Nowadays, as ever is actively discussing the possible dependence of people from technologies. Technological companies were even forced to embed special counters and limiters into their software products, which would make us think about the time of using smartphones. Doctors addiction from computer games, and it is difficult to even imagine what will happen next. But is it all serious in fact?

Psychologist Christopher Ferguson believes that many of the statements about the influence of technologies on the human brain and the body absolutely do not deserve attention. Moreover, he is ready to destroy several myths for us, based on his experience with families, adolescents, and their attitude towards technologies, games and dependencies.

Many say that the use of technology activates the same fun centers in the brain as narcotic substances. It may be so, but these very centers of pleasure are not necessarily activated by something harmful. Any entertainment leads to an increase in dopamine level. Delicious food, sports or a pleasant conversation can fall into this list.

Pleasant lessons increase the level of dopamine by 50-100 percent. Narcotic substances increase it by 200-350 percent. Taking into account this, compare computer games with drugs - it's like to compare raindrops with a waterfall.

Technological dependence is not a mental illness.

The World Health Organization added to curl from computer games to the list of diseases. Christopher Ferguson believes that people responsible for this decision do not take into account the possibility that dependence on games can be a symptom of other psychological disorders.

There is a huge amount of contradictions that do not allow us to consider dependence on the technologies with an independent disorder. Many doctors admit this. In addition, people who are called dependent on technology, as a rule, can get rid of their disorders easier than in mental illness. Costs and without treatment.

Technological dependence is not caused by technology

Usually, discussions claim that the technology is attracted. Christopher Ferguson believes that people begin to switch their attention to technology due to depression, concern and other problems. After all, no one thinks that people who are depressed and spend the whole day in bed, a bed dependence.

With this in mind, it is worth paying attention to methods for treating technological dependence. If it is a symptom, it means to treat it is not necessary, but a real disease.

Attention capture not only technologies

At this point, Ferguson draws attention to the fact that people pay at least time and other classes. For example, you can get carried away with yoga or dancing. You can get carried away so much that it will also become similar to addiction. By the way, you can find several scientific articles on dance dependency. It is difficult to provide evidence that technology causes the relationship more than dancing.

The use of technology does not lead to suicide

As evidence that the world of modern technology brings us problems, some experts provided data on the increase in suicide among adolescents of female. It is not taken into account that suicide levels increased for all age groups. The growth began in 2008 during the financial crisis. Perhaps there is a more serious problem in society that they do not notice in the heat of combating technologies.

Scientists sometimes make terrible statements based on a small amount of data. With the same success, we can say that the use of potatoes in food and suicide is somehow connected. This statement can be attached to certain statistics.

Of course, problems using technologies can be. But many just can not imagine their work today without computers and smartphones, with pleasure resting from them later. The tiny core of the truth in the discussion of problems and the dependencies on technology is. However, there is no reason that there was some kind of crisis associated with technologies.

The transcript of Interviews taken by Nir Eyal (Nir Eyal), a famous business consultant and an entrepreneur, who has been marked by several award-winning podcasts on psychology, leadership and business, management teacher at the University of Oral and Business Teacher of Roberts Oral Roberts University) and the author of the best-selling "New management style. Unexpected facts about the management of great organizations "(New Management: The Unexpected Trouths About Leading Great Organizations). This conversation was devoted to such topics as obsessed with technology and maintaining a balance between work and life. Enjoy reading.

Nir: When companies appeal to me with a question, how to make a product that is capable of, about half of the time I have to apologize and answer that they have no chance. There are a number of criteria by analyzing which one can say whether one or another product has a potential for the formation of habit or not. But this does not mean that these companies must go out of the business; They may well become successful and without such products.

Whether it happened when you looked at the company and said: "Hey, your jobplaces do not look quite fascinating. You will not get a high return from people, everything is quite standard, routine work "? Or each company has the potential to create more interesting products?

David: There are such professions that are not destined to become the subject of child dreams. But even taking into account this, you can always find companies that seek to correctly equip the work space of employees.

From the position of organizational behavior, we used to rely on Frederick Taylor (Frederick Taylor), the father of scientific management. It is he who owns the best ideas about how to manage the factory and people whose work is to repeat the same operations and solving the same tasks. But most people today are not occupied by such a labor, and Taylorism becomes something like frightening: "Boring, sad and monotonous work still remains the main object of claims of scientific management, but to work with the information we need more autonomy and work space higher Quality. "

Nir: At the very least, the workspaces give people the opportunity to create communities, build relationships. Even if the work itself leaves much to be desired, perhaps it is precisely the concern for members of the team about each other and becomes the saving means that helps to overcome all sorts of difficulties.

David: True, we are all responsible for each other. In the Taylor era, there were only two things: labor and management - and the task of the leadership was to point out to workers that they should be done. The idea is that we are all in one boat and collectively can cope with any difficulties, old as the world, but in the world of management it is still something new.

Nir: How expensive can such autonomy do? Remember the effect of Hawthorne (Hawthorne Effect), which states that people best cope with their duties, feeling that they are watching them. What do you think about it?

David: The effect of Hallorna, in my opinion, is the presence of contact, the association of people with each other. Labor productivity begins to grow when people feel that you pay attention to their work that you do not care. This is the connection.

