David N. Greenfield - Overcoming Internet Addiction For Dummies

My research found that part of the appeal in accounting for the addictive nature of the Internet was an interaction between stimulating content and the process of Internet delivery of that content. It seems that the interaction between the attractiveness of any content can be amplified using the Internet modality. I call this synergistic amplification (a mouthful). It is as if online content were the drug, and the Internet delivery mechanism was the hypodermic delivering that drug to our nervous system. It is this amplification that gives the Internet some of its power and potency, as you find out in this section.

What is content intoxication? This involves understanding how varying forms of content, when consumed via the Internet, have greater power to elevate mood and instigate changes in the reward center of the brain. Many of these forms of content, such as shopping, stock trading, gambling, video gaming, and porn, existed prior to the Internet and were quite pleasurable (and potentially addictive), but when consumed through the Internet medium, they become even more intoxicating and addictive.

For example, pornography has been around for quite some time and certainly existed before we had the Internet. It was always stimulating to look at it, when viewing it in books, magazines, films, photos, or on videotapes and DVDs. But when the Internet became more widely available in the early to mid-1990s, it was a new ball game. The ease of access, availability, anonymity, disinhibition, and convenience all coalesced to produce an immersive experience unlike previous forms of media or communication. The Internet allows for endless variety, privacy, and interactivity in a way never seen before. This was content on steroids, and thus began an entirely new type of addiction. ( Chapter 9has more information on pornography online.)

The Internet amplifies the power of anything it broadcasts in a new and different way, and it happens without your knowing that your brain is slowly being conditioned — just as if you were playing a slot machine. Rewarding and stimulating behaviors are one thing, but when provided via an Internet platform, they become quite another.

Why would a video game be more addictive when played on a computer or gaming platform connected to the Internet? In a word or two: variability and interactivity. The Internet allows people to play games with other people, and this, along with speed, variation, privacy, and ease of access, makes it entirely new. Digital devices, when connected to the Internet, make content much more personally accessible — to a point where the line between normal and excessive use can easily become blurred.

All forms of content consumed on the Internet are amplified and intensified. This is true whether we’re talking about shopping, investing in stocks, gambling, video gaming, and most certainly pornography. Even searching for information becomes a new experience I call infotainment. Who would have thought that surfing YouTube, Reddit, Wikipedia, or a variety of apps or websites could be fun? But the interactivity, speed, perceived anonymity, and ease of access put simple information on steroids. The variability of finding what you want and not knowing when you will get it gamifies the process, and at the same time you’re getting intermittent hits of dopamine when you find something you like, and even higher hits when you think that maybe you found or will find something you will like.

The Internet allows for a near-instant reflex, where a click or screen tap enables you to find just what you’re looking for. There is very little lag between the impulse to look for something, play a game, or respond to a notification and the act of doing it. Keep in mind that the shorter the time between clicking and viewing the content, the more addictive it becomes. The shortened lag also produces a sense of instant or near-instant gratification and reinforces your inability to delay gratification. What this ends up looking like is that you never really have to wait for anything. Everything is instantly experienced, from a whim to satisfaction.

Sometimes waiting can build our tolerance to address aspects of life that are not instantly satisfied or that require sustained attention and effort. At times we might even learn to endure boredom for a few short minutes, without reaching for a screen, but the Internet seems to facilitate the opposite.

Data seems to show that the ability of younger people to delay gratification and maintain sustained effort has waned over the last 25-plus years. Add to the equation that we’re carrying an Internet portal everywhere we go, and we can see how our smartphone erases the last vestiges of our willpower by allowing us to instantly satisfy every impulse. Every social media update or notification we receive becomes a trigger to pick up our phone and look. Every question, curiosity, or text we have becomes another glance at our phone. The problem is that it never ends, and any boundary between screen life and real-time life evaporates. There is no off button, no downtime to enjoy without the pull of our phones and the lure of that instant dopamine hit.

Did you know that the anticipation of finding or seeing something desirable or stimulating (dopamine-releasing) is stronger than the actual pleasure itself? In other words, the anticipation of seeing something you might like will produce even higher levels of dopamine. Just like in gambling, it’s the expectation or belief that you might win that is most intoxicating. So, if you post something on social media and see notifications come in, they will be more dopamine-elevating than looking at your phone and seeing that your post was liked or commented on. To your brain, being in the game is more powerful than winning the game — but winning also provides an additional secondary hit of dopamine.

Facebook uses this anticipation factor in the form of staggered posting of your received likes or comments, and then delivering them to you randomly to keep you looking at your page over and over.

Early on in my work with Internet addiction, I coined the term infotainment to describe what we all do to some extent with the Internet, and especially our smartphones. Information has taken on an entertaining quality, and it can keep our eyes onscreen for content providers to data-mine and to sell us things. I would add that social media has this quality, driving our excessive use. This is new stimulation to our brain, and our limbic reward center is scanning for novel and stimulating pieces of information.

Digital drug delivery is very similar to how drugs are metabolized in our bodies.