Posted on | August 21, 2014 | No Comments
Enlightenment and Addiction on the Internet: Neural Receptors Ramp Up
Google Images, 2014
We have fallen into a fast, raging stream of objects and events that might not otherwise touch our pre-connection besotted social-media lives. We never ask if these material objects or events should after all touch upon our existence but once acquainted, we become deeply and emotionally involved with them. More so, we demand to be in touch with every event. To be kept in ignorance means we are missing something valuable and compelling. This new object will turn out to be enormously significant, we are certain, so we drive ourselves to it rather than being drawn in.
The cerebral excitation is sustaining while the particular search lasts. This evocation creates an addiction to stimuli that our dopamine receptors conjure and trill. Once we are in full pursuit of the next app, the newest online sensation, or the greatest new gadget that performs amazing feats we never realized we were disadvantaged to live without, the neural receptors achieve a sense of bliss. We are being sated and soothed.
Technology has brought us so much information and a speedy access to a universe of subjects that is unparalleled. We feel enlightened and educated, proud of our achievements at absorbing factoids. Our questions are answered immediately and no one can seriously complain about the fast flow of knowledge to so many people. As with any other addiction however, have we raised the levels of neural activity so high that we are unable to achieve the same level of satiation without constantly manipulating the pods in our hands?
I watched a young man, hunched over and barely awake on the sofa, reach for his phone like someone much older grasping for his cigarettes while still prone in the rumpled morning bed. The patterns are distinctly familiar but the new rationalization is interesting. Addiction to handheld technology is illuminating and socially connective so it can’t be regarded as truly negative. I wonder about people spending hours on social connection websites. Have they lost the ability to self soothe in moments of boredom or anxiety?
How do we become mindful when the only control we can exercise over events and objects is to tune them out completely? How do we handle messages that are often created to be purposefully emotionally manipulative?
Shawn M. Nichols
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