Hello, My name is 99% of the Population and I'm an addict

Speak not of gifts, or innate talents!

One can name all kind of great men who were not very gifted. But they acquired greatness, became 'geniuses'."

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche penned these words in the late 1800's.

But at the time, few agreed with his message, rather,

well into the 20th century it was common to assume that in born talents determined whether

one excelled in a specific field, and that

the acquisition of greatness by those not naturally talented was wishful thinking.

However, in the 1970's a team of psychologists,

led by K Anders Ericsson, set out to answer the following question:

What differentiates high performers, from the more mediocre?

Ericsson's research led to a surprising discovery conclusion which echoes the message of Nietzsche.

Focus and discipline, in other words

are the necessary ingredients in the aquisition of greatness

Unfortunately, in the modern day, a behavioral addiction is greatly hindering people in this regard.

That being, the addiction to the triad of smartphones, the internet, and social media,

and in this video, we are going to look at what makes these technologies so addictive,

while also looking at the damaging effects of their overuse.

prior to the 1950's, two claims about addiction were widely accepted:

1) It was believed that it was only possible to become addicted to a substance, and

2) Addiction was thought of as a disease.

An experiment conducted on rats by Peter Milner and James Olds

in the 1950's, however, caused scientists to reconsider these claims.

In their experiment Olds and Milner implanted electrodes

in a part of the brain thought to be associated with pain,

and coupled the electrode with a metal bar which the rat could press

to trigger the electrode.

They expected that upon pressing the metal bar, the rat would feel a jolt of pain and run away,

but to their surprise one rat pressed the bar more than seven thousand times in 12 hours.

It ignored food and access to sexual partners.

And its frantic activity only stopped when it died from exhaustion.

Upon further investigation Olds and Milner found they had mistakenly placed the electrode

in a part of the brain which regulates feelings of pleasure

and which they later called "the pleasure centre".

This discovery peaked the curiosity of those who study addiction

it raised an interesting question. If a rat could become addicted to pressing a metal bar,

could humans become addicted to behaviors which trigger their 'pleasure center'?

Like all ideas which subvert the status quo, the concept of behavioral addiction was initially marginalized by the scientific community.

But today their existence is widely accepted.

Neuroscientists have discovered that

so long as an action is rewarding and serves to ease psychological discomfort,

the brain responds to it in a same way

whether the action entails the consumption of a substance

or the performance of a behaviour.

This finding was used in support of the movement

away from conceptualizing addiction as a disease

to viewing it as a learning disorder which arises

when an individual associates certain actions

with pleasurable reliefs from psychological discomforts

which they otherwise feel helpless to cope with.

Whether one takes a drink or a hit of heroin to ease their suffering

or compulsively check social media,

so long as the reward circuits of our brain are stimulated,

an addiction can form.

And given that the most popular smartphone apps in social media sites

are designed to trigger the pleasure center of the brain

users with underlying psychological issues are at risk

of developing a behaviour of addiction to these technologies.

One of the reasons that smartphones, the Internet and social media

are so effective at providing their users with small doses of pleasure

is due to the access of novelty they provide.

Humans evolve to seek novelty,

be it new sources of food, water, sexual partners, land or information.

And as contemporary brain research has shown,

access to novelty is intrinsically pleasurable but in comparison with our ancestors,

for whom novelty was relatively scarce,

our sources are boundless.

An near endless stream of novel content is now available at the touch of our fingers.

An exposure to this content

provides us with the small hits of pleasure

that can help relieve psychological discomfort.

The addictive nature of smartphones

is further enhanced by a form of behavioral conditioning

called intermittent reinforcement. And the power of this conditioning was revealed by the research

of the 20th century psychologist B.F Skinner.

Skinner discovered that if a behavior is rewarded on a variable

and unpredictable schedule, the reward is felt as more pleasurable

and the conditioned behavior is more resistant to

to extinction in comparison with the behavior

that is rewarded all the time. Mobile app developers

use this behavior conditioning to promote the use of their applications.

Rather than exposing their users

to stimulating novel content each time they open the app,

users are only rewarded some of the time.

This type of behavioral conditioning heightens the feelings

of pleasure associated with using these apps and renders

users prone to addiction. But in addition to the way

mobile apps are designed, there is a cultural factor

contributing to the spread of the behavioral addiction

to smartphones and social media. Unlike

illicit drug use which is stigmatized, obsessive smartphone use

does not share the same social disapproval.

As a result, when one watches others compulsively use their phone,

what is called a conformity bias

tends to produce the belief that there is nothing harmful

with this type of behavior.

But normality should not be confused with mental health,

as there are harmful consequences associated with excessive smartphone

and social media use. The primary of which

is it severely degrades our ability to direct and sustain our attention,

for our ability to focus is like a muscle.

If we exercise it properly, it strengthens.

If we abuse it then it withers. But strengthening this capacity

is impossible if we are continually inundated with notifications.

Or if we feel a compulsive need to check our phones

or browse various apps whenever we feel the slightest degree of

boredom or psychological discomfort.

Recognizing the addictive nature of smartphones and the impact

they are used has in our attentional faculties should make it clear

that excessive use of these technologies is a hindrance

to a fulfilling life. For assuming our peak physical and mental

years are between the ages of 18 and 50,

if we spend 3 hours a day on our smartphones,

which is the low end of the estimated average of adults.It's really more around 8 hours

When we turn 50, we would have spent 4 years

staring at our phones. Very often people reach a point

later in life where they regret not having accomplished more

or made something of themselves. And it is likely

these feelings of regret will be even more acute

for the smartphone addicts among us. But if we suffer from an addiction

to our devices we should realize that there is a silver lining.

For if we have enough time to stare at a small slab

of glass for hours each day, we also have plenty

of time if we so choose, to participate

in activities which challenge and enrich us,

or to devote ourselves to the mastery of a certain vocation.

The time we spent on our phones, in other words, is time that could

be used to create a life we could truly be proud of.

For as Nietzsche recognized,