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iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years agoAt a certain level, part of me is fascinated by the mass pyschological effects from social media and smartphones.
Humans were not built for such a information heavy world, with millions of tweets flying every second, and the attention of a goldfish. What have we become, and where are we going ?
Far scarier, is that In 10 years, today's crazy world will seem rather quaint and boring..... just look back at how the world was 10 years ago in 2011..... and then 10 years before in 2001.
goldenballs@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
Dr Robert Sapolsky can tell you lots about the dopamine reward network that smartphones harness, and the illusion of free will.
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
Thing is, we have tons of research on addiction, so we are somewhat aware on that side. SM is probably between caffeine and nicotine in terms of addictivity.
However, how about the effects on long term memory and thinking pathways, especiallly in kids ? As we offload all our memory to google on our phones, what happens to our brains. Are we suddenly cyborgs with hugely expanded 'virtual' memories from the internet ?
What happens to our attention spans ? How about empathy ? We treat virtual strangers on forums like Twitter and Wolfballs, as if they are real people, not digital avatars, right ?
So many unknowns.....
goldenballs@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
Sugar is by far the most addictive substance. Potently triggering the dopaminergic circuit. Smartphone "waterfall" news feeds and commenting platforms do the same kind of triggering, but without the chenical binding. So yeah turning off helps, and there will be some withdrawal, but its psychological and tactile, rather than chemical like sugar or nicotine.
Caffeine and Nicotine are alkaloids like Cocaine, but are nowhere near sugar. Nicotine is different from Caffeine because it binds to the nicotinic receptors in the DLPFC and inhibits acetylcholine neurotransmitters. Caffeine and Cocaine don't bind semi-permanently like Nicotine or opioids.
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
Wow. I learnt a lot. Thank you. Didn't know there was such a huge addictive potential for sugar. I myself love it, but didn't mind switching to Stevia.
Thanks for the detailed explanation of the binding mech.