Employees often give it to know their employers or customers who say "We want feedback." It works only if you then say "well, we hear you, and that's what we will do." That is the fact that we listen to each other and make changes, based on your needs, means that care and attention are important.

Nir: This is an understanding of what they do not control me; that I can have a certain influence.

David: For sure. We follow the trend, which stanks that the more often people can communicate with each other, the higher the quality of their cooperation. Now it seems more and more that it overloads us. Email, social media, and now we need to get rid of the habit of using them to be able to focus on the necessary things.

If I correctly understood your work, all these things are natural for this kind of products, but how to be with them?

Nir: We live in a world where there are so many wonderful products and services that sometimes it is difficult to refuse them. In addition, many of them are free and easily accessible. In many ways, this can be considered a blessing, but still Sophokl said that "nothing great is in the life of mortals without a curse."

This happens with each revolution. For the first time in history, more and more people die from excess calories, and not from their deficit, more people die from frills, and not from hunger. This is the problem of agriculture. The industrial revolution gave us mechanization - no one wants to return to the era of steam engines - but now we have the problem of anthropogenic pollution.

It should be noted that in the current information era, the main disadvantage of all these products and services that can instantly connect us with each other is that attention itself becomes a scarce resource. This is the price we forced to pay. We are the first generation, which I had to master all these technologies. For our children and grandchildren, all this will not seem something out of a series of outgoing. They quickly adapt to all this, but for us all these technologies will always be something new, and we have not yet figured out what place to give them in our lives.

We still have not figured out the main issue: Do we have a technology, or do we serve it? The bugmen of my industry is B. F. Skinner (B.F. Skinner) and Skinner boxes that make people press the buttons throughout the day. But the reality is that it has nothing to do with coercion. People do it willingly and voluntarily.

For the most part, all these things are great. But there are also people who are not simply accustomed to new technologies, and they have become dependent on them, but most will still be able to put their smartphones on the shelf without much difficulty and not touch them. Most people moderate their behavior.

But the entire snag is that these people cannot do without these technologies at work. Without the same working e-mail and messengers. People do not depend on the technologies, they are dependent on their work.

David: Why does the work mail cause such addictive? By registering in 2008, you could not think that they could voluntarily subscribed to the fact that every night would take work home, but it was for this that we came. Previously, there were workers who were available on request, they were given the BlackBerry phones, and then it was necessary to perceive it as a kind of warning.

Do you really think that we are actually so strongly addicted to work, what if we refused a workline, would you still have a feeling of need to continue to work in 24/7?

Nir: Suppose that tomorrow you will win $ 20,000,000 in the lottery. And now you do not need to hang around in the office for all days. Will you still use Slack? Will you still use SharePoint or Salesforce? No, you will stop using all these programs and services, because the only reason you used them - so said your boss. Most people will not say: "Oh, my God, I can not leave my job, because I love to use Salesforce so much." This is not software, this is a burden of work. This "my boss is waiting for me, my customers are waiting for me, we must be in touch all the time."

This is a real source of problem. Tools are only aggravated by it, but if you remove one of the variables, you will see that people will quickly stop using these technologies, unless they are in their workplace. This is not the case in the consumer Internet when it comes to Facebook and Twitter. People love to use these products, but this is another category of services, where the product itself has, perhaps, greater influence than the user. When it comes to corporate products, many people, if 20,000,000 had suddenly fell on them, could never be checked by their work mail.

David: If 20 million fell on me, I would go on Facebook, but only then to tell about my win.

When I appeal to the research materials of those factors that increase the productivity of employees, I immediately remember the study of the conscious practice of Anders Ericsson (K. Anders Ericsson). One of the conclusions of the study states that people who have reached the world skill in their profession, rested more than the average person. Their working session was 90 minutes, and then they did a break.

We understand that the less time we work, the more valuable it becomes time. When you are included in the work day, no one will tell you "Go home, be with your wives, children and loved ones." Is there something that we can do at an individual level to protect ourselves and work only a certain number of hours?

Nir: There is a wonderful book called "falling asleep with your smartphone" (Sleeping with Your Smartphone). Author, Leslie Purlo (Leslie Purlow), conducted a study in the Boston Consulting Group. She gave company employees Simple task: "What can you do to give each member of the team one night rest?". Many consultants in the firm said it is impossible: "We work in the service sector; Our clients expect 24-hour service from us. "

Then she asked: "What would you need that you could develop such a system?". In his study, she discovered that it was not only in technology. It was about the fact that there were no open channels of communications between these consulting teams that could raise sharp questions.

We see such a situation everywhere. We see it in the family. Why dad watching football every evening? Why can't we get together and talk like a family, and not sit in the evenings from the TV? Why do teenagers disappear for phones whole days long?

Perhaps this is not new technologies at all. Perhaps we are just trying to escape from something. Maybe this is because there are no adjustable communication lines, communications capable of solving these problems. If someone believes that we really feel dependent on technology, I think that it is not only in them. This reason to think about it. "What am I running from? Why do I feel discomfort from what I'm bored for just a few minutes? "

David: The book "Under MANAGEMENT" offers a bunch of different practices. One of them is a complete ban or a strong restriction of e-mail. People ask: "It's great, but how can we add them to our corporate culture?". But the truth is that this is not the practice of adding, it is the practice of eliminating. They argue about this: "Wait a minute. I want to do my job well, but if something stands on my way, I have to eliminate it. "
In some cases, this is an email, in others it is the process of hiring, thirdly is an efficiency analysis system. People who cope with their work are best all must have the right to kill the sacred cows. But we all prefer to follow the already established orders.

