Hello, my name is Alexey. I work in the IT field. I spend a lot of time on social networks and messengers at work. And I developed various addictive scenarios of behavior. I was distracted from work and looked at Facebook to see how many "likes" dripped on some resonant publication. And instead of continuing to work with new texts, I hung on the state of the old one. I almost unconsciously picked up a smartphone several times in an hour - and to some extent it calmed me down. It gave me control over my life.
At some point, I stopped, thought - and decided that something was wrong. I felt the strings behind my shoulders, which periodically pull me, forcing me to do what I really do not need.
From the moment of realization, I have less addictions - and I will tell you how I got rid of them. Not the fact that my recipes will suit you or cause approval. But expanding the tunnel of reality and learning new things will definitely not be harmful.
— Pa-ap, do we all fit in one photo? — Don't be afraid, I have a wide-angle on my smart.
History of addictions
Previously, addictions, like addictions and addictions, were classified as drug addiction, drug addiction. But now this term is more applicable to psychological addictions: gambling, shopaholism, social networks, pornography addiction, overeating.
There are addictions that are accepted by society as normal or conditionally normal - these are spiritual practices, religions, workaholism, and extreme sports.
With the development of the media and the IT sphere, new types of addictions have appeared - addiction to television, addiction to social networks, addiction to computer games.
Addictions have accompanied our civilization throughout its history. For example, a person is passionate about fishing or hunting and cannot sit at home on weekends. Addiction? Yes. Does it affect social connections, destroy family and personality? No. This means that addiction is acceptable.
A person has an addiction to make up stories and write books. Asimov, Heinlein, Simak, Bradbury, Zilazni, Stevenson, Gaiman, King, Simmons, Liu Cixin. Until you put the final point - you can not calm down, the story lives in you, the characters demand a way out. I know this well myself. It's an addiction, of course. It is socially significant and useful - of course, yes. Who would we be without London and Hemingway, without Bulgakov and Sholokhov.
This means that addictions can be different - useful, conditionally useful, conditionally acceptable, unconditionally unacceptable, harmful.
When they become harmful and require treatment, there is only one criterion. When a person begins to sharply lose socialization, he develops anhedonia to other hobbies and pleasures, he focuses on dependence, he begins to change his mental behavior. Addiction occupies the center of his universe.
Lost Profit Syndrome. My social media life should look brighter and more beautiful than others
SWV is probably the trickiest of the syndromes. You get used to it very smoothly and calmly thanks to Vkontakte, Facebook and Instagram.
Instagram in general works exclusively on the FoMO principle - there is nothing except pictures with the syndrome of lost profits. That is why advertisers love him so much, because there are fabulous advertising budgets. Because the work is carried out with a completely addictive audience. It’s like a “pusher” walking into a party where everyone is a heroin addict.
Yes, you can say that Instagram motivates you to achieve. You see that a friend has a new car, or that he went to Nepal - and you put in extra effort to achieve the same. But this is a constructive approach. How many people are able to transform the information received in this way, not to feel envy, but to see only opportunities and appeals?
Lost profit syndrome in the classical sense is an obsessive fear of missing out on an interesting event or a good opportunity, provoked, among other things, by browsing social networks. Studies have shown that 56% of people are believed to have experienced SWS at least once in their lives.
People constantly want to be aware of the affairs of their friends and colleagues. They are afraid to be left out. They are afraid to feel like "losers" - our society constantly pushes for this. If you are unsuccessful, then why are you even alive.
What are the signs of an SUV:
- Frequent fear of missing out on important things and events.
- An obsessive desire to enter into any form of social communication.
- The desire to constantly please people and receive approval.
- The desire to be available for communication all the time.
- The desire to constantly update social media feeds.
- Feeling of strong discomfort when the smartphone is not at hand.
Professor Ariely: "Scrolling through your social media feed is not the same as talking to your friends over dinner and listening to how they spent their last weekend. When you open Facebook and see that your friends are sitting in a bar without you - at this particular moment - you can imagine that you could spend your time in a very different way.»
The person tries to suppress negative emotions. He tries to show that his life is rich, bright, full and interesting. He is not a "loser", he is successful. The user starts posting photos on Instagram against the backdrop of the sea, expensive cars, yachts. Just go to Instagram yourself and see which photos get the most "likes". Girls are especially prone to this - it is important for them to prove that their colleagues, classmates and classmates are “torn bastards from Khatsapetovka” - and she is such an Instagram queen who grabbed fate by the beard. Well, or for what she managed to grab another boyfriend.
