Breaking our dangerous addiction to electronic devices

I see signs of it nearly everywhere: nomophobia, short for “nomobile-phobia,” or the dread of being without our mobile phones. It’s a chronic condition clearly on the rise, hatching a nefarious behavioral addiction, one that quietly erodes our will while we suffer the illusion of control.

In “Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked,” New York University professor of marketing Adam Alter spells it out with compelling evidence. When, outside of work, many of us spend 25 percent of our waking lives on our phones, investing nearly 100 hours a month texting, checking email, gaming, Facebooking, Instagramming, tweeting, etc., that’s a problem. A big one. Alter estimates that, on average, this “amounts to a staggering 11 years.”

Eleven years on a screen! Are we becoming screen addicts? Let’s not get stuck in some narrow notion of addiction, believing that it only concerns substance abuse. In 2013, behavioral addiction was added to the long list of official diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Even worse, let’s not think that it plagues only those victims already predisposed and weak of will. With all the bait out there, anyone of us can be hooked, particularly now in a society seemingly unhinged and out of control.

At heart, it’s all about feedback. We humans appreciate rewards, and there’s such a rush of behavioral feedback and rewards: more followers, higher scores,

more likes, etc. All roads lead to dopamine. And in an age of selfies and orchestrated narcissism, negative feedback stings. Fewer followers and likes can spell social ostracism. So, marching lockstep in matchless individuality, we pursue the relentless yet elusive goal of perfect self-presentation.

At no other time in history have we seeded such a breeding ground for behavioral addiction. Humans and machines now interface at deeper levels of intensity, immediacy and intimacy. As our digital cocaine, no other activity thoroughly seduces and dangerously manipulates our perception and thinking. Alter neatly sums it up. Behavioral addictions “arise when a person can’t resist a behavior, which, despite addressing a deep psychological need in the short-term, produces significant harm in the long term.” In other words, addiction to our devices and screens are driven more by need than desire — the need to belong, to be liked, to have followers, etc.

The problem with many of our behavioral addictions, like internet addiction, is that it is nearly impossible in our society to avoid the temptations. The internet is ubiquitous, and using it is now so vitally necessary. Yet obsessive, compulsive, behavioral addiction to our devices can lead to chronic sleep deprivation, a common disorder that spawns heart and lung diseases, weakened immune system, obesity, and depression. This compelled founders of RESTART in treating internet and gaming addiction. For more on this pioneering treatment center see https:// netaddictionrecovery.com/.

We’ve somehow climbed into our screens, and many of us are lost. With more than 2 billion Facebook users and a billion on Instagram, we feel an astounding surge in enticements that seize our attention. Can we nurture precious moments and places to be screen-free? No easy challenge, for the mere presence of our device, our “significant other,” distracts, pulling us out of realtime presence in where we are.

As we approach our most consumer-saturated season, inundated with predatory ads and commercials about the newest devices celebrating screen-living, remember this: First and foremost, there is no substitute for physically being with friends, family, and loved ones, face to face, eye to eye. Our future starts now.