The Addictive Nature of Technology | Strategies For Reclaiming Control Over Digital Habits

In our current generation, we have seen almost an insurmountable amount of technological progress in every section of our lives. There is not a place in our lives that exists now where it has not permeated yet. We have better healthcare, high education rates, better societies and lifestyle, etc. All that has been possible due to progressing technological innovation.

With that being said, technology is at our very fingertips with ease of access. Ease of access historically had been a reason for lethargy in the minds of people. We tend to value things which we work hard for and vice versa. One very good example of addictive technology is smartphones. What can not be done in a smartphone? Almost everything these days. To give a sub-example, food ordering, health checkups, digital payments, social interactions, etc all of these have become available online. Such abilities in a small device drives away the need to see the world outside for doing various tasks. Portability and accessibility gives people a sense of accomplishment over performing a task solely through a digital device. This is the place our senses have come to, where we get a good feeling after doing something on a device and not in real life. However if you look outside, you’ll notice that people who are already popular in real life are popular online too. And people who are not popular in real life are often considered non-existent on the internet.

In the solution section, I will discuss how to exercise control over your own actions so that it impacts you positively.

If we look into other areas of society and life, the same story and same problems are there. Some of them are:

1. Social media addiction:
This is an absolute disaster to ever happen in our digital sphere. Just any random day, if you look up into popular social media websites, you will notice that there is a strong race to get likes and views. And not every time the person who seeks attention online will get it. This external seeking of validation of what’s acceptable and what’s not will set bars on your own lifestyle. In an unnatural event, if that bar is not met, a series of feelings will begin to arise ranging from depression to loneliness, anxiety, sadness, hopelessness, etc. It will be a crime if I do not mention the abbreviation FOMO (fear of missing out) in this context. FOMO is real and is a thing to consider in current times. Kids these days suffer from severe anxiety due to sheer amount of ignorance by their parents. Ignorance by providing them with most of the tech devices they demand and uncapped internet access. The coronavirus pandemic which occurred during 2019 onward, exacerbated this trend. As far as my experience goes, the internet is not really a good place to look into being a kid, and at this point this is a self explanatory matter. Instead of learning good habits and gaining new knowledge, they stay glued to smartphones and stupid TikTok videos. In one more instance, we often hear that teenagers took their own life over some social anxiety coming from social media apps like Instagram and Facebook. Even aged adults couldn’t help themselves but get addicted to these.

2. Video game addiction:
This type of addiction should not come as a surprise, as it is a pretty obvious one. Gaming addiction is very prevalent among students and young people. Now, I myself stream and play video games. That might sound hypocritical, but necessarily not always the case if done under limit. Once or twice a week of gaming will not impact daily work or neither will hamper productivity. But such self restraint qualities are needed to keep oneself in check, even when a video game appears very addictive and interesting. It is all about letting you control your mind, not the other way around. There are even more addicting games around, namely Fortnite, Valorant and other multiplayer games. Already we know how addictive games are, but now what happens if social life is added to it? Well, that’s what multiplayer games do. With all voice chat to an epic gaming experience to a simulated world inside a game, video game addiction is by far one of the hardest addictions to cure and control. Surely I agree that games do improve cognitive abilities and make our reflex actions much more responsive. Playing multiplayer games and winning such a match require a significant amount of brainpower. However, it’s not fair to throw the consequences of hardcore gaming under the bus.

3. Pornography addiction:
One of the worst types of addiction is pornography addiction. This is a kind of internet addiction where there is excessive obsession with unrealistic fantasies. People having this kind of addiction usually tend to believe in a fantasy world of girls and sex, with all sorts of adult activities combined. In earlier days, people used to buy adult DVDs discreetly since there was not enough internet permeation among everyone in society regardless of their income and societal status. As it is already seen before, ease of access amplifies bad habits and addictions. Even what was not possible back in the day, now is possible by typing a URL in a browser. Now eventually such behavior leads to a much worse cycle of feelings such as guilt, regret, etc. Not only it destroys healthy emotions, but also it prevents healthy emotions from ever fostering in minds. Eventually such behavior destroys relationships and friendships and makes it extremely hard to make new friends or any new relationship. Therefore this type of addiction is quite damaging as seen.

