LONGECITY

The internet is like crack for the human mind

I know, I get trapped into seeking sometimes. I admit it is addictive.

It is an emotional state Panksepp tried many names for: curiosity, interest, foraging, anticipation, craving, expectancy. He finally settled on seeking. Panksepp has spent decades mapping the emotional systems of the brain he believes are shared by all mammals, and he says, "Seeking is the granddaddy of the systems." It is the mammalian motivational engine that each day gets us out of the bed, or den, or hole to venture forth into the world. It's why, as animal scientist Temple Grandin writes in Animals Make Us Human, experiments show that animals in captivity would prefer to have to search for their food than to have it delivered to them.

For humans, this desire to search is not just about fulfilling our physical needs. Panksepp says that humans can get just as excited about abstract rewards as tangible ones. He says that when we get thrilled about the world of ideas, about making intellectual connections, about divining meaning, it is the seeking circuits that are firing.

The juice that fuels the seeking system is the neurotransmitter dopamine. The dopamine circuits "promote states of eagerness and directed purpose," Panksepp writes. It's a state humans love to be in. So good does it feel that we seek out activities, or substances, that keep this system aroused—cocaine and amphetamines, drugs of stimulation, are particularly effective at stirring it.

Ever find yourself sitting down at the computer just for a second to find out what other movie you saw that actress in, only to look up and realize the search has led to an hour of Googling? Thank dopamine. Our internal sense of time is believed to be controlled by the dopamine system. People with hyperactivity disorder have a shortage of dopamine in their brains, which a recent study suggests may be at the root of the problem. For them even small stretches of time seem to drag. An article by Nicholas Carr in the Atlantic last year, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" speculates that our constant Internet scrolling is remodeling our brains to make it nearly impossible for us to give sustained attention to a long piece of writing. Like the lab rats, we keep hitting "enter" to get our next fix.

Yeah, sounds familiar. It's especially bad at night when I should be going to bed but end up Googling something instead. Suddenly I have seven tabs open full of interesting articles I can't concetrate on.

Very familiar indeed. Familiar science is excellent science.

Interesting. Google, i've experienced, is indeed addictive. But i suppose this is a healthy addiction if it doesn't get in the way of what we must really do on our day-to-day lives.

Maybe its because quite a bit of that addictive, feel good Brain juice is released from the ELFs: SEROTONIN.

Suddenly I have seven tabs open full of interesting articles I can't concetrate on.

Seven tabs! You aren't even a beginner yet

Now if we can just get people to be excited about "seeking" through the whole big picture of the requisite 8, and to get them to try to preserve their bodies so they can continue to seek that, rather than just continue to try to preserve their internet connections so they can seek through google then we will be on to something.

I get that huge "seeking" urge when I just get done smoking some really good weed. 

I plan on just smoking and chillin but once I get really blowed I start mixing music, reading up on something, or just generlly getting consumed in my interests.

Doesn't last very long then u get lazy so you have to do it again

But that is definitely a great excuse and justification and denial I can use for my addcition thanx

wooh, I've got my crack back! I do love me some learnin'

The internet is like crack for the human mind

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?" speculates that our constant Internet scrolling is remodeling our brains to make it nearly impossible for us to give sustained attention to a long piece of writing. Like the lab rats, we keep hitting "enter" to get our next fix.

I'm finding that the opposite is true of me. The more in depth information that becomes available on the internet, the more time I spend taking longer and deeper dives into interesting topics.

Without google, most of us would not know a fraction of what we would today.
Of course, we are a tiny minority as the majority spend their time reading about celebrities or watching TV, but the Internet and Google is still one of the greatest invention for humanity.
This is why I get a bit irritated when people follow the crowd and bash wikipedia as unreliable, littered with vandalism, and patronize anyone who obtains their information from the internet as gullible people who will believe anything.

Right now I have more tabs open than I can count, but it is a strange and empty feeling when you finish reading all the tabs with nowhere else to go. Maybe it is a sign that I should go outside more often [lol]
Edited by Saber, 16 October 2009 - 11:43 PM.

An article by Nicholas Carr in the Atlantic last year, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" speculates that our constant Internet scrolling is remodeling our brains to make it nearly impossible for us to give sustained attention to a long piece of writing.

I'm not sure about Google, but the Internet in general, particularly the Web 2.0 incarnation of it, seems to be making people smarter. Because it's primarily a medium of written communication, we're all learning to read and write. A generation ago, it was possible to graduate from High School and never again write a paragraph. Today that's a lot more rare. Not only do we have to write, but we have to actually communicate in order to be effective in this environment. The net is an overall win for humanity.

Wikipedia is the crack of all web crack... (and as long as you stay away from controversial subjects like politics, then it's quite reliable.)

The closest metaphor I can find for the web is a cross-referenced bible....exponentially so.
Addicted to learning has nothing to do with crack.
This trend should be applauded and not bashed and insulted.
Seek and ye shall find.

Thanks Mind, very interesting; I’ve noticed my pole vaulting web searches have taken their toll on my old habits of immersing myself in printed material…mostly at the expense of fiction. The brain on habitual webserfing is also probably subject to myelination affects. That may also be involved.

Thanks Mind, very interesting; I’ve noticed my pole vaulting web searches have taken their toll on my old habits of immersing myself in printed material…mostly at the expense of fiction...

I have definitely noticed a reduction in my consumption of fiction, both print and video! You think we could be overdoing it? Certainly from my experience the most educated, well rounded and well spoken individuals I know read a lot of fiction.

This thought might sound a little dated; but surely you are a little imbalanced if you can explain in detail AGEs to someone but can't quote a single line of Shakespeare!

WHO DA HEL SI SHAEKSP3AER
?!?!!? OMG WTF LOL

I was listening to this NPR show called Radiolab where this woman went on a drug for Parkinson's that spiked her dopamine levels, and she immediately turned into a gambling maniac. This was a woman from a very conservative background that had never gambled in her life, and she neglected almost all food and sleep for weeks to sit at the slot machines and gamble.

The problem as well as the blessing of the internet is that all of the information is useful, that there are all kinds of overlapping potential rewards from any conversation or nugget of information. So if abnormally high dopamine can tie you to something as stupid as a slot machine, just the slightest elevation in dopamine (or even a healthy amount) can tie you to the internet for hours.

Personally, I do notice that I get into a habit of frantic seeking sometimes after a lot of net usage, and my attention span is not great. I still read books, but it's like I have to go into a totally different frame of mind. I start off reading about two sentences at a time and my mind trails off at each attempt. Eventually something takes hold though, like an engine starrting.

Open: 14 tabs, 5 programs (in taskbar), and 1 directory.