone “safe.”
On July 3, CDA announced that a dairy worker in northeastern Colorado supposedly became infected with H5N1 after having “direct exposure” to cattle supposedly sick with the virus. The worker’s only symptom was mild conjunctivitis, also known as “pink eye.”
“He has recovered,” the agency said in a follow-up statement about the worker. “This case is an employee at a dairy farm in northeast Colorado who had direct exposure to dairy cattle infected with avian flu. To protect patient privacy, additional details are not being provided.”
(Related: Did you know that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $9.5 million to UW-Madison to make H5N1 bird flu transmissible from animals to humans?)
We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Explore our decentralized, peer-to-peer, uncensorable Brighteon.io free speech platform here. Learn about our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Every purchase at HealthRangerStore.com helps fund our efforts to build and share more tools for empowering humanity with knowledge and abundance.
Bird flu: the new COVID
Early on, it seemed as though the powers that be (TPTB) were going to try to hawk up monkeypox, also known as mpox, as the new Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) “pandemic.” Since monkeypox is primarily an LGBT disease, it seems they switched to H5N1 instead.
H5N1 has “not adapted to spread from person to person,” the establishment still claims. However, H5N1 can supposedly now transfer from animals to humans, which is why (or so they say) government bureaucrats are slaughtering food animals like chickens with haste.
“Right now, the most important thing to know is that people who have regular exposure to infected animals are at increased risk of infection and should take precautions when they have contact with sick animals,” said Colorado state epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy.
Already, we are hearing calls for people exposed to animals, i.e., farm workers, to slap on a mask, wear eye protection and gloves, and live in fear that they might catch a bird flu virus from their flocks and herds.
Over the past month, Colorado reported that about two dozen commercial dairy herds were impacted by H5N1, this after no cases being reported all throughout 2023. In 2022, eight commercial poultry flocks are said to have been impacted by H5N1.
So far in 2024, three dairy workers in multiple states, including Texas and Michigan, are said to have become infected with bird flu, this after one became infected in Colorado back in 2022. Two of the cases resulted in pink eye while one saw a cough, eye discomfort and a “watery discharge.”
Michigan, like Colorado, is trying to scare its residents about bird flu. Another prominent dairy state, Michigan has allegedly seen 26 herds affected by H5N1. Authorities there are urging farms not to share equipment and to also take other mitigatory measures, i.e., masking, to keep farm workers “safe.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is using the opportunity to tout the allege merits of milk pasteurization, which the federal agency says is “effective at inactivating [the virus].”
“In each of the total of nine repeated (pasteurization) experiments, the virus was completely inactivated,” the agency added.
Looks like another manufactured “outbreak” that will soon turn into another “pandemic” to oppress the world. Find out more at Outbreak.news.
Know that we are seeing much in the way of cosmic turmoil on all levels.There will be some surprises in your politics, and there will be upheavals —- things unexpected.No one will be able to predict the outcome because in these cases, the strings are being pulled by others that those who think they are in control.This is very much a wait and see time because the upheavals on your planet are merely indicative of upheavals on the larger cosmic level.
There have been many disturbances cosmologically that are raining down throughout the galaxies.Yes, this is not just limited to your planet, but to a larger system and systemic world.It is as those all the gears on the clocks throughout the universe are being programmed to a new frequency, a new mode of ticking away . And there will be much made of things happening that cannot be understood and much made of trivial explanations by the media who are trying to use what they do not understand to keep the narrative that they have (had) shaped (for them) going.Unfortunately, those who are their narrative creators are in a state of flux for they no longer understand what is going on.
What does this mean for you there on this planet?It means the coming forth of many conflicting narratives.Moreover the stories will change almost on a daily basis.There will be upheavals in those cities who have taken in the foreigners.Know that that was a very bad policy for it had the makings of revolution.Be grateful that it has only gone so far.The plan was to bring in more and more until the revolution was inevitable and the outcome was set.Now their proposed outcome cannot be predicted for the time is too early.This will end up with many of those self proclaimed leaders falling down and coming apart.They will be spinning tales that are baseless, and the fact that these things are baseless will be coming forth more and more until they will find themselves dealing with a kind of incongruity that even they can no longer believe.
They are only secure in their power as long as those around them kowtow, and they are only secure so long as their dictums are put forth by the media.Ah, the media, it is dying a painful death and revolution is in the air —- on every level.Revolution in itself does not have to be bloody, but revolution in itself must bring about change.There are up front revolutions and revolutions behind the surface, and these are the revolutions that have been fomenting for quite some time now.
There comes a time when things are too much, when the plate is tipped too far, and people realize that in order to keep things (even), it is necessary to change position and no longer allow themselves to be blinded by the lies of those in power.
These days are pivotal and there is much in the air.You will see changes happening, not because they have been designed, but because they have to.They have to because the force and energy of the cosmos is shifting, and with those shifts, old ways fall apart.