First selfie uploaded to Instagram. Most of the problems were with the ermine, so as not to spin and bite.
Go to Instagram, look at the top beauty bloggers. On the beach, among the palm trees, in white clothes, not stained with sand, on an expensive rented yacht or car, with professional photographers who will retouch the pictures hundreds of times. Even the food shines brighter and the champagne sparkles like a magnetically trapped solar wind. What is left of objective reality?
They forcibly, ostentatiously demonstrate their lives, and at the same time show how crippled they are by the syndrome of SS. Take them out of this space, turn off the Internet - and they will begin to break down. Because they will not be able to say “Who are they?”, “How do they identify themselves outside the social network account?”, “Who are they for society, what is their social role?” even for your family and friends?
And their subscribers are involved in a vicious circle of SUVs - they dream of being just as successful and bright. And as far as possible they stretch their legs in photographs, turn their waists so that the “ears” are not visible, turn their faces so that flaws are not visible, put on impossibly uncomfortable high-heeled shoes, take pictures against the backdrop of cars that will never belong to them. And psychologically suffer. And they cease to be themselves - a multifaceted, unique, incredibly interesting personality.
Most people on social media build an idealized image of themselves. The pattern is replicated, and extended to unsuspecting audience members, who may also begin to experience the SOS.
It's not even an Ouroboros snake biting its own tail. This is a stupid and naked primate biting his own ass. And in public. that used this feature of the SUV to attract and retain users. The SUV syndrome has become the basis of the business strategy.
Effects: SWV has a destructive effect on people's mental health. It blurs the boundaries of the personality, makes a person subject to momentary trends, which takes an incredible amount of physical and mental energy. It is quite possible to lead to depression. More often than not, people affected by MS experience an agonizing loneliness and cognitive dissonance between who they want to be and who they really are. The difference between being and seeming. People get to the point where they define themselves through social media “I post, therefore I am.”
Phubbing. Did you check how many likes you got while standing at your grandma's funeral?
How many times a day do we pick up a smartphone? Do the math. Let's simplify the task. How many times do you pick up your smartphone in 10 minutes? Think about why you did this, was there an urgent need for this, did something threaten the life of you or your friends, did someone call you or not, did you urgently need information for the case?
Now you are sitting in a cafe. Look around. How many people, instead of communicating, buried themselves in electronic gadgets?
Phubbing is the habit of constantly being distracted by your gadget while talking with an interlocutor. And not only from interlocutors. There have been cases when people were distracted by a smartphone during their own wedding and the funeral of close relatives. Why? This is a little psycho-physiological trick that both Facebook and Instagram use. Variable reward. You took a selfie, photographed the wedding, made a sad note about the funeral - and now you are just drawn to see how many “likes” and “shouts” you have. How many people have seen you, are not indifferent to you, how much you are not alone. This is the measure of social success.
Basic phubbing principles:
- While eating, a person cannot tear himself away from the gadget.
- Holding a smartphone in your hand even while walking.
- Instant grasping of the smartphone with sound alerts, despite the conversation with the person.
- During the rest, a person spends most of the time in the gadget.
- Fear of missing something important in the news feed.
- Groundless scrolling through what has already been seen on the Internet.
- The desire to spend most of your time in the company of a smartphone.
Meredith David from Baylor University believes that phubbing can ruin relationships: "In everyday life, people often think that a little distraction on a smartphone doesn't really matter in a relationship. However, the results of the study show that frequent use of the phone by one of the partners leads to a sharp decrease in relationship satisfaction. Phubbing can lead to depression, so be aware of the potential harm of smartphones to close relationships»
Phubbing and SWV are closely related.
Scientist Reyman Ata decided to calculate how much time he spends on his smartphone per day. And the result horrified him. He calculated that he was stealing 4 hours and 50 minutes from his life. And by chance, he stumbled upon the advice of former Google designer Tristan Harris: put the phone in monochrome mode. On the first day with a monochrome smartphone, Reiman Ata used the device for only an hour and a half (1,5 hours!) It’s not for nothing that user interface designers make such beautiful icons that “you want to lick them,” as Steve Jobs said. And it was not in vain that he forbade his children to use the products of his own company. Steve knew how to cause addiction in users - he was a genius.
