Global Medicine Hunter News

Dr Meg Jordan mjordan@ciis.edu

(415) 599 -5523

HACK THIS: Psych Professors Meet Tech Designers in Reverse Hackathon

HackMentalHealth and CIIS Meet to Inspire the Creation of Apps

That Bolster Emotional Health

WHEN: June 9, 2018  10:30 am - 7 pm

WHERE:  California Institute of Integral Studies, 1453 Mission, San Francisco

(SAN FRANCISCO---) Interrnet Overuse disorder--it's a real thing. Perhaps you've fallen victim. Some telltale signs: you can't imagine life without your smartphone; you don't really care that your data is breached; you can't wait for a self-driving car so you can text without fines. While Zuckerberg may or may not fix everything, you aren't willing to drop Instagram.

     But it's not just the digital natives (those born or at the time the Internet was fully launched) who are horrified at the thought of a dial-up connection, tech leaders and ethicists have expressed concern that the strategies to promote app and Internet addiciton have led to a decline in social involvement and increased loneliness and depression for millions worldwide. What can promote safe and sane use? Is there such a reality when financial success is measured by nonstop engagement?

     This reverse hackathon scheduled for June 9 in San Francisco is sponsored by HackMentalHealth and the California Institute for Integral Studies, a leading universsity in preparing psychotherapists. By bringing together social scientists and educators with coders and product developers, this design competition will focus on eliminating the unintended but damaging influence that has beset the industry, while promoting apps that work to improve mental and emotional health.

     The event features free acupuncture, meals and a talk by Dr David Levy, the author of Mindful Tech. For more information and to sign up, visit https//:lnkd/in/gWR7HFz.

This medical anthropologist  plans to be there and proudly show off the work of my graduate student Michael Craigen who developed a program for digitally obsessed teens that combines behavioral coaching, nature immersion, and adolescent and parental educaiton to reverse the unconscious emotional dependency of Internet use and social isolation.  Michael visited websites as a 3-year-old; he knows what it takes to unhook.

     And finally...just so I don't fall into some pre-'net nostalgia, I'm reading the work of neuroscientist Judson Brewer, MD, PhD, The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love, We We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits. He presents a keynote at the National Wellness Conference on June 19 in St Paul. Dr Brewer develop an app that brings mindfulness techniques into a simple, daily program. I must get pitched one of these apps once a week, so I'm convinced that tech can be used for social good.  Health coaches find them useful and effective for helping clients intercept the automaticity of unhealthy habits with preferred, life-enhancing actions.

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