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvQxtotEX-M
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
The internet has enabled connections across the globe to be easier and cheaper, but at a psychological and physical cost that may increase your stress and anxiety
Large software companies, such as Google and Apple, enjoy greater profits the longer you stay on your devices and so engineer programs to offer positive feedback, encouraging your engagement and even dependence
Research identified physical symptoms associated with separation from your digital devices that may be driven by rising levels of cortisol and anxiety; consider using EFT to reduce your anxiety levels and your dependence
Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published June 14, 2017.
The internet has made connecting with new business partners, discovering health information and finding long lost friends, easier and cheaper. However, while digital connections have distinct advantages, digital dependence does not. You’ve likely seen — or have been part of — a family outing where one by one, everyone pulls out their phone to check notifications, text messages or email.
It happens in restaurants, on busy streets and commuter trains. The desire to be rewarded by your phone may have even been so great that you endangered your life by attempting to read a text or send one while driving. Toddlers get their own devices to keep them busy and 10-year-old children are carrying their own phones.1 Where once children talked on the phone, set up face-to-face time and engaged with real people in real situations, they now spend hours keeping a “streak” alive.
Dependence on digital communication presents several physical and emotional health challenges. Mitochondrial damage, exposure to electromagnetic radiation and failing social skills are just the tip of an iceberg that may have deeper roots than anticipated. Research has identified immediate physical symptoms that occur when your digital devices are just out of reach.
Digital Dependence Affecting More Than Teens
Cellphone ownership has reached 97% in America, up from 68% measured in 2015. Of those owners, 90% use a smartphone.2 The people who own the smartphones are distributed equally across gender, age and ethnicity, with the lowest number of people owning smartphones being over the age of 65.
Dependence or addiction to a digital device hooked to the internet affected 6% of the world population in 2014.3 This number may not appear to be significant on the surface, but consider that 6% of the world population was over 420 million people.4 Comparatively speaking, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 3.5% to 7% of the world population between 15 and 64 years had used an illicit drug in the past year.5
The percentage of those addicted to the internet may actually be higher as only 39% of the world in 2014 had access to the internet,6 driving the real percentage of those addicted to 15%. Symptoms of addiction are similar to other types of addiction, but are more socially acceptable. The authors of the study found an internet addiction (IA) is:7
“… [G]enerally regarded as a disorder of concern because the neural abnormalities (e.g., atrophies in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and cognitive dysfunctions (e.g., impaired working memory) associated with IA mimic those related to substance and behavioral addiction. Moreover, IA is often comorbid with mental disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression.”
Reach Out Recovery identifies conditions that may trigger internet addiction or compulsions, including anxiety, depression, other addictions, social isolation and stress.8 Internet activity may stimulate your brain’s reward system, much like drugs and alcohol, providing a constant source of information and entertainment. While each person’s internet use is different, the results may be the same. Long-term effects may include:
Irritation when someone interrupts your interaction online
Difficulty completing tasks
Increasing isolation
Experiencing euphoria while online
Inability to stop despite the consequences
Increasing stress
Physical Effects of Internet Withdrawal
The physical and mental effects of addiction, coupled with the physical effects of withdrawal, may increase your risks for long-term health conditions. In a study involving 144 people between the ages of 18 and 33, researchers discovered both heart rate and blood pressure are affected in those who report spending extended periods of time online.9
Past research has associated cold turkey withdrawal of the internet from heavy users will produce anxiety type symptoms, similar to those experienced by people addicted to drugs or alcohol.10 The current study also linked physiological changes, including an average of a 3% to 4% increase in blood pressure and heart rate of the participants.11 Some participants experienced up to an 8% increase.
This was the first controlled demonstration of physiological changes triggered by internet use.12 The increases noted during the study were not enough to be immediately life-threatening; however, these types of changes are associated with anxiety and a reduction in the function of the immune system.
The changes in anxiety levels may also be a physiological trigger for users to re-engage with their digital devices in order to reduce the physical response and anxiety level. Dr. Lisa Osborne, co-author of the study from Swansea University, commented:13
“A problem with experiencing physiological changes like increased heart rate is that they can be misinterpreted as something more physically threatening, especially by those with high levels of anxiety, which can lead to more anxiety, and more need to reduce it.”
In other words, especially in people who may experience anxiety more frequently, the physical symptoms of internet withdrawal may increase their anxiety and lead to behaviors to reduce it — namely, going back to using the internet.
Putting Down Your Phone May Raise Your Anxiety Level
Forty percent of the participants in this study admitted they had some level of an internet-related problem and acknowledged they spent too much time online. Participants reportedly spent an average of five hours each day on the internet and 20% spent over six hours a day. By far the most common reasons for engaging online were social media and shopping.
Previous studies from this same group of researchers have demonstrated study participants would experience short-term increases in anxiety levels when their digital devices were removed.14 When those devices were removed for longer periods of time, they reported increases in loneliness and depression, with some researchers finding changes to the actual structures in the brain.
Research psychologist Larry Rosen, Ph.D., and his colleagues at California State University looked at the effect technology has had on our anxiety levels. They have found the typical person checks their phone every 15 minutes, whether or not they heard a notification from the device. In his words you may be thinking:15
“Gee, I haven’t [checked] in [on] Facebook in a while. I haven’t checked on this Twitter feed for a while. I wonder if somebody commented on my Instagram post.”
