Hello, my name is Alex. I work in the IT field. I spend a lot of time in social networks and work messengers. And I developed various addictive behavioral scenarios. I was distracted from work and looked at Facebook to see how many “likes” had dropped on some resonant publication. And instead of continuing to work with new texts, I hung on the state of the old. I several times an hour almost unconsciously picked up a smartphone - and to some extent this reassured me. Gave control over life.
At some point I stopped, thought about it - and decided something was wrong. I felt the strings behind my shoulders, which periodically pulled me, forcing me to do what I really do not need.
From the moment I became aware, I became less addicted - and I will tell you how I got rid of them. It’s not a fact that my recipes will suit you or inspire approval. But the expansion of the tunnel of reality and the knowledge of the new will certainly not be harmful.
- Pa-up, do we all fit on one photo? - Do not be afraid, I have a wide-angle on my smart.
Addictions Background
Previously, addictions, like addictions and addictions, included drug addiction, drug addiction. But now this term is more applicable to psychological addictions: gambling, shopaholism, social networks, dependence on pornography, 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 IT sphere, new types of addictions have appeared - dependence on television, dependence on social networks, dependence on computer games.
Addictions accompany our civilization throughout its history. For example, a person is keen on fishing or hunting - he cannot sit at home on the weekend. Addiction? Yes. Affects social ties, destroys family and personality? Not. So addiction is acceptable.
A person has the addiction to write stories and write books. Asimov, Heinlein, Simak, Bradbury, Zilazni, Stevenson, Gaiman, King, Simmons, Liu Cixin. Until you reach the final point, you won’t be able to calm down, the story lives in you, the characters demand an exit. I myself know this well. This addiction is, of course, yes. It is socially significant and useful - of course, yes. Who would we be without London and Hemingway, without Bulgakov and Sholokhov.
So addictions are different - useful, conditionally useful, conditionally acceptable, unconditionally unacceptable, harmful.
When they become malicious and require treatment - one criterion. When a person begins to sharply lose socialization, he develops anhedonia to other hobbies and pleasures, he focuses on addiction, he begins to change in mental behavior. Addiction is at the center of his universe.
Lost Profit Syndrome. My life on social networks should look brighter and more beautiful than others
SUV is probably the trickiest of the syndromes. You get used to it very smoothly and calmly thanks to Vkontakte, Facebook and Instagram.
Instagram generally works solely on the principle of FoMO - there is nothing other than pictures from the syndrome of lost profit. That is why advertisers love him so much, because there are fabulous advertising budgets. Because the work is being done with a completely addictive audience. It’s like a “pusher” to go to a party where everyone is heroin heroes.
Yes, you can say that Instagram motivates to accomplishments. You will see that a friend has a new car, or that he went to Nepal - and you make extra efforts to achieve the same. But this is a constructive approach. How many people are capable of transforming this information in this way, not experiencing envy, but seeing only opportunities and appeals?
The syndrome of lost profits in the classical sense is an obsessive fear of missing an interesting event or a good opportunity, provoked by including viewing social networks. According to studies, 56% of people are believed to have had SUV at least once in their life.
People constantly want to keep abreast of the affairs of their friends and colleagues. They are afraid to stay away. They are afraid to feel like "losers" - our society is constantly pushing for this. If you are unsuccessful, then why do you live at all.
What are the signs of SUV:
- A frequent fear of missing important things and events.
- An obsessive desire to enter into any form of social communication.
- The desire to constantly like people and get approval.
- The desire to be available all the time for communication.
- The desire to constantly update social media feeds.
- Feeling of great discomfort when the smartphone is not at hand.
Professor Arieli: “ Flipping a news feed on social networks is not at all the same as talking with friends at dinner and listening to how they spent their past 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 time in a completely different way ”
A man is trying to suppress negative emotions. He is trying to show that his life is rich, vibrant, full and interesting. He is not a "loser," he is successful. The user begins to upload photos to Instagram on the background 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 “tattered suckers from Khatsapetovka” - and she such an Instagram queen seized fate by her beard. Well, or for what she managed to grab the next boyfriend.
