{"id":56297,"date":"2018-03-31T05:30:34","date_gmt":"2018-03-31T13:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=56297"},"modified":"2018-04-14T18:56:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-15T02:56:11","slug":"the-smartphone-effect-and-why-were-all-addicted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-smartphone-effect-and-why-were-all-addicted\/","title":{"rendered":"The Smartphone Effect (And Why We’re All Addicted)"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Most of us know the tug of a new SMS message or a notification from Facebook which comes with the ever-present smartphone.\u00a0 But most of us don\u2019t know \u2013 until it\u2019s taken away \u2013 how powerful that tug really is.\u00a0 I recently left my phone in the Athens airport: for at least a few weeks, I went to sleep without a phone beside me.<\/p>\n

I was surprised by how potently I felt the difference.\u00a0 The itch to check just one more app became defunct.\u00a0 There were only two choices once in bed \u2013 read, or drift off to sleep.\u00a0 No frittering away an hour in the morning or before bed.\u00a0\u00a0 Usually the resolution to read before bed \u2013 which I genuinely love \u2013 gives way to watching Husky videos.\u00a0 Even after putting the phone down, smartphones haunt sleep, exciting the brain and sending an explosion of stimuli.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Smartphones and the Brain<\/u><\/p>\n

Checking your smartphone releases an onslaught of neurotransmitters called dopamine.\u00a0 <\/strong>Dopamine is responsible for desire \u2013 not <\/em>pleasure or reward.\u00a0 The result?\u00a0 The powerful urge to check your phone, without ever feeling satisfied by it.<\/p>\n

In 1953, James Olds and Peter Milner, two young scientists at McGill University, implanted electrodes in a rat\u2019s brain. \u00a0Though they didn\u2019t know it at the time, they had hit on the part of the brain which releases dopamine.\u00a0 They were surprised by the rats\u2019 behavior: the rats appeared addicted to the painful electric shocks the scientists were delivering.\u00a0 (1)<\/p>\n

\"\"

Olds and Milner in their laboratory<\/p><\/div>\n

The scientists set up a lever in a rat cage which delivered electric shocks when pressed.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Once the rat figured out what the lever did, he gave himself shocks every five seconds until he collapsed from exhaustion. Olds then put levers at opposite ends of an electrified grid so that a rat could only receive one shock at a time. Rats ran back and forth across the electrified grid until their feet were so burnt they couldn\u2019t move.<\/p>\n

They couldn\u2019t stop pressing the lever even though they were doing irreparable self-harm.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Kelly McGonigal<\/p><\/div>\n

Scary and unnerving, when we apply it to the seemingly innocuous theme of modern technology.\u00a0 Between Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and text messaging, we\u2019re bombarded by dopamine-delivery programs nearly impossible to put down.\u00a0 Kelly McGonigal, health psychologist and a pop conduit to scientific research, states:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are few things ever dreamed of, smoked, or injected that have as addictive an effect on our brains as technology.\u201d \u00a0<\/em>(2)<\/p>\n

I love my smartphone, and I believe it adds to my quality of life.\u00a0 I read off my phone, use a piano metronome, keep an easy budget on it, and track my time.\u00a0 But like with every good thing, it\u2019s about limits.\u00a0 Because of the chemical addiction, it\u2019s hard to set a limit with smartphones.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Smartphones and Anxiety<\/u><\/p>\n

So is it a surprise that dopamine is sometimes linked to anxiety?\u00a0 Scientists have suspected for a long time that too much dopamine is linked to dread.\u00a0 University of Michigan researchers studied what happens to rats when dopamine is blocked from the nucleus accumbens<\/a>,<\/strong><\/span> where emotions including fear are processed.\u00a0 The scientists removed a fear-controlling brain chemical called glutamate<\/strong>; usually, this would have made the rats frenzied and panicked.\u00a0 But, when dopamine was absent, the rats were calm.\u00a0 They came to the conclusion that excessive dopamine is linked to fear, dread, and paranoia.\u00a0 (3)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When I retrieved my cellphone and started sleeping beside it again, my anxiety increased noticeably.\u00a0 Increased heart rate, slight trembling in the fingers, feelings of uneasiness.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because of the barrage of stimulation when the mind should be getting ready for rest.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because it gets rid of the willpower battle to put down the phone, which wears you out.\u00a0 In any case, I\u2019ve been careful ever since to keep my phone out of the room when I got to sleep at night.\u00a0 Try it yourself \u2013 you might be surprised!<\/p>\n

\"\"Tova Krakauer is a biomedical engineer and an SAT, GRE, and GMAT coach.\u00a0 (http:\/\/tovakrakauercoaching.com<\/em>) She is also a polyglot, writer, avid traveler, and blogger.\u00a0 Visit her website at tovakrakauer.com<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. http:\/\/psycnet.apa.org\/record\/1955-06866-001<\/a><\/u><\/li>\n
  2. McGonigal, Kelly: \u201cThe Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More Of It.\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. (https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/fear-factor-dopamine\/<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Most of us know the tug of a new SMS message or a notification from Facebook which comes with the ever-present smartphone.\u00a0 But most of us don\u2019t know \u2013 until it\u2019s taken away \u2013 how powerful that tug really is.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13062,"featured_media":56302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[38,11,21,6],"tags":[53,6513,6078,62,66,4629,6512],"yoast_head":"\nThe Smartphone Effect (And Why We're All Addicted)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Most of us know the tug of a new SMS message or a notification from Facebook which comes with the ever-present smartphone.\u00a0 But most of us don\u2019t know \u2013 until it\u2019s taken away \u2013 how powerful that 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