Nir: These habits of the mind, the conviction act as before, permeate many areas of our life. The worst thing we can do is believe that technologies manage us.

Studies show that drug addicts who believe that the drug manages them that they are powerless against the dope, have a high level of relapses. If we begin to believe that email is addictive or a catastrophe will happen if we do not respond to an incoming letter on time if we consider ourselves powerless in the face of technology - we will become soothing.

David: The real problem is the feeling that these things control us. And the real problem of companies is the belief that they control their employees. We live in an era, where truly talented leaders understand that every person is, in fact, a free agent, and he always has the opportunity to leave and find another job.

The admission of organizations that they can control and model the behavior of employees are dangerous. A person continues to work on you only until you give him what he needs. As soon as it disappears, he leaves.

We devoted a lot of time to talk about changing behavior and questioning the question of many convictions. Was something that controlled you, but when did you begin to doubt it, change your behavior?

Nir: My greatest progress in life happened from the fact that I questioned basic beliefs. Some of them were very personal. When I was 18, I took an annual break between the school and the College. It was in 1997. Americorps, the inner building of the world, only was opened by Clinton administration. I was on the first or second year when I decided to try. All around told me: "This is a stupid idea. You no longer want to return to college. " My parents begged me not to do it. Now we call it the year of rest, Gap Year, but then no one did it. It was one of the best things I've ever decided.

David: Your path is more philosophical than mine.

Now I use two devices. One for e-mail, writing and social media. At the end of the day I switch to the iPad, which I use for the most part for entertainment: Facebook, Netflix and much more.

Strategy of work with email through two devices - a great way to understand, whether you depend on this or not. If you use another device, constantly pulling to the one that is available by mail, then you are dependent.

Nir: Very good advice. I'll give one more.

A few years ago I found that at about 10 pm, when I had to go to bed, I spent time on the network, read the articles, watched rollers, etc., and did not lie on time. Then I purchased an inexpensive outlet-timer and connected a router to it. As soon as the time reached 10, the timer turned off the Internet. Of course, if you wish, I could include it back, but for this it was necessary to make additional actions. But even this was enough for me as I asked myself one simple question: Do I really need the Internet to finish something, or I spend time wasted? This is a simple question, but he changes much.

It is difficult to submit a modern world without gadgets. They are everywhere: at home, at school, at work. A person can no longer live without a television, television, Internet, and it is very bad. In this text, E.L. Vartanova raises the problem of dependence of people from the media.

E.L. Vartanova expresses very wise thought: "We are faced with a new reality - a person pays a lot of time."

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Indeed, our reality differs significantly from the reality in which the people of past centuries lived. Media is an integral part of the life of modern society. Almost every person pays information and communication technologies a few hours a day! The author notes that people can no longer spend time "without inclusion in the stream of online communications." This negatively reflects on communication between friends, relatives, classmates. The attention of people is scattered. Chatting with someone, a person does not forget about the smartphone lying in his pocket. It turns out, the person is always "online."

The position of the author is presented in the following sentence: "Another problem is that people have a dependence on media, they cannot spend time without gadgets or without inclusion in the stream of online communications." E.L. Vartanova recognizes the dependence of people from the media problem of modern society and believes that people cannot fully live without information and communication technologies.

I agree with E.L. Vartanova. People stopped spending time only in the same world. The world is real and the world virtual merged together. People have friends on the Internet. The presence of loved ones in virtual reality is one of the reasons for people dependence on the media. The desire to be aware of all the news is also the reason for the permanent "inclusion in the stream of online communications." You can not admit that it is convenient to use gadgets as sources of information storage. In addition, virtual games are very exciting. All these are attractive to the modern man of media explain the dependence of people from modern technologies. The causes and manifestations of such a dependence illustrate the story of R. Bradbury "Veld". This product also shows the terrible effects of excessive dependence on gadgets.

In the series "Black Mirror", the problem of the dependence of people from the media is excellent. Looking and analyzing it, it can be understood that people are obsessed with the idea that it is impossible to live without gadgets. Such a worldview indicates the strongest addiction of people from media.

Thus, the dependence of people from information and communication technologies is a big problem, which is currently very difficult to solve. We live in a new reality, where media is one of the main elements.

Updated: 2018-06-07

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Technology dependence

Why and drug addicts, and the computer public is called "subvesting"?

Clifford Table, Astronomer and Writer

Truck "United Parsel Service» it stops in front of the house, and you are lost in guess, which the courier volume brought this time. Maybe another food processor - you have them already two, but this certain one is better! Or those fantastic shoes purchased on eBay? With the fact that they are less than less, - they themselves are spread ... You are visiting Tom with a look and the gesture, ask him to leave the package at the door, because you are not going to jump because of the computer right now. Ebay auction comes to an end, and you certainly need these jeans! They are not as an example of prettier than your current - almost the same, but still a little bit. That's just some kind of freak all day, everything dies and lifts the bets. This in the auction is the most exciting: to give others to feel that they have already won, and in recent seconds suddenly triple the amount. It was enough to pay only five dollars more than the highest rate of your competitor, but finally they recognize what kind of pathetic losers! Three, two, one ... worked! Now you are proud owner of an eleventh pair of classic casual jeans.

