How Can We Get Addicted to Internet
Presenter:
Brain Facts
Time:
5:02
Summary
When it comes to addiction, it’s not just drugs or substances you can become addicted to. Our brains can become addicted to the internet when scrolling through social media or watching another YouTube video lights up the reward system in the brain responsible for a dopamine boost. Once repetitive behavior is enforced, it creates a positive feedback loop that forms the basis of an addiction. Understanding this process can help explain how so many people can watch hours of cat videos.
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.