Doctors can't stop playing video games at work


Phones are distracting. In a marketing research firm's survey of more than 1,200 adults, results showed that social media apps sap the focus of 68 percent of American workers several times a day. But there are some jobs where you really shouldn't be looking at your phone — like if you're a doctor tasked with saving lives.
Even more than social sites, though, the firm found that doctors in particular are distracted by video games. Forty-three percent of professionals in the medical field told the firm that they play games on their phones while they're at work.
"All of these technologies that access the internet are extremely psychoactive. They change our mood and consciousness like a drug. I call them a digital drug. They change our neurobiology and, in some cases, our neurophysiology," Dr. David Greenfield, founder of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, told the New York Observer.
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"The power of the internet supersedes any frontal lobe judgment," he added. "When dopamine is activated in the brain, which is what happens with gaming, it overrides your judgment."
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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