It's time to search for those lots that you usually interest: three types of shoes, four brands of clothing, porcelain for every day, guest porcelain, ski suit, children's clothing ... nothing that deserves rates, the search does not give out. Then you go to your favorite websites of online stores: Sale of linen, sale of lamps, sale of furniture, but again nothing interesting. The clock falls in sight, and here you understand that five hours have passed! Husband and children will soon return home, it's time to cook dinner. But, most importantly, it is necessary to have time to hide that box outside the door - that would be in it. All hope for late evening: when everyone is sleeping to bed, something new will appear on eBay ...

Speaking "addiction", we usually mean drugs or alcohol. However, the same neural brain networks that turn people into alcoholics and drug addicts are responsible for obsessive habits related to new technologies that cause almost the same dependence and, in perspective, devastable for the individual. Almost all the actions that so like people - there are shopping, having sex, play - can cause psychological and physiological dependence. However, the constant accessibility of the Internet and network anonymity spawned a new class of obsessive habits that have arisen due to the worldwide network and other digital technologies.

Will we look at a new reality show on TV or looking for Google The old, brain and other organs will automatically respond to a hail of new incentives, which collapses us from the screen. The pulse slows down, the vessels in the brain are expanding, the blood drops from the main muscles. This physiological reaction helps the brain to focus on mental incentives. Due to the fast shift and alternation of images, our "indicative reaction" is replaced by feverish activity: we continue to look at the screen, but in the end, tiredness comes instead of the new dose. After such a marathon, the ability to concentrate falls, and many people complain about the feeling of devastation - as if they were "energized". Despite such side effects, it is difficult not to succumb to the temptation with a computer and a TV, and the brain - especially the young - easily "sitting" on it. Nowadays, computer games are sold with a bang.

Internet-dependent recognize that they experience a splash of good mood, or "buzz", already at the time of launching the computer. Peak pleasure - visiting your favorite sites. If you have addiction from shopping, then for strong excitement it is enough to scroll out advertisements, get a credit card from a wallet or to be on sale. Euphoria comes even earlier than you make specific actions. It is worthwhile to this - special chemical processes in the brain that control your behavior in the range from the hardly pronounced thrust to anything tempting to full-scale dependence. Behind these reactions is a dopamic brain system. Neurotransmitter Dopamine is a signal molecule that regulates everything related to punishments, award and new research.

Euphoria causes Dopamine. Alcohol, methamphetamine or online casino launch the same chemical process in the brain. The victim of dependence, being without his drug, is forced to lies with obsessive perseverance and look for it. When you drink whiskey or pay a credit card, dopamine transfers signals to the center of the brain pleasure, forcing the victim of dependence to repeat obsessive actions again and again. Even if they do not deliver the former pleasure. Even if the victim of dependencies is well known about all negative consequences.

"Awards" of the Dopamic System - a powerful force with which even those who have no dependence. Studies show that volunteers who are passionate about the computer game that causes such addiction is played without stopping, no matter how trying to distract them. Dopamic system helps them not pay attention to the noise and sense of discomfort. In more pressing work it was shown that during food and sessions, the level of dopamine jumps out. You can only imagine which dopamine emission causes an interactive computer game with sexual motifs (and such games, of course, exist).

When the Internet addiction masters the man, the "command post" of the brain, the front waist bark, loses control over it. This area in front of the brain is responsible for making decisions and the ability to argue. In order to overcome the addiction, you need not only to drive the dopamine system into the frame, but also to raise the work of the anterior cortex.

Everyone can get caught on the hook

Internet-dependencies are subject to people at any age: and 30-40-year-old housewives, and teenagers, and 50-year-old businessmen, and students, and even children who have no ten. Each risk is on the hook of web applications. In February 2007, the newspaper Los Angeles Times published such history. An employee of a major computer company, which 19 years worked without any complaints, was fired for the fact that during breaks he attended sex chats. The employee himself, a married man with two children, was justified by the fact that the sex chat allows him to relieve stress that he did not leave him since the time of war in Vietnam. At the time of the release of the article, his claim for illegal dismissal was considered the court.

Many children and adolescents may not suffer dependence literally, but new technologies interfere with it clearly think. The front waist cortex in their brain is surrendered under the onslaught of dopamine, when they exchange esmes with friends. SMS-Correspondence behind the wheel (especially if the teenager driver is busy) very often causes fatal accidental accidents. Although SMS and distract much more than the usual talk on the telephone, in the United States as of July 2007, only a small part of the States declared correspondence by the wheel of the illegal occupation.

Top managers have a special reason not to release their blackberry from hand - this is a game called Brickbreaker. Lawyers, bankers and managers of hedge funds admit that "picked up brick-mania." The player two keys move to the left and right to the special platform so that the ball bounced off the next brick at the top of the screen. Many are shared by their strategy in chat rooms, praise records and do not hide admiration for the Brick-Guru, who scored more than a million glasses. Top managers confess that they play during the "conferences on the phone" and sports, and many have dragged the game so much that they were forced to remove her from their communicators, because they could not resist the temptation to play in the workplace.

