Social Media and the Brain

The growth of ADHD diagnoses in our student populations has been the subject of much discussion.  Rather than looking for something in the water, most investigations have focused on over-diagnosis—an easy way out to solve behavior problems at home or school—or increasing pressures on students in the wake of a high stakes testing regime initiated by the George W. Bush administration.

At the same time there has been an explosion of books and studies on the effects on peoples’ brains and behavior from social media obsession and the multi-tasking technology environment we live in.  Critics of this obsession have pointed to deliberate programming choices by social media companies to interrupt whatever their customers are doing to notice, read, and respond to changes in friending, liking, posting, sharing, tweeting, re-tweeting, trending, viraling. 

Essentially they charge that the interruptions aim at conditioning users to respond compulsively.  The competition for attention is thus being won through the same psychological mechanism that induces gamblers to push a button to win a bucketful of quarters and rats to push one button rather than another to be fed. 

I’m inclined to point the CDC and others to examine the electronic source of ADHD rather than blaming doctors.  When faced with an “epidemic” in the midst of a shortage of doctors, prescribing a pill as a diagnostic practice seems a reasonable way to proceed.  The evidence stares at college classroom teachers every day as we see students refuse to read assignments or instructions.  We attend to what we deem “relevant,” and school can’t compete with the available digital delights.

This is serious business, and other people have done an amazing job of predicting our predicament, so I’d rather they speak to you directly.

 

If you are a student, know that this is not a game one generation is foisting on another.  It is a high-stakes gamble by Facebook and Google and Amazon and others that interrupting  your life for profit is a social and personal good.  The evidence seems to be on the other side.

The irony, of course, is that much of the critique is in the form of books.  Just what you don’t want to read.  And this blog requires you to read.  Just what you don’t want to do.  And this blog will point you to those books you don’t want to read, as well as some TED talks that perhaps you’ll take the time to listen to.  They can at least plant a seed of unease in you.  And then allow the books to penetrate the defenses social media have helped you construct.

If the efforts of the critics turn out to be futile, then we are all in a lot of trouble.  

Start with a TED talk or two:

https://youtu.be/Czg_9C7gw0o  argues for a self-critical engagement with social media.

https://www.ted.com/talks/cal_newport_why_you_should_quit_social_media?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare In this rather blunt Talk you are urged to give up social media entirely.

Journalists may be the easiest to read and the most engaging, so start with these:

The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr.  Follow with his The Glass Cage, which takes the personal to a more general discussion of the social and economic consequences of the long trend toward de-skilling work.

In the same vein, check Simon Head’s Mindless, which will show you where work is heading with the aid of “Big Data.”  Spoiler Alert:  your future in the new economy is at stake.

Or you can read Richard Sennet’s  The Culture of the New Capitalism and a companion book, The Craftsman.  The effects of big data on your future are enormous if you're not prepared.

To understand exactly why reading is so important to your mental development and so antithetical to current online compulsions, in addition to The Shallows read these two by Maryanne Wolf, a cognitive psychologist at Tufts University:

Proust and the Squid:  The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

Reader, Come Home:  The Reading Brain in a Digital World

Finally, when you recognize that your online compulsions are another habit you’ve gotten yourself into, you need better advice than to give up social media cold turkey or to enage it with better self-awareness.

The best book I can recommend to help you break the habit and establish more constructive alternatives is Breaking Habits, Making Habits by Jeremy Dean.  He will explain that habits are difficult to break, requiring time and attention and work and a plan, which often requires substitute behaviors to be successful.  It’s honest yet practical.

My offer of these resources is also the reason why reading is important:  if you engage it with full attention, you can learn things that are important to your well-being.  You can learn how the world works and how you work.  You can gain some agency in a world that is increasingly reducing your scope for action, for being yourself, whatever that means to you.

Good luck!