DOPAMINE JUNKIES

 

We are now living in a dopamine overload world. This continual overload can disrupt our dopamine receptors to the point where normal activities that used to bring us pleasure no longer do! The constant dopamine surge from the internet has significantly reduced our dopamine receptors in our brain. Dopamine binds to these receptors and when they are reduced everything becomes less pleasurable. That’s why kids no longer enjoy the outdoors, riding bikes, fishing, etc like they used to, but are instead glued to their phones and playing  video games. Not just kids but adults too!  https://laraleestang.blogspot.com/2022/04/porn-addiction-is-new-norm.html?m=1   It’s the way of the world and I don’t see it getting any better, especially with the surge of virtual reality. It will replace human interaction like never before. Things are getting weird! Or wonderful? Depending on who you ask I guess. Social outcasts may love this new way of life where they can be anyone they imagine themselves to be in a virtual world. 

https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/addiction-and-unhappiness-in-america/

Boredom is no longer a thing. Have you noticed movies aren’t what they used to be? And music?? There’s no more imagination that originates from daydreaming and boredom. Instant gratification is the new norm and more is the new motto. Never being satisfied with the simple things or grateful for what we have until it’s gone…nothing fills us up anymore. The digital age has rewired our brains and and stunted our evolution. I believe we reached the peak of evolution in the 80’s and have steadily declined since. That goes for medical care, how homes are built, food industry, love and relationships, music, movies, fashion, and human characteristics both physically and mentally (especially men). Technology has certainly blossomed but it will be the death of us as human beings. My last blog on internet addiction statistically confirms it.  INTERNET ADDICTION STATISTICS

Depression and anxiety are on the rise like never before for both young and old. People have more but are not happier because of it. “Peace = happiness not pleasure.” (Will Smith) 

Dopamine info

“Cheetos, weed, crack, Coors; Ebay, relationship drama, gossip, meddling; Netflix, YouTube, Instagram; texting, internet surfing, Email; gaming, fantasizing—when we are in what Sober Nation calls “H.A.L.T.” mode (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired), we reach for our fixes. Even more, what Halts us most is the space between this and that—Boredom. Call it tedium, dullness, deadliness, dreariness, monotony, tiresomeness, ennui, world-weariness—it’s the nothing-to-dos, the doldrums, the at-a-losses.  The yawn.  For those who know about creativity, who know about magic and the divine—it’s the door. 

Nothing is the precursor to everything.  It’s the vacuum which Aristotle said “the universe abhors.”  It’s the Possibility in which our great American poet Emily Dickinson dwelt. Artists, mystics, saints, genius mathematicians such as Bertrand Russell (quoted above), and everyday meditators know that there comes a moment of radical nothing. I know, it’s happened to me.  And it is so huge, so unfathomable, that it both terrifies and fills me with awe.  Wow!  It’s the ultimate liberation.  Other’s might call it “God.”  And that makes sense—it’s out of nothing that the divine in myths created everything.”

https://kylecrocco.medium.com/were-not-bored-anymore-and-that-s-a-bad-thing-48042aea25cc

Others are waking up

“Social-media addiction is rarely understood in this extreme light. Nonetheless, users often describe it wrecking their careers and relationships. The complaints are almost always the same: users end up constantly distracted, unproductive, anxious, needy and depressed – yet also curiously susceptible to advertising. Patrick Garratt wrote of his social media addiction causing a “desperate, hollow pressure of waste” in his working life as a journalist. Social-media addiction has been linked, repeatedly, to increased depression: interaction with the platforms correlates with a major decline in mental health”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/23/social-media-addiction-gambling