The Gerber Institute is pleased to announce a presentation by Kevin Roberts, M.A., on Thursday, November 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the De Mattias Performance Hall on the campus of Newman University. The title of the presentation is “Tech Mania: Balance in the Cyber Age.”
Kevin Roberts is a recovering video game addict and ADHD adult who has also struggled with anxiety. He has a master’s degree in ADHD Studies from Antioch University, and he received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. For the last thirteen years, Roberts has been a life coach, helping folks dealing with ADHD and other learning differences succeed in school and life. He speaks nationally about video gaming addiction and ADHD and is the author of Cyber Junkie: Escape the Internet and Gaming Trap (Hazelden 2010) and Movers, Dreamers, and Risk Takers: Unlocking the Power of ADHD (Hazelden 2012). Roberts runs support groups to help gaming addicts who struggle to get their lives back on track. He has trained therapists, students, physicians, nurses, teachers, parents, and school administrators on the perils of the Internet and video games, as well as ADHD.
Roberts believes that we should focus not only on the negatives of the cyber world, but also the tremendous strengths. Roberts sees video games, smart phones, social networking, the Internet, and computers as powerful tools. People adept with these technologies can use them to advance and succeed. Facebook and Twitter are essential to sales and marketing. Smart phones can radically increase worker productivity. People who play moderate amounts of video games increase visual-spatial acuity and hand-eye coordination. However, Roberts believes that we need much more consciousness about how to benefit from these technologies without diminishing our social skills. We need more research to understand how increasing “screen dependence” is rewiring our brains. We need to learn to use the offerings of the cyber world to increase our opportunities for fulfillment, not restrict them.
