Technology Addictions

Author: Ross A. Laird, PhD
Date: 2008-03-11

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Document License and Technology

This document is available online at rosslaird.info/techaddict/ and is published under a Creative Commons license.

You are free to share, copy, and distribute this document (within the guidelines established by the license).

The technology used to compose the presentation includes Eric Meyer's S5 presentation system, the Emacs editor, the ReStructured Text formatting system, the Opera and Firefox browsers, and Ubuntu Linux.

The Cultures of Technology

Technologies are cultures and not simply tools. Geeks, gamers, technophobes, phreaks, demosceners, nerds, hackers, cyberathletes, newbies, crackers: these terms and many others describe technological cultures that have evolved within the context of telephone, television, and computer technologies.

Such cultures share both the positive and negative aspects common to cultures in general. Positive benefits include group identity and cohesion, collaborative activity, and interpersonal connection. Negative consequences include potential addiction, isolation, and diversion from self-care and relationships.

PowerPoint may be evil; but the cultures of technology are not.

Cultural Language and Behavior

The shared languages and behaviors of the cultures of technology involve memes:

meme: a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that
is passed from one generation to another by nongenetic means (as by imitation); memes are the cultural counterpart of genes.

The meaning of Canada is a meme. Hockey, too.

Technology Memes: The Dramatic Prairie Dog

The original meme (though not yet a meme) as submitted to YouTube:

Dramatic Chipmunk

Evolving Cultures of Technology

To understanding addiction is to understand culture.

Addiction is an Aspect of Every Culture

Addiction is a positive urge thwarted by negative circumstances. Almost all habitual substance users are searching for a means of dealing with psychological stress that is usually associated with childhood and adolescent development.

The future addict is drawn to a culture which promises to complete the unfinished impulses of childhood and adolescence. Opiate users are drawn to cultures of solace. Stimulant users are drawn to cultures of empowerment. Hallucinogen users are drawn to cultures of inclusion.

The cultures of technology are sufficiently broad as to offer the psychological rewards of all the cultures of substance use combined.

Culture and Personal Development

Addictions are developmental disorders, essentially. Treatment and prevention of all addictions is most important during adolescence, due to the various developmental challenges and vulnerabilities of the adolescent period (more on that later).

It is also during adolescence that most people choose the cultures with which they will affiliate. These affiliations will continue, for the most part, into adulthood and sometimes for the duration of people's lives.

Correlations Between Substance Use and Technology

Like the cultures of technology, substance use is also cultural. Both wine tasters and binge drinkers are sub-groups within the cultures of alcohol (scotch drinkers are yet another group). Recreational marijuana users and potheads are members of the same culture. Cigarette smokers share a culture. Users of stimulants and opiates and benzodiazepines are members of various cultures of devotion and consumption.

Professional Practice and the Cultures of Addiction

Counsellors and other social service providers who work in the field of addictions typically exert great effort to understand and empathize with the cultures of substance use. But the cultures of technology remain foreign, strange, and uninviting.

The cultures of counsellors and social service providers are essentially technophobic.

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The Cultures of Technology Involve Screen Time

Children ages 8 to 18 spend more time (44.5 hours per week) in front of computer, television, and game screens than any other activity in their lives except sleeping (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005).

Screen Time is Relevant to Overall Health

Approximately 30.3% of children (ages 6 to 11) are overweight and 15.3% are obese. For teens (12 to 19) the rate is almost identical: 33.4% overweight, and 15.5% obese (American Obesity Association, 2006).

Childhood, TV, and Hypertension

Children watching 2 to 4 hours of TV per day have 2.5 times the odds of hypertension compared with children watching 0 to 2 hours. The odds of hypertension for children watching 4 or more hours of TV are 3.3 times greater than for children watching 0 to 2 hours of TV.

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Addictions is a Health Issue

A great deal of addictions research supports the notion that adolescents, in particular, are vulnerable to the types of addictions offered by the cultures of technology.

The link between video games, emotional desensitization and aggression has been particularly well explored. (Of course, there are some people who insist that violent video games do not promote aggression. These tend to be the same people who insist that smoking cannabis is a health-promoting activity.)

Technology Addictions Affect Health in Various Ways

A reasonable amount of recreational screen time is healthy as opposed to harmful (about 30 minutes per day seems optimal for adults, about 20 minutes for adolescents, and about 15 minutes for children.) Increasing amounts of screen time affect the nervous system (the brain and the body) with increasing severity.

The healthy aspect of screen time is similar to the various health-promoting or medicinal aspects of substances (opiates and alcohol in particular).

A Personal and Professional Reality Check

Q: How many times per day do you check your email and text messages?

Q: How much television do you watch?

Q: How much do you exercise?

Personal and Professional Challenges

The high rates of smoking among addictions counsellors is a well-recognized health and ethics issue in the profession. These rates are due, mostly, to incorrect health information offered to clients in early recovery (who will later go on to become counsellors).

High rates of sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, addiction to caffeine, and lack of exercise are equal challenges for addictions counsellors to walk the talk. As we shall see, working with technology addictions involves dealing with all of the above.

Addictions and the Nervous System

The nervous system possess habits of consciousness and action. These might be (somewhat arbitrarily) grouped under four themes:

These imprints are learned in the first few years of life. They control a great deal of our behavior, emotion, and consciousness. The developmental features associated with the nervous system are the most exhaustively researched aspects of psychology (especially with regard to trauma).

Nervous System Styles and Childhood Themes

During the first four phases of childhood development, the four states of the nervous system are imprinted and tuned. This happens by way of parenting, immersion in the environment, genetic predisposition, and various other factors (some of which are still unknown).

Belonging

Flight response is correlated with belonging (roughly from birth to one month). If an individual does not experience a sense of belonging, he or she will withdraw (psychologically and physically), and will seek ways of adapting through imagination and inner resourcing. (Cold hands and feet are one symptom of this withdrawal, as is adolescent cutting.)

In adolescence, this adaptive mechanism makes such individuals prone to hallucinogen addiction, addiction to the imagination, and addiction to the technologies of fantasy. More on this later.

Need Fulfilment

Freeze response is correlated with need fulfilment (roughly one month to eight months). If an individual is abused or neglected during this period (any period, really), he or she will adapt by surrendering needs or fixating on specific needs (such as food). Surrender and fixation are two aspects of nervous system freezing.

Surrender and fixation are two aspects of opiate addictions, which are developmentally predisposed during this period of development. If individuals with lingering vulnerabilities from this stage go on to develop technology addictions in adolescence, those addictions will be focused toward online shopping, text messaging, image viewing (e.g. pornography) and television watching. More on this later.

Autonomy

The developmental stage of negotiating the relationship between self and other (which occupies the period roughly from 8 months to 1.5 years) involves significant milestones of movement, exploration, personal challenge, and orienting.

If an individual does not receive balanced imprinting at this stage, he or she will tend to become hyper-vigilant and hyperactive (not all hyperactivity is derived from this stage, however). One symptom of this adaptation is a craving for excitement and newness.

If such individuals go on to develop addictions in adolescence, those addictions are more likely to involve stimulants. If the addictions involve technology, the individual will likely be drawn to stimulating video games, online gambling, and extreme immersive environments. More on this later.

Will and Power

Between two and four years of age, individuals negotiate their relationship to their own power. It has been well-established that domestic violence and corporal punishment at this age are highly correlated with developmental and lifespan difficulties. Such difficulties are not only psychological: the risk of adolescent and adult obesity is increased (by fifty per cent) by the experience of childhood neglect.

The fight response is developed and tuned at this stage. For those who will develop addictions in adolescence, the experience of neglect and abuse of power in childhood creates the predisposition toward alcoholism. This is why the rates of alcoholism are so high in war-torn countries and in cultures where cultural power has been destroyed. In terms of technology addictions, such predispositions are likely to involve addictions to video games involving fighting. More on this later.

A Quick Review

Technology addictions obey the same principles as substance addictions; that is to say, the addiction involves uncompleted impulses and fractured imprinting typically derived from childhood experience (this is not universally the case, but is almost universally the case). The nature of the addiction involves the way in which the addiction completes, temporarily, the unfinished imprinting:

The more childhood difficulty an individual experiences, the more likely the individual is to seek multiple substances in adolescence.

