Inescapable torment

W hen I was younger, I had a fixed TV time — something I would look forward to every day. And it came after, of course, studying, completing school work, playing with friends and eating dinner. Basically, after having done everything that was far more important. But today, it’s different. Today, we are continually being bombarded with digital media updates.

The result: Instead of helping create treasured moments, abuse of technology has turned into a plague that society cannot seem to fight off. In all honesty, there is not anything about technology and its negative effects that has not already been said. We all know it. We have seen it, felt it, endlessly engaged with it, and hated ourselves for it.

And yet, the cycle of torment is inescapable. But what makes social media so irresistible, though, contrary to its name, it works to alienate us today? A study by Harvard frowns upon the idea of “instant gratification” which forms the basis of our addiction to the Internet. It elaborates on how our reward pathways reinforce the association between a stimulus and the following reward, and how they grow stronger with time and reinforcement.

It is as if society has now been conditioned to associate happiness with devices. Think about the sense of anticipation as you pick up your phone after some time. It is truly the modern equivalent of the Pavlovian dog salivating upon hearing the bell. But what truly differentiates digital media from addictions is perhaps its accessibility.

With its low cost, unending nature (there will always be something new to watch or a friend whose update you might have missed) and less obvious ramifications compared with other addictions, it has the potential to yield some truly horrifying results. Phones mainly stimulate our dopamine circuit, thus failing to provide the long term happiness humans so intently seek.

However, as life today continues to grow more complex, maybe our inclination towards social media — essentially an escape from reality — is not that hard to see. Whatever our reasons in the first place — as a means of leisure, curiosity or distraction — it is essential we recognise the blurring lines between real life and fiction.

Ultimately, digital media is here to stay. It perhaps takes someone far more iron willed than you or me to entirely eliminate all devices from our lives in a single go. The more frustrating and glaringly obvious answer, as always, might be to find a balance. In my childhood, TV time was exciting because it was limited.

And that is also what made me savour those accidental five extra minutes to the fullest whenever my parents were late. But today, we all seem to be stuck on our own versions of the hedonistic treadmill. A friend once told me how ordering from outside lost all its meaning, as he began to do it routinely in college.

And surely, no one has forgotten how our extended vacation during the pandemic ultimately became a curse. The phenomenon has another name in economics, the law of diminishing marginal utility — as a person consumes more of something, the satisfaction derived from each additional unit goes on decreasing.

In fact, sometimes more of something can bring people disutility. Think of the first bite of food when you are hungry. You enjoy it up to a point, that is till you are full, and then each bite brings you pain in place of pleasure. More simply put, what these disciplines together highlight is perhaps the singular fact that our elders were right all along: excess of everything is indeed bad.

And it might be prudent to extend the same line of reasoning to our online selves as well. Especially today, as we try to remember our own limits while engaging with the endless array of content available. bhallavaanya@gmail.com COMMents SHARE Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit.