Is Phone Addiction Really That Bad?
Q: Is phone addiction really that bad?
A: Yes. Here's why:
Whatever your drug of choice, you need more and more of it to get the original high and more and more of it to reduce the psychological pain you experience when you come down from your high.
Social media, especially quick hard-hitting videos, are like an illicit drug hitting your brain, creating a release of dopamine that begs more and more "hits."
Your brain is seeking dopamine. It’s whispering, “Get out the digital syringe. Take another hit. Then the boredom, stress, irritability, and blues will go away.”“
As we scroll our media, we are always distracted from real life, looking for the next quick hit. It can cause a 2-minute quest on the internet to turn into 2 hours of completely lost time. I will admit that I have fallen into that trap - waking up from binging funny videos and wandering where my time went! Like any addictive drug - the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem (or at least acknowledge that we all can become addicted - even "micro-addicted" - to these platforms that are AI designed to trap our attention. They, colatterally, rewire our brains!
Yes, like any addiction, internet-dopamine hits do not just affect the addict, they weaken the addict and harm those in relationship with the addict.
"Amuse” doesn’t quite describe the effect dopamine media has on us. Dopamine media is designed to distract us to death. Or, if we’re more honest, to distract us into an addiction that leads to death.
But there is hope in grabbing the Bible, and instead of feeding the nagging urge to scroll, open the Book and begin reading it from cover to cover. Take notes. Read it outside (weather permitting). Talk about it with friends as you go for a walk. Forge real relationships outside the artificial world that seeks to entrap you.
Our addiction to dopamine media is training us to love much what ought to be loved little.
Read the entire article written by a fellow Missouri pastor by clicking --> here <--
You can find the book that the article is based upon --> here <--