What Have We Become?

So it's no great secret that screen addiction is a thing. I was fairly surprised earlier this year though to learn that there are now rehab centres (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/teenage-technology-addiction-smartphone-rehab-seattle-clinic-children-aged-13-mobile-devices-a7684356.html) for children and adults that have chronic screen addiction and need serious counselling and support to kick the habit. Kids have become abusive and destructive when their 'internet rights' are taken away from them by parents or teachers, exhibiting all the symptoms of serious addiction. This has become a serious societal issue that needs to be addressed by parents before it potentially worsens. At the very least, exposure to gadgets and information should be managed in such a way by parents as to maintain a balance so that healthy children can develop as they did previously.

I'm not exaggerating. I have spent the past fourteen years teaching English as a Second Language to children in Indonesia, and I have seen a marked change in their attitudes and performance since the adoption of mobile internet devices. There are children as young as six that use iPhones and tablets. I argue that their minds are not equipped to deal with this constant input of information and the instant accessibility / gratification that it rewards them with. It's becoming increasingly difficult to tell a child they can't have something when they're used to getting everything instantly.

I noticed that the attention span of most children in my classes was greatly reduced as opposed to a few years prior, and I began wondering (often aloud) why it seems most of them had some kind of attention deficit disorder. Then it struck me that perhaps all these diagnoses we're seeing in society of children with ADHD is actually due to information technology, and not the children themselves. Perhaps this is an unfortunate byproduct of the overdose of information and rewards.

Previous fun tasks such as playing language games in the classroom or watching movies were now deemed 'boring' and I noticed that kids couldn't sit through periods of movies that had dialogue. It was as if they were used to seeing action or getting to the 'good stuff' instantly, whenever they wanted through their mobile devices, so waiting for something to happen in a film was now like waiting for a building to be upgraded in Clash of Clans. In the game, they can skip this by paying with coins. In class, they actually asked me to skip the dialogue to get to the next action scene. I can honestly say I had not seen this behaviour previously. And these were not isolated cases. In all cases, the children that seemed most unable to maintain focus were those that always had their gadgets with them and seemed to use them more than their peers.

Another way that this instant gratification is manifested is through dating apps such as Tinder. There was a famous article in Vanity Fair (https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/08/tinder-hook-up-culture-end-of-dating) some years back about how Tinder had killed dating. I can say through personal experience that this is most certainly the case. I used Tinder on two separate occasions and although this resulted in mutually beneficial relationships, the experience was more than a little disturbing and disheartening. I found in general that most users I came in contact with had an attitude that you were disposable at best. Always during interaction you were haunted by the notion that this person is in contact with around 300 or more other potential mates (there have been trials done confirming these figures), and if you don't have an instant appeal or can offer some form of gratification they will immediately lose interest.

It's always been a concern when you're dating someone and paying for a meal (our evolutionary trait of risking resources for reward), that they may be seeing someone else or that someone else is likely interested in them. This can be disheartening, depending on your own self confidence. But in the case of apps like Tinder, you know they are definitely talking to someone else and have many people interested in them. Try going on a date with someone that looks at their Tinder during the meal and reading other guys' messages. Not the best feeling in the world. Needless to say after the last success of using the app, I haven't touched it since nor will I again. But the experience highlights the disposable nature of our current society. This instant gratification provided by information technology is at odds with our own mental well being, as any practitioner of Buddhism or psychiatrist will tell you.

Which leads me onto the video below. This was an interview at London Real with Simon Sinek. I haven't seen anyone sum this up as well or give clearer examples to further illustrate what I'm getting at and where I suspect all this is leading us. I hope you find this post and the video inspiring in some way, if not a little worrying.