First Instagram selfie Most of all 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 palm trees, in white clothes not stained with sand, on an expensive rented yacht or car, with professional photographers who retouch photographs hundreds more times. Even food shines brighter, and champagne sparkles like a solar wind trapped in a magnetic trap. What remains of objective reality?
They forcibly demonstrate their life for show, and at the same time show how crippled they are by SUV syndrome. Take them out of this space, turn off the Internet - and they will start breaking. 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?”, “What have they done useful not only for humanity, but even for their loved ones and friends? ”
And their subscribers are involved in the vicious cycle of SUV - they dream of being as successful and vibrant. And as far as possible they pull the leg in the photographs, unfold the waist so that no "ears" are visible, turn the face so that no flaws are visible, put on impossibly uncomfortable high-heeled shoes, take pictures against the backdrop of cars that will never belong to them. And they are suffering psychologically. And they cease to be themselves - a multifaceted, unique, incredibly interesting person.
Most people on social networks build an idealized image of themselves. The pattern is reproduced, and applies to unsuspecting audience members who may also begin to experience SUV.
This is not even the Ouroboros snake biting its tail. This is a stupid and naked primate, biting himself for an ass. And in public. Flickr’s founder, Katerina Fake, openly stated that she used this feature of SMS to attract and retain users. SUV syndrome has become the basis of a business strategy.
Consequences: SUV has a destructive effect on the mental health of people. Blurs the boundaries of 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. Most often, people affected by SUV experience excruciating loneliness and cognitive dissonance between who they want to be and who they really are. The difference between being and appearing. People get to the point that they define themselves through social networks "I post posts, therefore I exist."
Fubbing. Have you checked how many likes it came to you while you are standing at your grandmother's funeral?
How many times a day do we pick up a smartphone? Count. Simplify the task. How many times do you pick up a smartphone in 10 minutes? Think about why you did this, was there an urgent need for it, something threatened the life of you or your friends, someone called you or not, did you urgently need information for the case?
Now you are sitting in a cafe. Take a look around. How many people, instead of chatting, have stumbled into electronic gadgets?
Fabbing is a habit of constantly being distracted by your gadget while talking with someone you are talking to. And not only from interlocutors. There were recorded cases when people were distracted by a smartphone during their own wedding and the funeral of close relatives. Why? This is a small psychophysiological trick used by both Facebook and Instagram. Variable reward. You took a selfie, took a photo of the wedding, made a sad note about the funeral - and now you are directly drawn to see how much you “slipped” and “got it”. How many people saw you are not indifferent to you, how much you are not alone. This is the measure of social success.
Basic principles of fubbing:
- While eating, a person cannot tear himself away from the gadget.
- Holding your smartphone in your hand even while walking.
- Instant grabbing a smartphone with sound alerts, despite a conversation with a person.
- During rest, a person spends most of the time in the gadget.
- Fear of missing something important in the news feed.
- Baseless paging already seen on the network.
- The desire to spend in the company of a smartphone most of his time.
Meredith David of Baylor University believes that fubbing can ruin a relationship: “ In everyday life, people often think that a little distraction on a smartphone does not really matter for a relationship. However, the results of the study show that frequent calls to one of the partners leads to a sharp decrease in satisfaction from the relationship. "Fabbing can lead to depression, so you should consider the potential harm of a smartphone to close relationships. "
Fabbing and SUV are closely related.
Scientist Reiman Ata decided to calculate how much time he spends on a smartphone per day. And the result horrified him. He thought he was stealing from his life 4 hours and 50 minutes. 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 the user interface designers make such beautiful icons that “they want to lick,” as Steve Jobs said. And it was not in vain that he forbade his children to use the products of his own company. Steve was able to cause addiction among users - he was a genius.
So a little life hack. Experiment. Take a look. Be a nature philosopher.
