Internet addiction: encompassed by distractions on all fronts

Greetings, user. Let’s discuss the psychological impact the internet has on our brains. In this way, we can better understand ourselves and why it’s so hard to leave technology alone, even for an hour, least of all during a work shift or during a car drive to the store.

We are all connected. But not all of us are okay anymore.

The internet is changing us. Truth be told, we have already changed. We just might not be aware of how much it has impacted the way we think, how it affects us emotionally, and why we can’t seem to stop ourselves from reaching for the phone and begin scrolling.

The internet became the new cocaine during the dot-com boom of the 90s, and its addictive effects on the brain were not unknown during that generation. After a couple of generations of use, the psychological itch for instant access to oceans of information still causes the mind to crawl whenever you have an idle thought.

For kids, internet deprivation causes psychological and emotional outbursts of gnashing and thrashing. Why?

The simple answer is dopamine, the reward center of the brain that drives us to act on our impulses. The darker answer is that we are addicted.

What is happening to our brains? Let’s go down the rabbit hole.

The mental itch that tethers users to devices

I used to work in a warehouse operating heavy machinery. Virtually every employee behind the wheel of forklifts and cherry pickers was looking down at their phones while driving. Even the threat of being fired wasn’t enough to deter them from hiding in bathrooms, texting, doomscrolling through TikTok videos, or watching sports.

Most everyday users feel pressed on all sides by that little mental itch to check their follower count and likes, scroll through comments, and monitor their post views – all while being psychologically bombarded by overwhelming information that entices us, although it hardly interests us.

Think about this for a moment. New York had to pass a law known as The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act to limit addictive social media feeds to protect kids under the age of 18. This will go into effect next year.

We are bombarded, yes. We form opinions based on images and headlines, though many don’t even fact-check what we are looking at before it begins to shape our worldview. What’s more, this information is increasingly fake or manipulative by design and now has to be independently fact-checked.

As our minds swim in this sea of consuming information, we are tossed in every direction by a Category 5 hurricane of disinformation, misinformation, propaganda, half-truths, and a frontal assault of advertisements ad nauseam, contending endlessly for our attention. If they can distract us, they can sell us something.

“I was addicted to the Internet at age 13, spending every waking moment on Internet Relay Chats (IRC). I was obsessed. I would fake illnesses or arrive late to school just to get an extra hour on IRC.”

If that’s not bad enough, there’s the inability to stop comparing ourselves to an idealized beauty fabricated by the latest beauty-enhancing apps – ones that magically erase imperfections and curate a less-than-genuine version of ourselves. This has given rise to Snapchat Dysmorphia, leading to cosmetic surgeries aimed at making people look like their filters.

The internet offers anonymity and a sense of distance, which can lead to a kind of duality in how we present ourselves online versus offline. Moreover, fake profiles and alternate personas are created just to vocalize controversial opinions they might not say in person, among darker things like cyberbullying and trolling where users weaponize anonymity so they can unleash their inner sociopath.

Then there are endless appealing, ironic memes we like and share, which are now an innate part of our internet culture. Doomscrolling out of boredom – thumbs swiping while the brain receives a satisfactory jolt of dopamine, which satiates our brain's reward center. All the while, we are emotionally declining and questioning the meaning of life.

As wearable technology becomes more commonplace, along with the development of wearable access to the next new phase of the internet – Web3 and the Metaverse by Meta – the tech and social media industries are incubating a mindset that farms users for clicks, turning us into products sold by data brokers to advertisers in cooperation with big tech companies.

We are surrounded by people we know, yet at the same time, we experience profound loneliness and depression. That internet fix affects our family dynamic, especially how we parent our children. It disrupts relationships, even our very lives.

Texting while driving has been the cause of approximately 1.6 million automobile crashes according to a 2023 report by the National Safety Council in the United States alone, with around 3,000 fatalities.

