How Accelerating Technology Accelerates Addiction

New technological progress is innately beneficial to society inasmuch as that society has the means to rein in the moderate usage of the innovation.

What new tech does for us is give us more of what we want. With that privilege comes the increasing importance of balancing our abundance — but as anyone who has faced addiction knows well, it’s extremely hard to moderate something you have unlimited access to.

Technology will essentially give us more of the things we like, which means there will have to be more things we are careful with. The more we like it, the more it succumbs to overconsumption.

I know a lot of people who have problems with internet addiction. Upon opening their eyes in the morning, the first action they take is to check their phone for a regularly scheduled dopamine hit. If that’s you, then tread cautiously.

I say tread cautiously because in taking these actions — in feeding our brains cheap dopamine, comparing ourselves with other high-status individuals on Instagram, or getting increasing access to highly stimulating material (porn, violence, etc.) — our new baseline of normal is set without our body being readily able to adjust.

The difference between being able to live normally (what everyone deems normal) and what is actually normal (what works best for your body) is growing exponentially. That space in between is where the slow burn of the worst side effects can occur.

Is this the reason mental health issues grow at a proportional rate? Or men’s consumption of porn? Do the Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram videos we see every day diminish our attention span? Does this translate to us wanting to leave relationships faster, commit to things for shorter amounts of time, and always feeling that we aren’t “enough”?

I don’t know. Honestly, this essay may now start to sound like I’m very pessimistic. I’m not. I love technology, and I’m an optimist at heart. That’s why I’m writing this.

If the acceleration of addiction is correlated to technological innovation, then our society now — along with all future generations — will increasingly be defined by what we choose to say no to.