Transcript

Have you ever been addicted to something? No, then you would probably change your mind after watching this video. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, addiction is defined as primary chronic disease of the brain, reward, memory, motivation and related circuits, usually because of the use of substances, correlates with drugs and alcohol. But do you know that we as humans can get addicted to an abstract concept of the Internet? In the current era, almost everything that we do is connected to the internet, from communication, learning and, of course, entertainment, UI or UX, usually designed to make you stay longer in the application. It can be good if it makes you stay longer in learning languages or knowledge through apps. But what if you get caught in mindless Doom scroll in your favorite video app, forgetting about your homework and responsibilities? Instead of being addicted to substances, we find ourselves addicted to the captivating content that over-stimulates our brains. The neuroscience of addiction, since the internet addiction is behavioral addiction, we will swim through the neuroscience process that is responsible for that behavior. Let's say you get a notification that says your favorite creator just released the newest video. It immediately grabs your attention, and you start to imagine what kind of cat food they're going to review in that video. Or it could have been as simple. When you open a really funny video of cats singing Single Ladies by Beyonce, this behavior has something to do with neurotransmitters called dopamine, and, of course, a complex yet interesting brain process. 

Here's how our brain works when it comes to addiction. There are three main parts of the brain that we will discuss using an analogy of airplane. The first one is the pilot or prefrontal cortex, especially the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. It is responsible for judgment, decision making and other executed functions. The second one is the engine Streatham and the nucleus accumbens. As mammals, we need a goal to act, and Streatham provides us with goals or motivation. The third one is midbrain, especially in a ventral tegmental area, or VTA. This region acts as a dopamine pump that will help this G atom to focus the attention on one goal, narrowing down the beam with a higher power when you see the notification through your eyes, the red dots catches your attention and will act as the stimuli that you will perceive, in which it will trigger your imagination of what the videos will be like, making you to create, watching it even more. This whole process happens in three atoms, the engine of the brain. As you imagine, the perception becomes even stronger, linked to the process called intensification, when the engine runs strongly, it signals the midbrain to supply even more dopamine in the process of positive feedback loop between the midbrain and the striatum, especially when the craving becomes even stronger, you end up executing your imagination, forcing the pilot into clicking the button and watching the videos, and voila, you feel relieved, and your brain actually learned something throughout that process. It happens because those were the brain rewards pathways due to positive self reinforcement. Since the pathway between the striatum and VTA is being used continuously and constantly, it becomes even stronger. This is what makes you crave it even more every time you see a queue of a notification of even your phone itself. Picking up the phone is an easy task. You don't need any cognitive function in doing it, making it a very easy source of dopamine that you can see continuously. You see the red dots thinking that it is rewarding, which is signaled by dopamine, and crave it. Another thing since the pathway turns kinda into a highway, it will stay throughout your brain development, and the cycle is stuck. Pruning is like molding a bush into a bonsai, a developed brain with an efficient pathway. This is also a reason why there is an age restriction for alcohol, porn, etc, but also internet usage. Beside the reward pathway, there's also a brain phenomenon called the now appeal. The reason why you Doom scrolled video is that of doing your due date homework, aka delayed this coming. This delay is even higher in internet use because it provides you with interfaces that correspond to high saliency, like bright colors, appealing sounds, image, thumbnail and other, etc. This interesting connectivity network, or ICM, is being hacked by those internet users' interfaces and experiences or known as UI or UX. Remember how TVA tries to narrow down the B the silences get us to narrow it down into something that seems important, even though Doom scrolling isn't the now appeal. Now that you know how and why you might lean into the internet addiction, you can get free from the cycle of unhealthy reward pathways. This knowledge and tools is necessary for us to break free from these scraps and regain control from our lives.