FreeOwl

yes.... I have friends and family around the world. Rediscovery of people I'd lost touch with. Ease of creating a family record in both visual and written form, connection - quick and simple - to people who's phone numbers I've long since lost track of..... (who even CALLS anyone anymore).... These are all the justifications.

But the truth of it is, these justifications are in many ways much like:

"It helps me relax"

"Its fun to have a few drinks and socialize"

"Everyone drinks a little"

"I'll just have one"


Yes.... connecting with others is nice.... but the truth is that I go to post a photo or 'catch up' with someone and then scroll-scroll-scroll... before too long an hour is gone. Or two. Or four hours in a day.

Yes - connecting with others who are far away is nice.... but at the same time, I can see that this compulsion to 'connect' is itself connected to loneliness and isolation (just like alcohol).

And while sitting at my kitchen table 'talking' on facebook feels like connection - it's also simultaneously isolating.

And ironically, the time spent 'connecting' through my screen is all time NOT spent sitting down to coffee with a friend right across town, going for a walk in the woods with my Mom who lives ten minutes away, or any number of other in-person, real-world, ACTUAL intimate connection with another.

Yesterday I managed to stay off Facebook all but a couple minutes. Of course, I posted here at least four times. But that was progress.

Today, I'm going to do some things in the real world with some real people with the time I'd normally spend in the digital world. Progress, not perfection.

Is this something I can successfully moderate? Well I hope so because it really does feel increasingly impossible to totally disconnect. And there really ARE some definitely beneficial aspects......

But - balance. Balance has consistently been a problem for me where addictive things are concerend....

FreeOwl

There are already many acadamies and 'digital detoxes' in the US springing up to treat increasing gaming and digital addiction amongst youth. I have a number of friends whose children have tanked full-ride scholarships to good universities because outside the boundaries of the home, their gaming and internet addictions took over their lives to the point they blew their university studies completely.

I agree 100% with you on the benefits to the homebound, on the difficulty avoiding it in the modern world.... and it's only going to get worse as VR and AR become more and more intertwined with our everyday lives.

We're gradually creating a world where our minds are permanently hijacked.

And for those of us with addictive tendencies - it's likely to be more than an average struggle.

But really - these technologies are now being purpose-built to be addictive to the human brain. Full stop. Tremendous research and engineering is going directly into making digital devices, apps, entire worlds that light up our pleasure and reward centers like volcanoes to keep us as connected as possible and to drag as much of our attention into the advertising, engagement, focus and emotional response as the designers can possibly command.

This might be the most dangerous 'substance' of addiction humankind has yet come up with.

Nowsthetime

Hello:

There are some positives but in general I'm not a fan.

Everywhere I go people are on their phones. Even while driving...

I make a conscious decision to put me phone down and I'm not on Facepoop, twitter or any social media. I wan to be present in my real life. I am trying to teach my daughter by example. How can I impose thinks on her that even I can't follow.

In my opinion, social media is dumbing us down...

hpdw

FreeOwl I really get what you are saying and you argue a good case . My son aged 23 living with us has 2 of the latest consoles and has regular almost all night sessions in his room . Apparently the biggest game to come out lately is called destiny . Not only does he play the game but chats via headset with rival players , hes in a fantasy for 8 hours at a time .

We're gradually creating a world where our minds are permanently hijacked. I second that .

Its the young I feel concerned about not us old foggies .

FreeOwl

Yep... my son is almost 17 and it's the same. He disappears from life into fantasy world gaming and conversing over his headset with "friends" he knows only via the game....

On the one hand, I've seen that the games he plays benefit him in terms of strategic thinking, agility, adeptness of logic and big picture analysis of many real-world situations. He also seems to be learning practical aspects of teamwork and dynamics of politics and negotiation from these experiences. Maybe these hours will serve him in our unknown future where so much of our 'reality' will inevitably be virtual. Hard for us to foretell. But in the meantime, I also see him losing countless slices of his actual existence to sitting in a darkened room surrounded by his laundry and snacks and trash and isolated from his family and his actual, real life friends.

Many efforts to help or mandate his moderation have failed. I often feel I'm failing him as a parent. But I don't know how to stop it....

When we take it away entirely, then he falls into lethargy and depression and just sleeps literally all day and all night. It's truly a shocking addiction and we're at a loss for how to guide or force him out of it. As with any other addiction, I fear he will have to come to his own turning point. We talk with him. We attempt to guide and direct and expect.... but just like a kid who is consumed by drugs or alcohol - we cant really STOP it.

I do have concern for a world where this becomes more and more the norm of human interaction and human existence.

Hopefully, that's an extreme concern and we as a species and individuals will find our "rock bottom" or our pathway to moderation.

AAPJ

Let's not forget the many folks who are addicted to sugar...

FreeOwl

Yes. I have that issue as well....

FreeOwl

And caffeine.....

Silverback4

This thread has given some food for thought indeed.
I am definitely a moreish person, even greedy perhaps and a trait of mine is that I always want more than I need just so it gives me the security that I won't run out.

That doesn't matter if its food, drink, water, electricity, wi-fi, etc etc.
I hope you get what I mean by this...

However I enjoy technology, there is a strong argument to say that my career and my industry and livelihood would not be where it is without the internet and its associated "benefits"....or would it? There again is the deep question, would my path have been more fulfilling without it?

What I am trying to say is that I am addicted to alcohol, or I am recovering from my addiction to alcohol.
I don't believe that I am addicted to anything else. That word addiction means something very strong to me given my experience with alcohol.

Do I spend too much time on the internet indulging various interests like cars, mountain bikes, behavioural science, camping etc etc?
Of course I do but I am unsure if its a waste of my time or if I would be better replacing this with picking up a book for instance?

Lot to think about, I suppose as an addict of alcohol I consider myself quite impressionable and can easily take a theory and turn it into fact in my own head, justifying why it should ring true.
I am fearful of talking myself into issues that may not be there.

Ended up rambling here but I hope some of what I was trying to say comes across