What can we do if we feel that something important is being sacrificed for short pleasures, if we feel addicted to certain things, and if we are unable to focus to solve these problems?
Stolen focus is the result of a modern workplace that demands multitasking which is impossible for the human brain; sleep deprivation; less reading; chronic stiffness due to stress and overwork; cheap, poor diets; environmental pollution; rushed diagnoses and medication; and parenting and educational environment that fails to foster autonomous problem-solving in children. (Hari, 2022) Behind it all is ‘economic growthism’.
Tech companies use algorithms that deliberately create addiction based on B. F. Skinner’s reward-reinforcement systems. The “attention economy” to keep users tethered to increase ad revenue is reinforced by “surveillance capitalism,” and only those who can afford it can get mindfulness, meditation, and dedigitalisation.
What happens when we collectively become addicted to dopamine and lose our ability to focus? The results of the rat altruism experiment in Dopamine Nation made us think about how we, as a species, could become even more self-absorbed. This should mean that I, an addict of various things, cannot think of helping others.
What made me despair about the expert interviews was that everyone seemed to take the position that it was the individual’s job to develop or die on their own and that it was unwise to try to help them. It diverts attention from the problem of the system that it is the individual’s job to solve a huge problem that has its roots in the culture, and it creates self-blame by placing the blame on the individual victim. So we need to demand better conditions from the system while simultaneously fighting on an individual level.
“Old habits die hard, and new, stronger ones weaken the old ones”. We need to replace them with better ones in problematic addictions. In Mihai Csikszentmihai’s Finding Flow, he argues that humans need positive goals to remove the bad elements of life and fill the void. We need to set a goal for immersion, the object must be meaningful to us, and its difficulty must be such that it is not beyond our capabilities.
There is a need for ‘self-determination’ to get out of addictive behaviours. The criteria should be in a way that is sustainable for the individual to live in our new age.
References
Hari, J. (2022). Stolen Focus. Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd.
Lembke, A. (2020). Dopamine Nation: resetting your brain in the age of cheap pleasures. New York: Dutton.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1997). Finding Flow: the psychology of engagement with everyday life. New York: Basic Books.