A recent study conducted in Stanford University has shown that 14 percent of computer users neglect the school, work, family responsibilities, food and sleep in order to stay online. The Internet in the eyes becomes the main entertainment and source of information and will soon be more popular with traditional television.

It is reported that students who are difficult to adapt to life in campus, especially often use the Internet to remove stress. Instead of overcome the difficulties in direct communication with classmates, they find consolation on social networks, correspondence by e-mail, Internet messengers and chat rooms. Network life is easier to equip than real. More than 18 percent of students suffer from Internet addiction, and another 58 percent complain that the excessive passion of the Internet prevents them from learn and attend classes and eventually affects their assessments.

Dependency causes not the Internet by itself, but any specific lesson on the network. People "sit down" to search for databases, online dating, online stores, pornames - or even to check your own mail. Others retain online casinos, Internet trading, computer games and ICQ.

Even if you do not have dependency on the Internet and related technologies, they are continuously lured - and in the end can be lured. To find out if you have such a problem, it is worth looking into the questionnaire dedicated to technology dependencing (see chapter 6).

New technologies are so disturbing us, because they give us an illusion of control over the situation. The computer quickly and obediently executes our teams. We can enable it or turn off when we want. And we can restart or send to sleep mode. We are free to dispose of our network communication or, if you want, not to communicate at all.

However, those who are subject to dependencies, this feeling will be deceptive. The screen, keyboard and mouse become part of a person - a special umbilical umbilical cord from "iron" and "software", which binds it with a huge world, where everyone unites the Internet. Active users admit that they feel anonymous and absolutely free in the network, and therefore are extremely frank and share with their Internet friends the most intimate details about their lives - in the usual, real, reality they would not be allowed for themselves. Many gives pleasure to speak online on behalf of fictional characters. However, not everyone is aware that if you write about your thoughts and feelings on the Internet, this information becomes public once and forever - and is available not only to friends and family members, but also, for example, colleagues or those who will Hole you to a new job. And, of course, people who do not share your interests. Blogs are becoming increasingly popular, and now the chiefs begin to follow the diaries of their subordinates and, without hesitation, dismiss those who put the company or brand under the image.

Michael Hensky, employee Microsoft. From Seattle, once he noted that several computers brought to the corporate warehouse Power Mac G5 production Apple. Even Microsoft. and writes programs for Apple, And simply manifests an interest in competitors' technologies, Hensky seemed funny to see "Maki" on the way to the office of his company. Photo He posted in his blog with a comment "It seems to someone from Microsoft. got new toys. " The next day he was fired.

Blogs, and Internet shopping threaten to addicted people with a variety of trouble, not necessarily related to work. Dependence does not acquire in one night: the peculiarities of the behavior caused by the formation of the habit are accumulated gradually. It usually happens like this: at first, the person goes into the Internet from the case of the case, but the emotional response and time spent on the network grow and the brain requires an increasing dose of dopamine. Soon there is a psychological dependence that causes a person to experience discomfort if it is not on the Internet. Then the person develops addiction to the network. Now the user is needed to spend more time online and, perhaps, look for more exciting sites. True dependent people refuse to recognize that it is difficult for them to control their actions on the network. Even if they are spent behind the computer not as much time, the Internet is preventing the Internet to lead normal life in the real world - to work, communicate with the family and maintain relationships with other people.

Causes of each other. Much determined genes. Someone inherits the tendency to "be planted" for anything, and the Internet is full of the same temptations as the real world: here there are gambling, food, sex and shopping. Someone is looking for asylum on the Internet from depression, fears, boredoms or conflicts with other people. Many adolescents are attached to interactive network entertainment - chat rooms, social networks, computer games - just under pressure from peers.

Specialists in addictive behavior say that for Internet dependent people are characterized by mood swings, addictive, "breaking" and relapses (see insert). According to some estimates, 10 percent of all users satisfy the criteria for dependencies that are as far as far as the pathological players of gamers and victims of shopping-dependence. Recall: not on substances are attached - whether it is drugs, alcohol, nicotine or food, and on the process. However, if a drug addict, an alcoholic or a glutton, who decided to fight a bad habit, hopes to finally "tie" with his vicious occupation (food, of course, do not take into account), then Internet-dependent seek simply less often to go online. By the way, recently the American Medical Association recommended additionally to explore such a question: is it worth introducing Internet addiction and dependence on computer games in the list of official diagnoses?

Proposed Internet-Dependencies Criteria

The following conditions are necessary:

Concern: a person reflects on the former release sessions on the Internet or is continuously thinking about when such an opportunity will be present next time;

Addictive: to enjoy the network access, every time you need more and more time;

Loss of control: A person is not able to finally stop using the Internet or spend less time on the network;

Failure syndrome: attempts to stop using the Internet or spend less time in the network cause a surge of anxiety, irritability, and the like mood differences;

Long stay on the network: a person regularly holds longer on the network than he thought;

In addition, one or more of the following conditions must be performed:

Dilution of forces: use of the Internet leads to loss of work, the rupture of close relationships with someone prevents career growth and studies;

Masking: the user is lying to others to hide what he is engaged in the Internet;

Running from reality: A person is looking for comfort in the network, hiding from problems or is trying to avoid difficulties to communicate face to face.

