Quick what’s the first thing you do when you wake up? Is it check your phone? If you said yes you’re probably a human currently functioning in a smartphone-ridden society. Is there a thought that arises before you pick up your phone? Or does it just happen as if a slightly malevolent hungry ghost is controlling you. Of course, there is no ghost, unless you count your neurotransmitters, and then you’re probably living at least 200 years ago, but I’m going to guess that’s probably not the case.
Every time we pick up our phones, our brains are reaching for another little dopamine hit. These little hits come in many readily accessible forms on our smartphones or computers, in the form of things like cat pictures, funny memes, minuscule social validations, and other seemingly innocuous miniature doses of pleasure.
But do you ever find yourself staring into your glowing personal dopamine vending machine thinking “Wait what the fuck am i doing?? What year is it??” feeling like you’ve just been mindlessly wading through the infinite scroll on your (insert favourite social media) app for decades, but for some reason the dopamine just isn’t working anymore?
For me it took about 5 years of mindless smartphone use, and at least 15 years of similar usage on a computer to finally reach this point. It was certainly startling to realize how much of my time was being completely absorbed by devices and media that were offering me little to nothing back for it. The 10-day silent meditation retreat that I attended in 2015 was certainly a huge catalyst for this awakening, especially because when the retreat was over I immediately turned on my phone again and dove into my endless scroll on Facebook. This was equal parts disheartening and revelatory, because though I relapsed almost immediately, I felt so much more aware of how my mind was being drawn to these transient dopamine hits than ever before, and thus began a long process of changing my relationship to technology.
Luckily I’m not even close to the only person talking along these lines and it seems like a lot of people have been speaking up about this. One of the first books I read on this topics like was called The World Beyond Your Head. by Matthew B. CrawfordT, which focuses on what he calls “The Economy of Attention”. He uses the great examples of how every possible surface in an airport, even the bottom of the bin that you put through the x-ray, is either a screen or an advertisement. Since you are essentially a captive in that space, you are subject to constant inundation by advertising, unless you choose to pay an extravagant premium for access to an “elite” lounge, where the amount of advertising is severely relaxed. He also has fascinating chapters on how casinos are painstakingly constructed to maximize your play time (and thus their profit), and on the positive side , how many professionals will meticulously fine tune their working environments to maximize their productive potential.
Tristan Harris is another notable person who has been super vocal about the need for a comprehensive re-assessment of our communal relationship to technology, and he has a fantastic Ted talk on the subject. He talks about how Facebook uses their algorithm to maximize our screen time with it, but has little to no concern for our happiness built in. Which is not surprising especially given that almost every time I have opened Facebook in the last few years, it’s seemed like a bitter hamster wheel of narcissism and outrage (not to be dramatic or anything).
For me these distractions come in so many forms now-a-days that it almost feels like my life has become a nauseatingly cyclical game of whack-a-mole trying to stay present and engage with these platforms responsibly. I find myself really wanting to scroll through Instagram when I’m stuck in traffic (clearly not a good or responsible idea), mindlessly opening tabs and just skimming headlines worth of news, aimlessly opening the same 4 apps on my phone, and all these hit me with a truly primal hunger for just the littlest dopamine hit. And this is on good days! If I’m sleep deprived or just generally depressed, this hunger becomes almost unbearable. To combat this clearly unhealthy behaviour I’ve begun using a chrome extension called Self-Control that locks you out of a list of websites of your choosing for a preset duration of time, and there is really no way to get around it. Though this may seem draconian, it really works for me and helps me stay focused. On top of this, I make an effort to leave my phone in another room when I’m really trying to get down to work.
Anyways! From my experience on steemit so far, this platform does not seem tuned to mindless dopamine seeking behaviour and has the potential to be something truly interactive and intentional, so I hope to be able to grow with this community. I’d love to hear if more people struggle with some of the same things day-to-day!
