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by sensanaty·4y ago·view on hn ↗
Anecdotally as a zoomer ('98, so I guess that's technically just on the precipice of being a zoomer), I definitely feel like a lot of my friends and colleagues my age have some form of attention deficit disorder, myself included (I've got pretty massive ADHD, but it mostly doesn't affect me other than making me hyper to the point of being annoying to others around me with my constant fidgeting and shifting). It's not a small sample size either, and all of us have had technology as an extremely integral/central part of our childhoods. Hell, I've been playing ADHD-fuel video games since I was 7 years old and I continue to do so, I really doubt that was good for me lol

I don't get the impression from talking to older folk that there's as much ADHD going around. You could argue this could be just due to awareness and older folk not getting diagnosed for it, but I think I'm pretty good at sussing out people with ADHD and similar disorders, and it's definitely mostly people my age I've noticed having it, at the very least my generation has more obvious and serious symptoms of it.

I love tech, screens and all that jazz, but I think it has a massive impact on the young brain in a way we haven't really fully studied yet, and even I'm fearing for my 4 year old nephews and their malleable brains, considering they've got access to the same type of tech I've been obsessed with, just at a younger age than me.

2 comments
Two issues may be at play here. Both tech and Medication Madness,

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2492547.Medication_Madne...

I agree it seems more prevalent in your generation. We are quicker to diagnose with pills, perhaps due to their availability and our lack of understanding about long term effects.

I think this is true in the US (from the stories I've heard/read about at least), I grew up in Southeast Asia though, there isn't much of a culture for over-prescribing (or prescribing anything really :p) people medication there. I've never even been medicated for my ADHD, and only 1 or 2 of my friends have as well and that was well after they turned 18.

I think tech really does have a bigger impact than we'd like to think, and certainly prescribing kids things like Ritalin at young ages when they're naturally a bit hyper definitely doesn't help either.

> I think this is true in the US (from the stories I've heard/read about at least), I grew up in Southeast Asia though, there isn't much of a culture for over-prescribing (or prescribing anything really :p) people medication there.

Yes, in some ways Asia has the opposite problem, not prescribing strong enough meds for emergency situations.

> certainly prescribing kids things like Ritalin at young ages when they're naturally a bit hyper definitely doesn't help either.

Yeah, I don't get this. Kids can't sit in class all day, with two parents working and too tired at home to bring them out after hours. People need exercise for their brains to work.

Curious, what video games?
These days Vermintide 2 with its endless hordes and mechanical skill ceiling have been drawing me in (around 700 hours clocked so far). Feels like a game tailor-made for people with ADHD, considering there's barely a millisecond of gameplay with no action, at least on the higher difficulties

As a kid I would switch a lot, but God of War and the Devil May Cry series drew me in, for similar reasons to Vermintide these days. Was also partial to some Unreal Tournament and Quake multiplayer, I think highly mechanical games tend to work great for restless people like me since it's a good outlet for my fidgeting ticks!