Internet-dependent, as a rule, spend on the network forty and more hours a week - and this is not counting the computer at the office. If you count how many hours are torn food, work, the road to the office and back, dressing up and shower, then it remains to sleep from four to five hours a day. Then the user will wake up and will take place again at the keyboard. When familiar and relatives ask how much time they spend on the network, Internet-dependent, as a rule, lie and begin to defend themselves. Apathy, depression, fear, anxiety, fatigue, irritability and blurred consciousness - a state normal for such people.

Internet-dependencies have not only mental, but also the physical side. For those who look too long in the monitor, they get tired, the muscles are eager and the head is often hurting. Letters on the screen look less clear than on paper. The contrast of the monitor is usually lower than it should, and the glare from the glossy screen makes perception. Regular use of the computer mouse causes tendinite (tendon dystrophy) and muscle spasms of brush and shoulder. Since both the vision and the mobility of the joints are deteriorating with age, in older people these symptoms are developing more likely, although they can manifest themselves at any age on computer abuse. In recent work, it was shown that adolescents who spend more than two hours a day at a computer are more often complaining about pain in the shoulders, neck and lower back.

Obsess email

Now that for most of us log in at any time is not a problem, many prefer to recognize the news not from newspapers and magazines, but on the Internet. The same people continuously check their email, while at the same time engage in many more cases on the network. Mobile devices allow you to read the Havels during business meetings, corporate trips to nature, school football matches (where parents with their gadgets come to cheer for children) and even during the service in the Church. Among the executives of companies included in the list Fortune. 500, there are those that are checked for the game of golf by mail after each shock. Moreover, some people agree to spend vacation only where high-speed Internet is available at any time.

Many of us checking email delays so much that it becomes the operant conditional reflex - this means that the behavior determines its consequences (see. Checking mail, you get an intermittent positive response. From time to time, mail brings good news: an old familiar appeared, sent funny Anecdote or your request has come a response that you have long been waiting. It happens that the news is also excellent: well, for example, a winning lottery ticket that you considered lost, showed up in the laundry. However, letters come as letters, just boring, and Sometimes and frankly unpleasant. And even at all spam. It is impossible to find out in advance whether the fun will give you another check of mail, so you check it again and again. Psychologists-behaviorists described in detail how such behavior form awards and punishment. It turned out that one awards In a row - that is, only good news - motivated worse than rewards, in randomly intermitted punishments mi. Like avid players, mail users repeat an obsessive effect once over time, because they hope that the bank will be redundaneously with the next attempt. Neural brain networks are ready for such developments of events.

Email and Obedient Conditional Reflex

How come across the hook

Suppose you read the first few messages, and there is nothing good: spam, unbearable jokes, "a letter of happiness" and a reminder of the unpleasant responsibilities from which you are trying to avoid. The thought is told in the head, and not send all this mail to hell. The face shown below indicate neural networks that produce negative emotions:

Suddenly an email comes with joyful news. Let's say you raised in office. Or the wife reports that the son in the diary is some fives.

A joyful letter will launch a completely different mechanism: neurons will throw away the dose of dopamine. This will secure your habit to check the mail regularly. Now you are ready to read all new and new messages, expecting that in the end you will smile good luck:

The operant conditional reflex, when the sequence of actions determines the future behavior, is an extremely powerful mechanism. It controls dependencies and obsessive states. Imagine that all your letters use only a "happy" neural network:

Then a new letter with good news will work much weaker: you will experience the same ordinary pleasure as from a warm soul or from removing money in an ATM.

Despite the fact that the check of mail delays, she has something to oppose. Specialists in addictive behavior and medical centers are already offering all sorts of programs to combat diverse types of dependence on new technologies (see chapter 7). For example, in Pennsylvania, the author of many trainings for top managers has developed the next "twelve step program" to combat email addiction. His clients admitted: due to mail, their performance falls, and problems arise in everyday life.

Computer games: one will not cost

Skate, he was attributed to the storage room, where the bike, basketball and football form had already gone dust. An eleven-year-old Ryan did not touch all this weeks, and then months - apparently, since he began to play the game. To take away from school, something to do homework - and soon to the second floor, where, sitting at the computer, it will turn into a fencer from Farlander, in the Guardian of the Great Conference. Here are many of his friends, and for them he is God: only he, Ryan, reached the level of level 10. No matter how hard friends tried, no matter how many hours are devoted to the game, the 10th level they are not on the teeth. Of course, Ryanu (that is, of course, a fencer) for this I had to kill some of the friends, capture all their treasures and steal their bonuses - but you can not get anywhere in the game.

In the midst of a decisive battle with his best friend Dilan (in the game his name is Titanus, the emperor of the mountains) Mama Ryan comes into the room and says it's time to dinner. Ryan barely recognizes her - he fell asleep to the fight against the enemy. The victory over Titanus promises him the mountains of treasures and a few more bonuses. The idea that it grieves a friend and drops it to the 1st level, right now.

