In my earlier post, I discussed whether music can be a form of an addiction. I want to continue with the daily addiction triggers that we are constantly exposed to.
I’ll start this post with snippet taken from famous blog WaitbutWhy
“Humans in all parts of the world lived in hunter-gatherer tribes as recently as 11,000 BC. So 13,000 years ago—or, if we call a generation 25 years, about 500 generations ago. 500 generations isn’t enough time for evolution to take a shit. So the Primitive Mind—a hardwired part of us—is still stuck in the world of 11,000 BC. Which means we’re all like computers running on the highly unimpressive Windows 11000 BC operating system, and there’s no way to do a software update.”
Information Addiction
While gathering information was an essence for a survival for earlier human generations, it is not the case with contemporary info-society. Medical science shows that our brains are literally addicted to new information. No wonder that in the post-industrial World, various types of information products have grown the media industry into a fourth power (Fourth Estate). Combined with the info-technological devices, it’s an industry that feeds on collective attention to click, view, follow, subscribe and comment, while our attention is the biggest commodity for its survival.
A saturation of information as such does not serve our survival needs in the 21st century, nor offer value for your personal achievements. Our fast-paced society is loaded with “infotainment” acting as an addiction-trigger that we are constantly exposed to. It’s important to learn to pay attention to what you are consuming on a daily basis.
Entertainment Consumption Habits
We have heard stories about TV becoming an addiction by 1970’s. Does it sound familiar even now?
Notice what happens when you visit your parents or grandparents – the ‘digital aliens’. Prove me wrong but it feels like one of the best ways for them to enjoy quality time is by consuming TV entertainment programs. While the generation of ‘digital natives’ receive complaints about being too much on a phone, the older generation can spend a whole evening behind TV screens day in day out.
There’s something I’ve noticed in the mornings: the radio is turned on literally from the moment they get up. For many of us, it comes across as very annoying to have someone’s obnoxious voice cutting through fresh awakened mind before using a toilet.
Nevertheless, it’s not just about household TV and radio noise, flooding free-to-consume press-media, and street ads on flashing screens. The motion has been amplified by smartphones – the powerful computers in our pockets.