A Note on Predisposition

Adolescence begins with the brain pruning stage at roughly age eleven and continues until the end of the twenties (for the youth of today). This long period of development involves the integration of previous developmental stages. Incomplete or fragmented childhood imprinting re-emerges as adolescent psychological difficulty. Addiction is one method of easing the stress of such unfinished imprinting -- by completing it temporarily. (Another method involves cultural inclusion and group formation; more on these later).

Technology Addictions of Flight and Erasure

Second Life, Facebook and similar virtual worlds enable the fantasy reconstruction of personal identity. For those with psychological themes involving belonging and community, such activities are highly appealing.

The motto of Second Life is Your World. Your imagination. The implication is that personal reality is an imaginal construct. For those with a tendency to dissociate, to create inner worlds of safety and solace (and spirituality, often), such worlds can be more real and more engaging than this world.

Second Life and the Replacement of Reality with Fantasy

Second Life promotes the principle (similar to The Secret) that fantasy worlds have their own reality. This is similar to the branch of philosophy known as solipsism, explored by George Orwell in 1984, promoted by the Matrix movies, and examined in great depth by the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

In fantasy worlds, one can create whatever is missing from real life.

PKD

Philip K. Dick, or PKD as his meme is known, was a prolific writer with an intense psychological focus. His works, which have been widely adapted into films (Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, etc.) explore the promises and perils of technology. Even though PKD died in 1982 (soon after a visit to Vancouver in which he sought treatment for his stimulant addiction), his influence continues to be felt within and beyond the cultures of technology.

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Technology Addictions of Need Fulfilment

Online shopping, text messaging, news and image browsing, desktop tweaking, television watching and other zone-out activities such as Solitaire (SolitaireCraving.com ) enable the experience of comfort and solace. Many people in our society have been imprinted with the sense that any need I have can be met by eating. This is probably a result of the fact that infants exhibit at least 150 types of cries, which are almost universally met by feeding. As such, technological feeding can have a powerful sedative and need-fulfilling effect.

Technology Addictions of Orienting

Orienting is about new directions, and exploration, and always moving on to the next activity (think about cocaine addicts). The technological opportunities for orienting are almost endless: geek life, online role-playing and adventure games, online gambling, computer programming, phreaking, extreme video games, and so on.

World of Warcraft is both an orienting and a fight response activity. WoW is well-known to be highly addictive for some of its participants (some of whom have written their addictions stories).

Orienting, Hypervigilance, and Attention Deficit

Orienting addictions have led to an entire class of memes: egosurfing, Wikiholism, CrackBerry, Photolurkers, Cyberchondria, Cheesepodding, Google-stalking, Blog streaking, Infornography, YouTube narcissism, PowerPointlessness, and many others. Orienting addictions are the most common types of technology addiction, just as ADHD is the most common type of childhood behavioral disorder. The former indicates predisposition toward the latter.

The MMORPG Revolution

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (such as World of WarCraft) are now ubiquitous. The average participant spends fourteen hours per week participating. These games have paradoxical consequences which involve both negative consequences (decreased health, well-being, sleep, socialization and academic work) and positive consequences (greater enjoyment than traditional games, increased interest in continuing play, and a rise in the acquisition of new online friendships).

Endgame Syndrome

One of the distinctive features of orienting is rapidly shifting attention. A such, orienters within cultures of technology seek constant change and novelty. When they finish one game, for example, they crave another of greater intensity. This has come to be known as endgame syndrome. It is a nervous system equivalent to dope sickness (among heroin addicts) or post-binge depression (among users of stimulants).

Technology Addictions and the Fight Response

An argument might be made that violent video games have replaced actual war as an adolescent milestone. And yet, most video games are about orienting more than fighting. This is not say that fighting is absent. Here are some examples:

Halo

Halo is an immensely successful game franchise. The intended experience for the user is complete immersion in the experience of battle.

Gears of War

The same idea as Halo:

Gears of War

Adolescent Development

Integration, emotional containment, and identity formation are the central psychological and psychomotoric tasks of adolescence.