Mom Ryan, who is deadly tired of this stupid computer game, already regrets that he bought her son. She repeats louder: "Time to dinner. Do you hear me, Ryan? " - "Aga-Aga," Ryan answers, without breaking away from the screen. "Probably you understood me badly. I said - now. " "Okay, just killing one shoe and come." - "Not. You won't kill any reptile. We go. Immediately". - Mom Ryan is suitable for a computer and presses the power button. Ryan jumps and screams: "Mom, what did you do?! I did not have time to preserve! Now I am again at the first level. " - "I have an idea better. Why don't you become a normal child again? I throw out your game. - It takes out a CD-drive tray, without which it is impossible to start the game, kisses Ryan on the cheek and says: - Passing hands, honey, we have fried chicken dinner. " - "I hate chicken! - screaming Ryan. - I am a fencer! " Mom breaks up in a smile: "That's fine. You can cut the chicken. "

For many years, the main entertainment was TV, however, the current youth chooses computer games. According to estimates of the Association of Interactive Computer Programs, in 2006, about 145 million people played in them, that is, 60 percent of the US population. White women prefer to communicate with friends in social networks like Myspace. or Facebook., chat rooms and Internet messengers; 80 percent of the online games audience are young men, and these are not only teenagers: the average age of the players is 28 years old.

Sites of online games are called "sticky sites", as players "stick" to them for a long time. Special research showed: those who play in Everquest (This is a computer game in fantasy genre), spend on average for 10 hours a week.

Players move in a virtual three-dimensional space, real-time communicating with replicas with friends or thousands of other players. They water racing cars, conquer the fantastic worlds of the future, catching out futuristic landscapes or, on the contrary, are transferred to the past. Many at some point begin to even identify themselves with the characters of the game. When typing enough weapons and points, the game is moving to the next level. Often, players run into cybermirs then to enjoy the power and strength that they are not available in reality, where apathy and loneliness are waiting for them.

For many role-playing games, the Internet is becoming something like social networks, but only deployed in the fictional world. Relationships between heroes are transferred to real life and begin to outer real relationships between people. Recently it was reported that a 53-year-old man (let's call it n) spent on the game SECOND LIFE At fourteen hours per day. In virtual reality, he was hiding behind a successful entrepreneur's mask, although in fact he worked as an operator in a call center (telephone support service). In the world of the game, the hero N met with the heroine girl (which in the real world a real woman was ruled). Their virtual novel developed rapidly, and finally the virtual heroes played a wedding. The man argued that "really cared for her," but did not plan to meet a real meeting with his mistress of his heroine. The real wife N complained that the game distract him from family affairs and works and their personal life face collapse. N himself objected that his real wife simply jealous of his virtual.

Games lure people into virtual reality and suppress the development of frontal fractions in adolescents (see chapter 2). Mechanisms for the impact of the game on the brain are such that dependence on them comes easier and faster. During the game, neurons throw dopamine, so we are at the same time experiencing a strong pleasure, and a sense of control over the situation. Gamers are recognized: Virtual social networks that occur in the worlds of the game is the source of additional pleasure.

Dependence on Internet pornography

The Internet is clogged with pictures, texts and videos on sex, and find them easier than simple (especially if there are no special programs for "parental control" on the computer). Let only 4 percent of websites contain such materials, they were specifically interested at least every third Internet user. 40 million Americans attend porn attires at least once a month. 35 percent of all files transmitted over the network - pornography. Someone is limited to the shove of emails with obscene jokes or pictures. Less innocent sexual manifestations are collected in the network a much greater audience. Network pornography bribes accessibility, cheap and anonymity.

Although pornography on the network is less than the rest, it is nevertheless pretty well presented there. On request "Sex" search engines are more than 400 million pages. Dr. Amanda Spinch with colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania analyzed the search patterns on the Internet related to sex materials - and it turned out that such search "swims" into the network longer than usual, and the queries chain longer. Of 100 search sessions related to sex, 40 occupied more than 6 minutes. In other cases, only 22 out of 100: the difference is obvious. "Sexually painted" requests are, as a rule, simple keywords: "nude" (nude), "Sex" (Sex), "Naked" (Naked). However, if a person asks Google Not about sex, then the query language (as part of one session) is more complex and richer.

Cyberseks are even in demand by those who have a partner in real life (for example, they can do two lovers who live far from each other). However, problems are inevitable if unfamiliar people become partners in Cyberseks or if this occupation is repeated and delays. Those who are genetically (or other reasons) are predisposed to dependencies, viewing pornographic pictures or sharing sexually colored messages can turn into a habit. Internet accessibility and network anonymity make cybersex occupation, which is quite difficult to refuse.

Some "sit down" on erotic photos and pornolologists, and other sex only in the virtual space becomes different over time. Often thrust for Internet pornography is only one of the parties of the sexual dependence, which can manifest itself in different ways and outside the network.

Images with sexual themes serve as a signal to the emission of dopamine: it looks like neurochemical processes in the brain of a drug addict, which just used the dose of cocaine or heroin. A sexually addicted person is able to midnight to seek such a picture that will act as it should and turn on the dopamine "system of awards". The prefrontal bark in such people switches to the search, storage and mining of information capable of sucking an insatiable brain, and he always requires a new portion of dopamine.

