How technology hack our brains

Dependence on smartphones is now to everyone's ears. Some even believe that phones, applications, and social networks are specially designed to cause us to be highly addictive, and call it "brain hacking."

Principle of gaming machines

Every time we check the phone, we seem to pull the lever of the slot machine in the hope of getting a reward. And once having received it, we want to experience this sensation again - the habit is formed. Many modern technologies are built on this principle.

Awards are Facebook and Instagram Facebook, emoji in messages, new subscribers - and there is a basis for the attractiveness of the smartphone.

"Everyone is used to think that technology is harmless in and of itself. And how to use them depends only on us. But this is misleading, "says Tristan Harris, a former product manager at Google. "They are not harmless at all." Their creators want us to use them in a certain way and for a long time. Because they make money like this. "

Companies are constantly improving their products, trying to attract our attention in any way. Unfortunately, the consequences for users are often negative: we depend on technology more and more.

Communication of technologies and dopamine

"Now programmers who know the brain device can write a program that causes the brain to perform certain actions," says Ramsey Brown, founder of Dopamine Labs, which develops applications that trigger neuro-reaction.

For example, such applications determine the best time for issuing rewards to the user, which in themselves have no value, but cause the brain to want repetition.

We are like laboratory rats in a cage pushing a button to receive a reward - and the release of dopamine. Corporations do everything to keep us in this cage.

"We do not pay for social networks, advertisers pay for accommodation in them. We use them for free because we are the goods, "says Brown.

Another trick that is used in social networks is continuous scrolling. This is a proven way to hold us back and strengthen our dependence.

Technology and level of anxiety

Meanwhile, psychologist Larry Rosen and colleagues at the University of California at Domingue Hills have discovered the impact of technology on our level of anxiety.

When we put off the phone, the brain sends a signal to the adrenal glands to develop a hormone called cortisol. It is also called a hormone of stress. It was he who helped primitive people not to lose their vigilance and to flee from predators. And it is because of him that we so often pick up the phone, even when we did not receive any notifications.

We think: "I have not checked the Facebook feed for a long time. And suddenly someone commented on my post on Instagram? "This leads to the release of cortisol, and we begin to get nervous. We want to get rid of this alarm and for this, we take the phone.

It turns out that our phone keeps us in a state of constant anxiety, from which only one medicine is a phone.

Gamification

Corporations and content creators always strive to make their products as attractive as possible. To do this, they often resort to gaming, if there are techniques from video games, for example, rivalry with other users. This also helps to strengthen dependence.

Analyst and analysis analyst Gabe Zikermann believes that it makes no sense to expect that companies will begin to produce products that will not cause users dependence.

He believes that this is not so bad, because the same methods that are addictive, help users to consolidate with the help of technology new habits, for example, playing sports.

"Asking the creators of technology to start working worse is simply stupid," Zikermann said. "It's unlikely that this will ever happen." Moreover, this contradicts the capitalist thinking and the system in which we live. "