ELECTRONIC ADDICTION: TRIGGERS & PERSPECTIVES

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Digital technology has greatly transformed the landscape of how society communicates. Two thousand seven ushered in the birth of the iPhone. The Internet of Things is anticipated to expand and go mainstream by 2020. Shifting our everyday lives towards a higher degree of convenience through digital technologies. According to the Dictionary of American History, "Digital technology enables immense amounts of information to be compressed on small storage devices that can be easily preserved and transported. Digitization also quickens data transmission speeds." Speed has afforded digital technologies to be widely embraced and adopted very quickly. This has led to great strides, but has plagued many online digitally dependent users, with an electronic addiction. Wikipedia states, “Addiction can be defined when the engagement in the activity or experience affects the person’s quality of life in some way.” This post will explore the user’s behavior from a divergent perspective and the triggers affiliated with an electronic addiction.

GENES & PREDISPOSITION

Various studies demonstrate how genes also play a role in electronic addiction. Some individuals are at higher predisposition to behavior associated with electronic addiction. Certain triggers help to create, reinforce, or worsen electronic addiction. Studies also demonstrate, "younger men and women are at an increased probability of developing an electronic addiction." Stress can be a significant trigger. Stress is considered a key attribute among addiction. Add to this the digital footprints recorded daily through electronic mediums and algorithmic targeting, which can gauge, create, and/or increase stress, directing the user to become even more dependent on electronic mediums.

TOO MUCH STRESS: TAKE A HIT OF NETFLIX

In comparing how an individual coped with stress pre-electronic addiction and for instance, reading a book and not being able to post how the book is, how many times the individual read the book, or key words frequently derived from the book would be difficult to gain an idea if a person is being directed toward an unhealthy dependency. However, if the book is disrupting their quality of life, to the extent their sleeping, eating, and social relationships are suffering the perspective I would gain is, that this person is developing an unhealthy addiction to this particular activity. In comparing the activity of watching television to the electronic addiction of binge-watching Netflix, would be fairly simple to determine, because both illicit a compulsive behavior to keep watching even though the user is aware it will interfere with other commitments, which can ultimately hinder their quality of life.

However, Netflix comes equipped with the hook of automation, which can play the next episode of a series, constructing a path for the user to become even more dependent. Netflix, has the capability of hoarding a great deal of data relevant to the user's account and further make suggestions on what the user may like to watch based on their previous viewing habits, or shape their discovery of new information. The absence of this hook under the customary analog television would perhaps, limit the amount of time dedicated to watching TV. Again, if both the electronic addiction and the conventional manner of watching television is compromising the user’s mental and physical health to the point the user is devoting an excessive amount of time, ignoring their personal hygiene, and/or social relationships then, my perspective would not be altered and I would consider the individual as having an unhealthy dependency for both mediums.

ISOLATION & DEPRIVATION

A common trigger for both mediums can involve the trigger of isolation. Shyness and loneliness are common negative feelings correlated to isolation. Karabacak, K. & Oztunc, M. (2014) express, “According to Jacobs, low or high stimulations, low self-esteem as well as negative early childhood experiences lead to negative feelings and upset the individual’s homeostatic balance. Therefore, in order to escape from these negative feelings and to ensure the homeostatic balance, individuals turn to behaviors that tend to cause addiction (Jacobs, 1988).”

Other common triggers affiliated with negative feelings involve anxiety, depression, and sadness, which have the potential to further increase isolation. This can lead to a ripple effect of the user foregoing to seek out relationships in the tangible world and further seek out the development of relationships in a virtual reality. The individual may be directed toward having a skewed perception of relationships, because chatting online versus chatting face to face, involves anonymity. This will limit the amount of engagement the user has when interacting through conventional means and limit their knowledge on detecting social ques (for example, deception).

CAPITALISM: THE HOOK

Brody expresses, “The potential for commercially exploiting teens is significant.” Predictive analysis software, coupled with the hoarded information left behind by not only teens, but individuals of various backgrounds, who have an electronic addiction, are likely to be targeted by a combination of divergent industries. Moreover, Brody also emphasizes, “Information also flows from the computer directly to marketers, as to teens’ preferences in music, clothes and food.” For instance, this is demonstrated all under the guise a better listening, viewing, reading experience tech giants in the likes of Pandora, Netflix, and Audible, all obsessively advocate. Noam Chomsky, is quoted as saying “Billions of dollars are spent each year to control the public’s mind.” The progression and the intensity of triggers commonly associated with an electronics addiction can be measured with a greater level of preciseness, then performing the same activities under conventional methods. For example, the Durkeim Project, is a predictive analysis software, which can help detect if an online user is at a greater propensity to commit suicide. Ramachandran, of Mashable reports, “But since people are not always explicit in their intentions, the system will also look at other factors that might demonstrate a person's level of agitation or use of painkillers.” Fast forward to 2018 and statistics illustrates seventy percent of Americans, have some form of opioid addiction.

THE MASS INFLUENCE OF ALGORITHMS

Analyzing addiction through the traditional scope, magnifies and brings to perspective, how the electronic addiction epidemic has unfolded and provides crucial insight to the common triggers connected to the epidemic are not so different and also present in other forms of addiction. With the increase of cybercrime and warfare malevolent actors will always be present cloaked as saviors, to exploit the varying levels of addiction. Approaching individuals with any form of addiction can be difficult, because studies demonstrate when faced with intervention, many are in denial. With that in mind, I would begin by identifying the user's outside triggers. I would make the user aware the electronic addiction, puts them at an increased probability of a deeper level of addiction. If I observe the individual obsessively consumed by reading a book, watching, a movie through a digitized format and the conventional method, to the extent it is impacting their quality of life, I would research and stage an intervention. Because the underpinnings of how digital technologies heavily recruits mathematics, and is heavily monitored with an increased level of accuracy, only then can the individual begin to observe, be mindful of their triggers, and hopefully, gain a divergent perspective of the magnitude of what has always existed in the tangible world unfolding in the digital world.