#alwayson

In Australia, 95% of 18-34-year olds own a smartphone, 35% of people check their phone within five minutes of waking up, and 70% admit to using phones during mealtimes (Deloitte 2017). According to boyd (2012, p. 71-73), we live in a world that is always on, whether literally browsing the internet, or just “always connected to the network” via our smartphones, we have “created an ecosystem in which people can stay peripherally connected to one another.”

A couple of hours without our phones (or less) and we start saying things like, “I feel naked” or “I’m having withdrawals.” For me, the biological and psychological reasons behind this incessant need to be connected is fascinating. According to Simon Sinek (2016) and Parnell (TED x Talks 2017) our psychological reaction to social media and digital technology can be likened to that of substance addiction, each time we receive a text message or get a like on a post, our brain releases the feel good, highly addictive, and numbing chemical dopamine. Simon Sinek (2016) states, the problem is not social media or the mobile devices it’s the level of use “if you are sitting at dinner with your friends and you are texting someone who is not there, that’s a problem, it’s an addiction,” he says.

I’ve always considered myself a light user of digital. I can switch off easily, and I am certainly not someone who is constantly glued to their phone. In fact, I often make jokes about those in my friend group, even my husband, who seem to always be on their phones – even in the toilet. However, as I listened to Sinek and Parnell and read boyd’s article, I began to relate to some of the symptoms. I chase that good feeling I get when I receive a text, or someone likes, shares or comments on my post, and almost obsessively check my phone throughout the day to see if the number of likes has gone up. I also experience the disappointment when a post doesn’t get as many likes as one I posted a week ago even to the point as Parnell said of deleting a post because it didn’t get enough likes (TED x Talks 2017).

Never have we exposed ourselves to such a level of scrutiny, where anyone in the world can essentially rate us/share their personal opinion on who we are and what we do, and yet, we crave it. Parnell refers to this obsession to achieve the attention of others as social currency or economy of attention where we allow people to assign a value to us altering our sense of self-worth and identity (TEDx Talks 2017). As a result, both Simon Sinek (2016) and Parnell (TEDx Talks 2017) conclude that our reliance on other people’s approval and the need for instant gratification is building a society that is more and more insecure with heightened rates of depression.

The question is, has digital become the drug epidemic of the millennial generation?