4. Materialistic addiction:
This type of addiction makes one feel or believe that purchases of material things will make one happy as well as satisfied. However, for an instance, when is the last time you have bought a thing you have longed for, only to realize it made you feel satisfied for a while and that feeling faded soon after. Again one feels like that wasn’t enough and the same need of materialistic things arises. And so it repeats. It will likely never end, at the same time it wastes your money and resources more actively than other addictions, but that is a generalization. One good example of this is online purchases from Amazon or any similar eCommerce stores. Although materialistic addicts are not seen online more often as it is an offline activity, exceptions cannot be made since these days, almost every service is available online including eCommerce. It’s interesting to know that even eCommerce stores optimize their algorithms to actively pursue buyers into buying things they do not need. This reminds me of a saying Warren Buffett once said:

If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.

― Warren Buffett

In any case, addiction of any kind is harmful to mind and body in the long run. Nothing positive comes out of it and yet we waste our precious resources on them, mostly in an ignorant manner. A social media addict loses his/her mind over followers count, views and perfection. A gamer loses time and energy which could have been spent elsewhere, not to mention, gaming ruins the sleep cycle. For porn addicts, no amount of fantasy or sexual desire is not enough for them as they always feel empty and want even more. And so can be described for every category of addicts. However, one thing to note is that virtually any kind of offline addiction can turn into online addiction practices if enough technological innovation is seen gradually. Therefore it is hard to conclude those very specific types of addiction and categories mentioned above are seen on a wide scale.

In my life, I’ve come up with some strategies to keep such addictive behaviors in check. To be clear, I am not saying don’t have your cheat day or don’t indulge yourself in some addiction occasionally. That is totally fine. However, making that a persistent habit is what is concerning.

To reclaim control over digital habits (considering if I were a technology addict), first I would:

1. Stop drooling over smartphones:
This is the single most important factor to consider if you really want to make a deadline or goal to fix digital addiction. Smartphones fall under the list of easy to access, easy to operate devices. And to buy one, it’s ridiculously cheap these days. On the flip side, they tend to exploit a loophole in us, that is an incessant need for ease of access and maximum features. Smart people understand the value of ease of access and knows how to benefit from it. It was meant to make our lives easier, not make it worse. Same goes for internet access to those who do not understand the sheer power of the internet. So to stop addiction and make progress on digital detox, use phones for what they really meant for, that is communication. At most, some photography. But that’s it.

2. Separate devices based on tasks:
There is a saying that “old ways are the best ways”. Back in the old times, we used alarm clocks to see time and set alarms. We used a laptop computer to write emails, used a tape recorder to record something, used video cameras to record videos, used a calculator to calculate some values, etc. There are a myriad of different things that ceased to exist just because smartphones have arrived in our market. In a smart person’s POV, that would mean time and task efficiency and more productivity. However in a dumb person’s POV, that is a must to have device to have virtually unlimited resources at once. And obviously that person will tend to abuse that power to harm themselves or people around them. For the layman and normal people, it is highly advisable to assess your own situation and keep devices separate based on tasks. That way, a possibility of committing that same addiction and bad habits are removed to some extent.

3. Some self-awareness:
I strongly believe in the fact that, if you do not back yourself up, nothing will. Fairy tale magic does not exist in real life and that should be kept in mind in advance. It’s good to be aware that big internet corporations build entire algorithms based on mathematics to keep you hooked on their platforms. And as far as I can tell, those algorithms are really accurate in predicting a human’s exact behavior and its exact trigger points. Now imagine that level of control on a global level. These companies know how to sway your feelings and this severe vulnerability can be used to buy elections or may have worse consequences. And that will likely increase if monopoly does not end in social media and on the internet. I will not name any company names in this blog post, but readers can guess what I am pointing at. Looking from a health’s perspective, you can tell that it is not good to sit all day and look into a screen. If one looks at the big picture, they will understand why self awareness is so crucial in solving the root cause which will in turn act as an impetus to cure digital addiction.