These thoughts generate increased secretion of cortisol, which begins to increase your anxiety levels. Eventually, you notice the rising anxiety and seek a way to reduce the experience. Checking in to your social network on your phone may be one of the ways you’ve found to reduce your anxiety.
The authors of the study from Swansea University speculate that internet use is driven by more than short-term excitement or the joy of using technology. Instead, it may produce negative physiological and psychological changes, such as anxiety that may drive you back to the device that is causing the problem in the first place.16
Multiple studies from around the world have demonstrated overuse of the internet and digital devices leads to physical and psychological symptoms of addiction17 and family dysfunction.18 Poor health, unhappiness and depression were found in men and women who report overuse of the internet, but depressed girls demonstrate a higher rate of internet addiction than boys.19 Overall, those with an addiction to the internet have lower impulsivity control.20
Google Would Like You to Keep on Using
It should come as no surprise that companies that make money when more people spend more time and money on the internet are consciously trying to manipulate your behavior. Former Google product manager Tristan Harris revealed how digital giants are engineering smartphone apps and social media feedback to get you checking and double-checking online.21
However, while internet use is more socially acceptable, digital companies aren’t the only businesses using neurological and psychological strategies to increase their profit margins.22 Behavior patterns are often etched into neural pathways,23 and when those behaviors are also linked to hormone secretion and physiological responses, they become even more powerful.
In fact, Harris describes the reward process of using a smartphone as “playing the slot machine.”24 And, Google has discovered a way to embed that reward system as you use the apps on your phone. This process is so important to digital corporations that Apple turned down a smartphone app for their store that would help people to reduce their use of the internet and their smartphones.
The goal of any corporation is to increase your use of their product and the potential you will spend more money with them. In the case of smartphone devices, these companies are contributing to programing your actions, and how you think and feel. This is how companies satisfy their advertisers, who are paying for the privilege of your eyes on their ads.
Have You Been ‘Brain Hacked?’
Some programmers call this process “brain hacking,” as they incorporate more information from neuropsychology into the development of digital interfaces that increase your interaction with the program. For instance, getting likes on Facebook and Instagram, the “streaks” on Snapchat or cute emojis on text messaging, are all designed to increase your engagement and desire to return.
The continual scroll on Facebook keeps you engaged on the page longer, with a greater chance you’ll click an advertisement on the page. Keeping a “streak” alive on Snapchat keeps you coming back to the app, especially when you have multiple streaks going with multiple people.
Harris describes it as a race to the bottom of the brainstem where fear and anxiety live, two of the most powerful motivators known to advertisers. Both advertisers and computer software developers are using these techniques to write code that will engage your attention.25
More Physical Effects From Your Digital Devices
Unfortunately, your engagement is not the only physiological or psychological change these techniques trigger in your brain and your body. This short video highlights several changes you may experience after hours of digital use. However, there are also permanent changes that occur to the structure of your brain after watching a flickering screen for hours.
One of the functional changes you may have noticed is a reduced ability to think deeply about one subject.26 The focus of gathering information online often results in you flitting from one website to another as the topic of your research changes, as portrayed in the video above. Another way of saying this is a constant state of distraction, disruption and interruption from notifications and website engagement.
Nicholas Carr, author of the book, “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” finds in the years after publication, with rising use of digital devices, millennials are experiencing even greater problems with forgetfulness than seniors.27 This is the “dark side” of neurological plasticity that allows your brain to adapt to changes in your environment. This type of plasticity is one way your brain recovers after a stroke has permanently damaged one area.
The truth is, as your brain is plastic, most everything you do and practice will change your brain.28 Using the internet may damage your ability to remember facts, but it also appears to improve your ability to research information. However, a few positive changes may not outweigh the negative aspects of long-term internet overuse. For instance, brain scans indicate those who use the internet consistently have a reduced amount of gray matter.29,30
A loss of white matter,31,32 reduced cortical thickness33,34 and impaired cognitive functioning35 are other brain structure and functional changes that have been demonstrated from long-term internet use. It is impossible to ignore that these devices are changing your brain structure, and the experience is also increasing your exposure to microwave radiation and large amounts of blue light at night, thereby impacting your body’s ability to produce melatonin.
In 2011, the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer declared cellphones a Group 2b “possible human carcinogen”36 related to the microwave radiation emitted from the phone. Even cellphone manufacturers place warnings on their products to keep them at least 1 inch from your body.37
Yet another challenge to using digital devices is the blue light emitted from the screens, which reduce your melatonin and signal your body to wake up. You may be able to reduce this effect by wearing blue-blocking sunglasses after sundown, and turning off your digital devices at the same time.
Meditation May Reduce Your Withdrawal Symptoms
Consider setting a goal to reduce your screen time and digital communication. In the video above, Julie Schiffman demonstrates the use of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) to reduce stress and anxiety.
These are strategies you may easily use in public or private to assist your efforts to reduce your screen time — whether on your phone, computer or on your tablet. Remember, the physiological, structural and psychological changes occur no matter what type of device you’re using.