These skills are compromised in those who have experience of childhood abuse and neglect, who have difficulty finding healthy groups and peers, who encounter health challenges (such as smoking nicotine or marijuana), and who are otherwise compromised by parenting and/or environment.

Technology addictions (like other addictions) promise but do not deliver integration, containment, and identity formation (IronMan).

Mentorship

The only way for an adolescent to develop integration, containment, and identity is through mentorship.

The impulse of kids to form groups is healthy. In evolutionary terms, groups of young people seek leadership from adult mentors. In the absence of healthy adult mentors, adolescents form a youth gang, which comes to be led by the adolescent among them who is most aggressive, gregarious, or risk-prone.

The absence of mentorship for adolescents is the most serious problem in our society today. Absence of mentorship is a primary cause of the addictions problem among both youth and adults, the suicide problem among youth, the homelessness problem in youth and adults, and the depression and anxiety problem of many people.

Technology addictions involve false mentorship.

Mentorship in a Nutsehll

A mentor is someone who can assist a child to complete their unfinished childhood themes and to further develop their character. After parenting, it is the most important role a human being can undertake (despite the low status it earns). A good mentor encourages an adolescent (or child) to feel safe, to take appropriate risks, to express whatever remains unexpressed. Mentorship does not have to be a long-term intervention. An adolescent can undergo a transformative experience in a single meeting with a good mentor. One outstanding experience is enough to complete the learning for an entire unfinished developmental stage. (This is a possible but not common experience.)

Mentorship Skill

Mentoring requires immense sensitivity and interpersonal skill. Just as a good mentor can profoundly influence a child or adolescent, so can a poor one. An inappropriate mentorship experience can severely damage the psychological development of a child. Mentorship is a trust, a role that is profound and powerful. It is a gift offered to us by children.

Parents cannot fulfill the mentorship role, which requires a balance of deep caring and emotional neutrality. Parents possess deep caring, but they cannot be neutral about the choices their children make.

Mentorship and the Cultures of Technology

The cultures of technology are typically devoid of healthy mentorship, which cannot be accomplished without actual face-to-face interaction (because mentorship is about presence, not only feedback). This is the central vulnerability of the cultures of technology: even face-to-face experiences, such as LAN parties, lack the interpersonal depth required to facilitate mentorship experiences.

The cultures of technology are broad, but they are not deep.

Mentorship for Technology Addictions

Technology addictions target states of the nervous system (as do other addictions). In turn, mentorship for technology addictions involves finding healthy activities for the nervous system:

Mentorship involves both physical and psychological work. The nervous system of the developing adolescent must be addressed on a physical level, through activity, as well as on an interpersonal level.

Psychological Mentorship

Working on the psychological level, a good mentor helps the adolescent to explore such themes as:

Therapeutic Mentorship

Social services practitioners often fulfill mentorship roles. For adolescents, such mentorship requires the following types of communication from the mentor:

Mentorship Goals

The essential goal of adolescent mentorship is twofold:

Flight Response Mentorship

Freeze Response Mentorship

Orienting Response Mentorship

Fight Response Mentorship

The Magic Bullet

Modern humans have been around for perhaps as long as 200,000 years. We have been using screen-time technologies for about a decade (with the exception of television, which has been part of the Western lifestyle for slightly longer).

We are animals. Our well-being depends upon bodily movement, expression, and integration. This is what both current and ancestral research consistently demonstrates: our relationship with our own bodies is central to every aspect of our development.

Modern Challenges

Obesity, ADHD, cancer, diabetes, addictions of all kinds, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, trauma: all of these challenges are consistently correlated with diet and exercise. In fact, healthy diet and exercise are the only two factors that are almost always linked to improvement across the domains of health and wellness.

And yet, in Psychology and Counselling we remain seated in chairs, and we seem content to explore insight and the inner life. That's fine; but insight alone cannot heal the fractured nervous system. Only movement and physical challenge can do that. With the average Canadian youth already seated in a chair and watching a screen for more than 40 hours per week, more chair-sitting seems like a poor idea.

Final Thoughts

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