4. Build a solid discipline:
Often it is said that motivation just starts the engine, it’s the discipline what keeps you going. Motivation will die faster than you realize but most people still rely on motivation. Allot specific timings for specific tasks in a week and that alone will improve your discipline significantly. Impact of discipline is often taught in schools, however sadly very few students are able to absorb the true value of this. Ask yourself this, what will happen if you fail to do important life changing tasks on time and waste your time and resources on pointless things. In the end, regret is all you have. Get fearful of the consequences and use that as a motivation to stay disciplined. Through this, you will never have enough time to waste on screen or on unnecessary things. It is quite simple if thought through.

5. Find your purpose:
Purpose in life is what drives us. Without purpose there was no past, there will be no future. Everyone must have a purpose to live life. Everyone has goals in their minds which they want to become or achieve someday. In my personal opinion, life without purpose is meaningless. Imagine this for a second, if you stay busy achieving your goals and finding your true purpose of existence, you will barely consider wasting your precious time and energy on those addictive practices. This is somewhat related to the 4th point above mentioned. And let me tell you something you will literally fear, a high screen time if done consistently can lead to serious eye defects and can cause permanent eye blindness. And I am not even exaggerating this. I do not know what future medical advances hold for us but this is true as per current times. I firmly believe that staying healthy is a part of life’s purpose.

To wrap up, to reclaim control over digital habits, the best thing to do is to stay aware of the consequences of your actions. It is believed that it is impossible to completely remove electronic devices from our lives. But it is definitely possible to moderate the usage of such devices to an extent that it does not impact us negatively. Near view work can be limited by engaging yourself in outdoor activities. In this highly competitive world, it is believed that hard work will fetch you good results down the line. That may be true but mostly it is not. Staying healthy and sane is also crucial for becoming successful in life. So that academics or work life is not all important. One should aim for a balance in their lives. It’s important to determine life paths and optimize them according to requirement rather than being so stressed. Stress will increase, therefore making life highly efficient is the goal, thereby digital detox goals will appear more manageable.

Thank you for reading.


References:

  1. https://www.cpr.org/2024/01/31/colorado-mom-at-capitol-hill-for-social-media-ceos-testifying-on-child-safety/
  2. https://bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-67777938
  3. https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/social-media-can-alter-children-s-brains-and-impact-mental-health-neuroscientist-1.6827507
  4. https://www.hindustantimes.com/htcity/cinema/16yearold-queer-child-pranshu-dies-by-suicide-due-to-bullying-did-we-fail-as-a-society-mental-health-expert-opines-101701172202794.html
  5. https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/rise-in-gaming-addiction-affecting-mental-health-maharashtra-health-department-raises-alarm
  6. https://www.business-standard.com/technology/tech-news/95-of-indian-parents-concerned-about-screen-addiction-of-children-survey-124012400247_1.html
  7. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58979895
  8. https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-do-you-sync-your-tasks-projects-across
  9. https://www.livemint.com/news/india/maharashtra-news-father-kills-son-over-porn-addiction-teasing-girls-11706841016573.html
  10. https://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/delhi-man-addicted-to-pornography-forces-wife-to-dress-like-pornstars-case-filed-4178909
  11. https://www.mensjournal.com/news/porn-addictions-affects-relationships-wives-girlfriends
  12. https://m.economictimes.com/news/india/indian-kids-are-seeing-porn-as-early-as-13-years-of-age-experts-warn-severe-consequences/articleshow/102720072.cms
  13. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67443705
  14. https://m.economictimes.com/news/new-updates/to-curb-internet-addiction-china-limits-smartphone-usage-among-children-and-teens/articleshow/102469793.cms
  15. https://islandeyecare.ns.ca/can-myopia-lead-to-blindness/
  16. https://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/myopia-faq/can-myopia-lead-to-blindness.htm

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