In iOS Settings → General → Universal Access → Display Adaptation → Light Filters. Activate the item "Filters", and select "Grayscale" in the drop-down menu.
On Android: Activate developer mode. Open Settings → System → “About phone” and several times in a row click on the item “Build number”. On my Samsung Note 10+, it turned out to be in a completely different place - probably, the aliens designed the interface. After that, go to Settings → System → For Developers, “Hardware Visual Acceleration”, select the item “Simulate anomaly” and select “Monochrome mode” in the drop-down menu.
I am sure. You will be asked to phone less often. It will no longer look like a candy.
Consequences: Fabbing, like the associated SUV, encourages escapism, replaces real and natural psychological reactions with incentives imposed by social networks and electronic gadgets. This leads to changes in the psyche, the severance of social ties, sometimes the breakdown of the family and, in the worst case, to borderline mental disorders, the same depression.
Snapchat-dysmorphophobia. Take a selfie out of my face
Another syndrome appeared unexpectedly. 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, shy of it, avoids society.
And colleagues from the Boston School of Medicine unexpectedly determined that another new deviation had appeared. They analyzed the reports of plastic surgeons. And it turned out that a considerable part of the citizens already exists, who come to the doctors and demand that they be given a face, like on a selfie.
Moreover, it’s not just a selfie picture, but processed by various “smartphones” installed in modern smartphones. As you might guess, girls are most often referred.
“Doctor, can you make me a face like Titian painted for me?”
And here the most frank shiz begins. According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery and Reconstructive Surgery, 55% of patients who turned to plastic surgeons explain the reason for the necessary changes - so that the selfie would be just perfect without the use of "beautyizers" and Photoshop. Like, every fool with Photoshop will make Kardashianchikha himself.
So the new term-syndrome-dysmorphophobia has grown.
Mark Griffiths, one of the world's most cited authors in the field of technology addiction psychology, a prominent specialist in the psychological study of gambling, Director of the International Gaming Research Unit, Psychology Division, Nottingham Trent University, UK said: “ ... I affirm that some of those who use the Internet excessively are not directly dependent on the Internet, for them the Internet is a kind of breeding ground for maintaining other dependencies ... I believe that a distinction should be made between the dependence directly solely on the Internet and Internet addiction dependencies ”
Consequences: Changing the face is pretty easy with current technology. Although there are unfortunate deaths. But inside you will be the same. It will not give superpowers. And the selfie has never led anyone to success. But in the end, the same cognitive dissonance and frustration. All the same "to be" and "seem".
Burnout of dopamine receptors. You can burn not only the house, but also the brains
Back in 1953, James Olds and Peter Milner tried to understand one mysterious rat. They implanted an electrode into her brain and supplied a 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 out of the wrong place - and they made a discovery. Because the rat, instead of running away from the corner where it is being shocked, constantly returned there.
The guys just felt until now the unknown zone of the brain, because they inaccurately implanted the electrode. At first they decided that the rat was blissful. A number of experiments completely confused the scientists and they realized that the rat is experiencing desire and anticipation.
At the same time, these “space launchers” opened a marketing curse called “neuromarketing”. And numerous sales people rejoiced.
Then, behaviorism reigned supreme. 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 pleasure. It was a desire, despair, the need to achieve something.
Olds and Milner did not open a pleasure center, but what neuroscientists now call a reinforcement system. The area they stimulated was part of the most primitive motivational brain structure that arose to encourage us to act and consume.
Our whole world is now clogged with devices for calling dopamine - restaurant menus, porn sites, social networks, lottery tickets, television ads. And all this turns us one way or another into a rat of Olds and Milner, who wants to finally reach happiness.