Damage to the frontal lobe

In a controversial article that went viral in August 2016, psychologist Dr. Nicholas Kardaras wrote, “We now know that those iPads, smartphones, and Xboxes are a form of a digital drug.”

He explained how recent brain imaging research demonstrated that the devices we use affect the brain’s frontal cortex, which is the region that controls executive functioning, including impulse control management.

What’s more, scientists discovered damage to the insula cortex, located between the frontal and temporal lobes, which directly involves our capacity to develop empathy and compassion for one another, including the ability to connect physical body language and other signals with emotions. These skills are vital in how we form meaningful bonds with others.

I wonder if this is why many internet-addicted adolescents and adults engage in sociopathic behaviors online, having become desensitized to normal social interactions.

The frontal lobe handles executive functions, such as prioritizing, the ability to organize, impulse control, and planning. Damage to this area affects a broad range of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral complications.

The work by Dr. Kardaras not only encompasses the impact screen addiction has on children and adolescents but also adults. Furthermore, brain scan studies show that the relationship between screen time causes grey matter atrophy and reduced cortical thickness, including other damages.

Brain scans conducted on internet-addicted teens showed compromised white and grey matter integrity, which means a loss of communication within the brain, such as the connections to and from different lobes within the same hemisphere. In a nutshell, it affects high cognitive functions as well as lower brain centers, which deal with emotional regulation, decision-making, and impulse control. Ultimately, the brain is short-circuiting due to these disrupted connections.

Chasing the dopamine

I was addicted to the Internet at age 13, spending every waking moment on Internet Relay Chats (IRC). I was obsessed. I would fake illnesses or arrive late to school just to get an extra hour on IRC.

When my parents tried to take the computer away, I threw apoplectic, maniacal tantrums, flying into a screaming rage. I even dragged my face against the carpet, hurting myself, and nearly threw a chair through a window.

As a young adult, I would stay online for 24 hours at a time, sometimes 48, until the images on my screen seemed superimposed onto my vision. As a hacker, I was a machine and didn’t have to sleep, but only 2-3 hours at a time. Why?

That’s because when you’re addicted to the internet, your brain is triggering excessive dopamine release in the brain’s reward pathways, in the same way how drugs like heroin create the intense pleasure of “highs.”

While experiencing this overactive state, the brain’s reward circuits become desensitized, leaving users to keep pushing harder for that reward hit, which mirrors the tolerance build-up commonly found in drug addiction.

Hackers target larger networks and take on higher-risk stakes. Furthermore, gloating publicly invites a level of danger and the thrill of evasion. Internet trolls, meanwhile, keep pushing their victims further, devising ever more Machiavellian schemes to see how their targets will react. This happens because they’ve become desensitized to the usual dopamine hits, leaving them craving more intense stimulation.

Studies have shown that video games trigger the release of dopamine, which is associated with the brain's reward center. However, the craving or urge to play games produces significant changes in the brain comparable to those caused by drug cravings.

Even doomscrolling activates the release of dopamine. Even though doomscrolling triggers the reward center, the brain feels stimulated, even though we usually do not feel stimulated mentally. We can end up feeling depression, anxiety, or even positive feelings connected to the rush of dopamine.

Technology was meant to be addictive. United States Congress, in multiple senate hearings, has addressed social media giants deliberately crafting addictive content aimed at children.

Research shows that for those suffering from internet addiction, quitting cold turkey can trigger withdrawal symptoms similar to those coming off of drugs. While that is a commendable personal decision, big tech companies will continue to push their vice in our eyes and ears until we are all jacked into the Metaverse or worse.

Considering where we stand as humankind with our relationship with technology, the struggle for our attention, and the ensuing effects on our brains, it is not without a sense of irony why we are called users.

As humanity grazes in the bountiful fields of the big tech industry, I often wonder what the next quantum leap in humanity’s socio-technological evolution will be -as I imagine crawling into my liquid pod and jacking into the Matrix.

“A prison for the mind.”