So a little hack. Experiment. Look. Be natural philosophers.
On iOS, Settings → General → Accessibility → Display adaptations → Light filters. Activate the "Light filters" item, and select "Grayscale" in the drop-down menu.
On Android: Activate developer mode. Open Settings → System → “About phone” and click on the item “Build number” several times in a row. On my Samsung Note 10+, it turned out to be in a completely different place - probably, aliens designed the interface. After that, you need to go to Settings → System → For developers, "Hardware accelerated rendering", select the item "Simulate anomaly" and select "Monochrome mode" in the drop-down menu.
Sure. In the hands of the phone you will ask much less often. It will no longer look like a lollipop.
Effects: Phubbing, like the associated SUV, pushes towards escapism and replaces real and natural psychological reactions to stimuli imposed by social networks and electronic gadgets. This leads to changes in the psyche, severance of social ties, sometimes family breakdown and, in the worst case, to borderline mental disorders, such as depression.
Snapchat dysmorphophobia. Take a selfie of my face
Suddenly, another syndrome appeared. After all, being determines consciousness.
The old, long-studied dysmorphophobia has acquired new colors and facets. This is when a person believes that he is ugly, ugly, embarrassed by this, avoids society.
And then colleagues from the Boston Medical School unexpectedly determined that another new deviation had appeared. They analyzed the reports of plastic surgeons. And it turned out that there is already a considerable part of citizens who come to doctors and demand that they have a face made, like in a selfie.
And not just not a selfie, but processed by various "beautifiers" installed in modern smartphones. As you might guess, girls are the most frequently contacted.
“Doctor, can you make me such a face as Titian painted for me?”
And here the most frank madness begins. According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 55% of patients who turned to plastic surgeons explain the reason for the necessary changes - so that the selfie turns out just great without the use of “beautifiers” and Photoshop. Like, every fool with Photoshop will make herself a Kardashian.
So a new term has grown - snapchat dysmorphophobia syndrome.
Mark Griffiths, one of the world's most cited authors in the field of technology addiction psychology, a leading expert in the psychological study of gamblers, Director of the International Gaming Research Unit, Psychology Division, Nottingham Trent University, UK said: “… I argue that most of those who overuse the Internet are not directly dependent on the Internet, for them the Internet is a kind of breeding ground for supporting other addictions … I believe that a distinction should be made between dependence directly on the Internet and addictions, related to Internet applications»
Effects: Changing a face is pretty easy with current technology. Although there are unfortunate deaths. But inside you will be the same. It won't give you superpowers. A selfie has never led anyone to success. And in the end, all the same cognitive dissonance and frustration. All the same "to be" and "to seem".
Burnout of dopamine receptors. You can burn not only the house, but also the brains
Back in 1953, James Olds and Peter Milner were trying to understand a mysterious rat. They implanted an electrode in her brain and applied current through it. They thought they were activating the area of the brain that is responsible for fear. The good news is that their hands grew from the wrong place - and they made a discovery. Because the rat, instead of running away from the corner where it was shocked, constantly returned there.
The guys just groped for a hitherto unexplored area of the brain, because they implanted the electrode inaccurately. At first they thought the rat was in bliss. A number of experiments completely confused scientists and they realized that the rat is experiencing desire and anticipation.
At the same time, these "space aliens" opened the marketing curse called "neuromarketing". And numerous salesmen rejoiced.
Behaviorism was in full swing then. And the subjects said that when they stimulated this area of the brain, they experienced - do not believe it - despair. It was not an experience of enjoyment. It was a desire, a desperation, a need to achieve something.
Olds and Milner did not discover the pleasure center, but what neuroscientists now call the reward system. The area they stimulated was part of the most primitive motivational brain structure that emerged to drive us to action and consumption.
Our entire world is now chock full of dopamine-inducing devices—restaurant menus, porn sites, social media, lottery tickets, TV commercials. And all this turns us one way or another into the rat of Olds and Milner, who dreams of finally running to happiness.
As soon as our brain notices the possibility of a reward, it releases the neurotransmitter dopamine. We see a picture of Kim Kardashian or her little sister in tight lingerie and the dopamine kicks in. The alpha "male" reacts to curvy shapes and wide hips - and understands that these females are ideal for the continuation of offspring. Dopamine tells the rest of the brain to focus on this reward and get it into our greedy hands no matter what. The rush of dopamine does not in itself cause happiness - rather, it just excites. We are frisky, cheerful and passionate. We sense the possibility of pleasure and are willing to work hard to achieve it. We're watching a porn site and we're ready to jump into this hilarious gangbang. We are launching World of Tanks and we are ready to win time after time.
That's just often experiencing a bummer. Dopamine is released. There is no result.
We exist in a completely different world. A surge of dopamine from the sight, smell, or taste of fatty or sugary foods when we pass fast foods. The release of dopamine ensures that we want to overeat. A wonderful instinct in the Stone Age when food was vital. But in our case, each such burst of dopamine is a path to obesity and death.
How does neuromarketing use sex? Previously, throughout almost the entire human civilization, naked people took explicit poses in front of their chosen ones, loved ones or lovers. Nowadays sex comes at us from everywhere - offline advertising, online advertising, dating sites, pornographic sites, TV films and series (just remember “Spartacus” and “Game of Thrones”). Of course, a weak and weak-willed desire to act in such a situation would previously have been simply unreasonable if you wanted to leave your DNA in the gene pool. Can you imagine how dopamine receptors work? As in the joke: “Ukrainian nuclear scientists have achieved unprecedented success - at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant they produced a year and a half of power in just three picoseconds.”
Titian was the first to appreciate how powerfully sex affects the sales of paintings.
The entire modern Internet has become the perfect metaphor for the promise of a reward. We are looking for our Holy Grail. Our pleasure. Our happiness. “Our charm” (c) We click with the mouse ... like a rat in a cage, hoping that next time we will be lucky.
Developers of computer and video games quite deliberately use dopamine reinforcement and variable rewards (the same "loot boxes") to hook players. The promise that the next "lootbook" will be BFG9000. One study found that a video game caused a dopamine surge comparable to that of amphetamine use. You can't predict when you'll score or level up, so your dopaminergic neurons keep firing and you stick to your chair. Let me just remind you that in 2005, 28-year-old Korean boiler repairman Lee Seng Sep died of heart failure while playing StarCraft for 50 hours straight.
You scroll through the endless news feed on VKontakte and Facebook, and don’t turn off Youtube autoplay. What if, in a couple of minutes, there will be a good joke, a funny picture, a funny video and you will experience happiness. And you only get fatigue and dopamine burnout
Try not to read the news for at least 24 hours, do not go to social networks, get distracted from television, radio, magazines and sites that feed on your fears. Believe me, the world will not fall, the crystal earth's axis will not collapse, if for a whole day you are left only to yourself, your family and friends, your real desires, which you have long forgotten about.
We have the fewest dopamine receptors in our brains. And they take the longest to recover. Why do you think anhedonia lasts so long in drug addicts, lovers of pornographic sites, gamers, shopaholics, top bloggers who have experienced a depressive-anxiety episode. Because the process of restoring dopamine receptors is long, unhurried and not always successful.
And it is better to save them initially.
I promised you...
At the very beginning, I promised to tell you how I dealt with most addictions. No, it didn’t work out with everyone - probably I’m not enlightened enough. I'm not looking to become a Jedi Master yet. I constantly blogged for work, was a public figure for several years, appeared on TV shows many times (as my friend says, “woof-woof” show), you could say I was a CROWBAR. And I realized that I was being pulled into the funnel of popularity, “likes”, “shares”, that the audience was leading me, and not I leading the audience. That my personal opinion is diffused in the collective, so as not to lose the audience, not to cause negativity, not to feel loneliness in the crowd. So that the indicators of LiveJournal, VKontakte, Facebook, Instagram grow, grow, grow every day. Until the hamster gets exhausted and spins in the wheel that he spun himself.
And then I deleted all my social networks. And cut off all media contacts. Maybe it's just my recipe. And it won't work for you. We are all unique. Perhaps your adaptive mechanisms will be much stronger than mine - and you will be happy in social networks and get the best and most useful from there. Everything is possible. But I made this choice.
And he became happy. How happy can you be in this world.
May the force be with you.
Source: habr.com