Frankly ... Posthuman  Monkeys in Our Brain

What do smartphones do to us when we use them more and more? To our mind, to our body? Liwen Qin goes in search of clues.

One of the most hilarious TED talks I have ever watched is the one given by the blogger Tim Urban. He talks about his perpetual struggle with procrastination, comparing his urge to distract from work with a monkey which seeks instant gratification, and his only savior to end the procrastination is a “panic monster” that strikes  in the last moment before deadline like a trembling creature screaming “AAAAHHHHHHHH!” in his head.

But to me, I know exactly what has been my monkey: the internet, particularly the social media, have messed up my brain. I do not always seek other sources of instant gratification (like eating snacks) when I work, but I find myself constantly reaching to my mobile phone and opening the social media, like a drug addict.

Algorithms subvert self-control

There have not been many scientific studies into the correlation between attention deficiency and the use of the internet, but a report issued by four scholars in California last year demonstrates a modest association between higher frequency of digital media use and subsequent symptoms of ADHD in teenagers. The researchers have been cautious, but they do acknowledge that modern media devices “may draw attention away from focal tasks. Frequent distractions could disrupt normative development of sustained attention and organization skills.” And that “high-frequency modern digital media users may become accustomed to rapid feedback, which could disrupt development of impulse control and patience”.
Social media companies are built for one purpose: to attract our attention so as to cash in on them. Historically, seeking new things and raising the level of excitement had evolutionary advantages for human beings, but now we are exploited and trapped by computer algorithms. Exerting self-control is more and more difficult because the machines are getting better and better at learning about our preferences and sucking us into a bottomless hole.

After all, everyone feels constantly attacked and threatened

Fluffy cuteness, fancy clothes, funny videos, sensational news… They are not helping our attention span. 10 years ago, Chinese internet companies found out that on average users could not watch a video for more than 7 minutes. Today, on one of the most popular Chinese social media platforms, Douyin, a video of 60 seconds is defined as “long video”. Worse than that: if YouTube finds out that you like to watch videos with certain political leaning, it would push you other videos that are more and more radical in this direction to instigate your strong reactions. Because humans are programmed to react strongly, with their adrenalin rising and heart beat accelerating, when they feel the need to defend themselves, they stay online more and more to repeat this experience, and the society gets increasingly polarized because everyone feels attacked and under threat.

Eleven new users on social media every second

Today, if we add up the time that the 4 billion internet users spend online, humans have spent 1 billion years altogether. Every second there are 11 new users joining social media. We have read and watched more news and talked with more people than average humans centuries before out time, but the monkeys in our brains are taking over control. We have to be more conscious about their behaviors, developing all sorts of methods to train them. We also need to hold internet companies responsible for their harmful exploitation with fake news at the cost of the social polarization. In the meantime we still need to defend the freedom of speech – a tough lesson for all of us. Just more awareness and adjustment, not that we should give up playing.
 

April 2019