When only our brain notices the possibility of a reward, it releases the neurotransmitter dopamine. We see a photo of Kim Kardashian or her little sister in tight underwear - and cut into full dopamine. Alpha “male” reacts to magnificent forms and wide hips - and understands that these females are ideal for the continuation of offspring. Dopamine orders the rest of the brain to focus on this reward and by all means get it into our greedy little hands. The rush of dopamine alone does not cause happiness - rather, it simply excites. We are playful, cheerful and passionate. We sense the possibility of pleasure and are ready to work hard to achieve it. We watch a porn site - and are ready to jump into this jolly gangbang. We launch World of Tanks and are ready to win over and over again.
Here are just often experiencing a bummer. Dopamine stood out. There is no result.
We exist in a completely different world. A splash of dopamine on the look, smell, or taste of fatty or sugary foods when we go through fast foods. The release of dopamine ensures that we want to overeat to the dump. A wonderful instinct in the Stone Age when eating was vital. But in our case, each such surge of dopamine is the path to obesity and death.
How does neuromarketing use sex? Previously, almost throughout the entire human civilization, naked people took open poses in front of their chosen ones, loved ones or lovers. Now, sex falls on us from everywhere - offline advertising, online advertising, dating sites, pornographic sites, TV movies and TV shows (remember only Spartak and Game of Thrones). Of course, a weak and weak-willed desire to act in such a situation would have been simply unreasonable if you wanted to leave your DNA in the gene pool. You can imagine how dopamine receptors work. As in the joke: “Ukrainian nuclear scientists have achieved unprecedented success - at Chernobyl NPP they gave out a year and a half power in just three picoseconds.”
Titian first appreciated how powerfully sex affects the sale of paintings.
The entire modern Internet has become the perfect metaphor for promise promises. We are looking for our holy grail. Our pleasure. Our happiness. “Our charm” (c) We click the mouse ... like a rat in a cage, hoping that next time we will be lucky.
Computer and video game developers deliberately use dopamine reinforcement and variable rewards (the same “lootboxes”) to cheat players. The promise that the next "laptop" will be BFG9000. One study found that a video game causes a dopamine burst comparable to amphetamine use. You cannot predict when you get points or move to another level, so your dopaminergic neurons continue to shoot, and you stick to the chair. I can only remind you that in 2005, 28-year-old Korean boiler repairman Lee Seng Sep died of heart failure while playing StarCraft for 50 hours in a row.
You are flipping through an endless feed of news on Vkontakte and Facebook, do not disable Youtube auto-play. And suddenly there, in a couple of minutes there will be a good joke, a funny picture, a funny movie and you will experience happiness. And you get only fatigue and dopamine burnout
Try for at least 24 hours not to read the news, not to go to social networks, distract from television, radio, magazines and websites that feed on your fears. Believe me, the world will not fall, the crystal earth’s axis will not collapse if you are left for whole days only to yourself, to your family and friends, to your true desires, which you have long forgotten about.
Dopamine receptors in our brain are the least. And they recover the longest. Why do you think the anhedonia lasts so long among drug addicts, lovers of pornographic sites, gamers, shopaholics, top bloggers who have experienced a depressing and alarming episode. Because the recovery process of dopamine receptors is long, unhurried and not always successful.
And it’s 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 with everyone - I’m probably not sufficiently enlightened. So far, I'm not pulling on a Jedi Master. I was constantly blogging for work, I was a public figure for several years, I ended up on TV shows many times (as my friend says “woof-woof” show), you can say it was a crowbar. And I realized that I was drawn into the funnel of popularity, “likes”, “shares”, that the audience leads me, and not I lead the audience. That my personal opinion diffuses in the collective, so as not to lose the audience, not to cause negative, not to feel loneliness in the crowd. So that indicators LJ, Vkontakte, Facebook, Instagram grew, grew, grew every day. Until the hamster is exhausted - and it will spin in a wheel, which he unwound himself.
And then I deleted all my social networks. And cut off all media contacts. Perhaps this is just my recipe. And it will not suit you. We are all unique. Perhaps your adaptive mechanisms will be much stronger than mine - and you will be happy on social networks and get the best and most useful things from there. Everything is possible. But I made that choice.
And he became happy. How happy you can be in this world.
May the force be with you.
