tHE aDDICTION OF A gENERATION
"The powerful control and convenience that interactive digital tools grant to their masters are psychologically addictive.... [T]he stimulation we get from these machines... leads to real chemical addiction. On a neurochemical level, we are rewarded when we pay attention to new stimuli."
--Mach, Thomas. "Distraction Addiction : What Language Educators Ought to Know
about Digital Media's Effects on Human Cognition and Communication
--Mach, Thomas. "Distraction Addiction : What Language Educators Ought to Know
about Digital Media's Effects on Human Cognition and Communication
Pervasiveness.
Several studies show that the prevalence of harmful multitasking practices are the result of digital addictions. So much of modern technology operates on reward-based systems, from social media's retweets and likes to search engines' wealth of new information. According to Jeneen Interlandi, "Web surfing triggers reward pathways that have been linked to addiction," a position which is supported by several studies. People are only getting more addicted as technology becomes more and more pervasive in the lives of Millennials especially: "A recent study of U.S. teenagers found that they are now sending or receiving on average more than 3,000 text messages per month [which is] not simply a shocking rise in the amount of distractions, but also the fact that more and more of our distractions... are social in nature" (Mach 96). |
Novelty.
Part of the motivation to multitask fits perfectly with the inherent nature of the Internet: the need to find something new. Often, people multitask when they are working on a task which is not necessarily the most stimulating; for example, a student working on homework will often check his or her email in order to find something new and interesting, such as a new email, to serve as a momentary distraction from the homework assignment. It's just that easy--simply click the refresh button, and you are rewarded with a new, interesting form of mental stimulation. It is the fact that it requires so little effort which makes it so addictive: according to Thomas Mach, "When it is so easy and neurochemically rewarding to do so, we feel induced to search for new stimuli at a nearly unconscious level." |
"In other words, if you find yourself almost compulsively clicking on your get mail icon or repeatedly checking the updates in your online social network, you are not alone. Interactivity is turning us all into compulsive seekers of new and digitally-delivered stimuli."
--Mach, Thomas. "Distraction Addiction : What Language Educators Ought to Know
about Digital Media's Effects on Human Cognition and Communication"
--Mach, Thomas. "Distraction Addiction : What Language Educators Ought to Know
about Digital Media's Effects on Human Cognition and Communication"