Since about 70 percent of companies provide their employees entering the network, Cybersex is the headache of many employers. Study of 2006, which was attended by more than 3,400 volunteers, showed that the high availability of the Internet makes the inevitable "sexually oriented" activity at work, and the more time spends on the porn, the lower the labor productivity. During one corporate study, it turned out: 41 percent of those who declared a reprimand for the use of the working computer did not in the case, looked at the work of pornography.

Las Vegas on the keyboard

Gambling caused the dependence and a hundred, and two hundred years ago. In this example, it is convenient to explain the model of the operated conventional reflex, where the main role is played by "rewards with interruptions." One-only major winnings (followed by a happy chance) makes the risky bets do again and again. Pathological players often spoil their lives and themselves, and those around which they annoy their monetary difficulties and mental injuries. Every fourth of the society of anonymous players complains that due to the addiction to the game, either work or family or the other immediately was lost.

Games and high technologies have been side by side for a long time: sites where they make bets, without leaving the house for a change "one-handed gangsters". An illegal online casino, available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, are experiencing an incredible rise. In 2005, online casinos attended 4 percent of the Americans, and 40 percent of them played in the network for less than a year, and 70 percent - less than two years.

When the rates are made on the network, and the electronic dollars on the horse, it is not so sorry to part with them like paper. Hence both huge debts, and excessive passion for the game. Online casinos are not particularly carefully monitored that all the players are adult (according to the law, minors cannot play). At times, the unclean owners of the online casino registered in the offshores instantly erase their website and kidnap the credit card numbers, but there is practically no legitimate way to call them to answer. Separate sites to the list of keywords add the term "game" (Compulsive Gaming). This course is designed for players who are already struggling with their dependence and are looking for advice on Google - but they fall right in the online casino. It is possible to limit the scope of the industry, and American officials have become tougher to apply already existing laws. In 2006, Congress adopted an act of illegal gambling, which prescribes banks and companies producing credit cards, block money transfers in favor of online casinos.

For those who play on the Internet, the risk of game is higher than those who go to ordinary casinos. Dr. George Ladd and Dr. Nancy Petri from Connecticut University found out that from the sample of 400 people only 8 percent accounted for Internet players, however, 74 percent of these players suffered the most real dependence on the game. For comparison: among visitors of ordinary casinos dependent only 22 percent.

Studies show that the Dopamine already known to us is a small molecule, which we owe a feeling of pleasure and a burden for finding new awards, contributes to the addiction to the game. Doctors from the Mao clinic and other medical centers recently published work on patients with Parkinson's disease that took the medicine, which is close to the action of dopamine. The medicine eliminated the trembling of the limbs, characteristic of Parkinsonism, but several patients have problems with online casinos and obsessive sexual behavior, and there was no impurity in purchases via the Internet. Fortunately, the symptoms came to not, when one reduced the dose of medication, and others stopped out it.

Shopping before falling

The striking flourishing of Internet shopping sometimes makes us think that you can buy everything in the network. Many reluctantly leave the number of their credit cards on unfamiliar sites, but sooner or later trusted PayPal or other payment systems, since the benefits of buying on the Internet become apparent for them. No longer need to paint the parking space next to the store and drag with huge packages. Even to get up because of the computer, you do not need: Specify keywords, compare prices, enter the number of your credit card - and ready. You can even pick up the configuration to taste - and it does not matter whether you buy a car, a used refrigerator or an engraving anipher.

Unfortunately, buying on the Internet is quickly becoming an intrusive habit. The bills do not go from hand to hand, the cash register does not knock the check - and as a result, the victim of the shopping-dependence disappears the feeling that real money is spent. Shopping on the network causes a dependence for the same reason as the usual shopping. Each new purchase creates sweet excitement in your soul: the joy of anticipation is replaced by the joy of possession, and to resist the temptation so hard!

The auctions feed the brain even large doses of dopamine, and addiction comes even faster. Make a bet and bypass competitors - what could be more pleasant? Users eBay. And other online auctions easily swallow bait. The item itself, which you won, is not as important as a repeating ritual of the purchase, which gives you sharp experiences. As with any other addiction, it is difficult for a person to realize the problem before it turns the troubles in other spheres of life - will hit the wallet, work and personal well-being.

Where to seek help

If you have a real dependence or you are simply not ready to say "no" individual sites, not all is lost. Experts agree that overcome the bad habits that we owe a dopamine "system of awards" can be in different ways. In the fight against addiction in extreme manifestations, psychotherapy, the program "Twelve Steps" and, of course, the influence of families and friends is useful. But if you yourself do not want to correct, nothing will come out.

In China, where, according to different estimates, about two million young people suffer from Internet addiction, special training helped to cure many thousands. The Center for Combating the Internet addiction financed by the Government, made a bet on the "Knuta and Gingerbread" method and daily exercise. The addicted people helped to understand that they were not alone. Similar centers began to appear in the United States and Europe.

If it seems to you that the Internet, computer games or other high technologies are threatened with addiction to you or your familiar (see chapter 6), then recommendations, how to confront it, should be sought in chapter 7. The method is suitable for those who have not become - Indeed dependent, but conducts too much time on the network. Other exercises for the development of social skills and the ability to communicate not only help people with benefit and pleasure to spend time without a computer, but also make their lives more comfortable and harmonious.