Written by a student of the Deep Green Bush-School. The DGBS is a participatory, technology-free, evolutionary and revolutionary school located in Aotearoa (colonized name New Zealand) for ages 5-18 designed to raise intelligent, healthy, mature, responsible young adults who can think for themselves, meet their needs, live a meaningful life and challenge the current system in order to bring about a healthy world. We are raising the dreamers, healers, rebels and the revolutionaries this world needs.

Not many people know how terrible screens and video games are. I used to game for at least five hours a day. If I wasn’t gaming I was watching videos about gaming. I didn’t go outside because I would get bored so quickly and all I could think about was me being bored and how I wanted to go back on my Xbox and “kill” more people. My brother also gamed and we would fight about who was better at gaming . I realised that the more you kill people in games the more normal it becomes. It’s the same with movies; the more you watch people getting killed the more normal it seems. Video games and movies numb you to violence. And just think, there are more than two billion gamers in the world today.

Gaming and all screens also have a big effect on attention span. When you play video games, or when you use any kind of screen, there is always something going on. It’s always fast-paced and makes you go even faster. When I would stop gaming and try to do anything else I would quickly get bored and expect it all to happen at the same speed. Or I would wait for someone to tell me what to do. The more we use screens, the less we are able to concentrate on real life.

One of the reason gaming is so addicting is because when you kill someone, or do something you’re supposed to, you’re rewarded. You get points, or some music plays, or something like that. Video game designers hire psychologists to help design the games to keep people hooked. There are millions and millions of dollars spent on keeping people addicted, not just to games, but to all screens. It’s not just video games that are bad: TV, cellphones and any screens all have similar negative effects on us. So many people can’t even go a few minutes without checking their phones.

If you look around everyone’s either looking at a phone, listening to music, or just holding their phone. No one can do anything without a phone or a screen. We are completely dependent on technology.