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Addicted to Information?
SiMac writes "According to this New York Times article, two Harvard faculty members say that information causes a "dopamine squirt" in humans, a rush similar to that given by narcotics. Just as narcotics are addictive, information is as well. They've given the disorder of information addiction the name 'pseudo-ADD' because it tends to cause somewhat ADD-like symptoms."
Hmm . . . you think that the test subjects being harvard geeks may have something to do with it. I bet that the guys at your local tech school do not have the same reaction.
The pair have their own term for this condition: pseudo-attention deficit disorder. Its sufferers do not have actual A.D.D., but, influenced by technology and the pace of modern life, have developed shorter attention spans. They become frustrated with long-term projects, thrive on the stress of constant fixes of information, and physically crave the bursts of stimulation from checking e-mail or voice mail or answering the phone.
I wonder if these are the kind of managers who F-up a project just because they like the yelling and screeming associated with emergency efforts to get it back on track. They like the scenes of Trek where the captain is yelling at the engineers to fix something now else they will be vaperized.
Table-ized A.I.
Seriously, though, to whatever extent this can be meaningfully described as an addiction, I think it might be better compared to over-eating disorders (bingeing) than to drug addictions, at least in terms of treatment.
With drug addictions, the idea is to minimize the dosage, hopefully to zero or at least to some very low "maintenance level". But with over-eating disorders, it's not just a matter of avoiding food, but eating healthy amounts of healthy food, and giving your body time to digest it properly. The analogy to treating a compulsive information disorder seems obvious. (Ob:IANAD.)
One could also make obvious comparisons to the ubiquity of unhealthy food in much of society and the ubiquity of bad information. Not just incorrect information, but badly prepared information from bad "ingredients", presented in ways that can't be meaningfully "digested".
Also, I bet there's an information-access disorder analogous to anorexia -- people who avoid as much information as they can.
ISTM the emphasis might be a bit backwards: the addiction to information is more a symptom than a cause of ADD. I have ADD and have had since the 50's , when there was only one TV channel. I read voraciously, usually several books at once and could never stay focussed at school. The availability of all these new channels of information only provides new sources of distraction. It is entirely possible that real ADD, the lack of ability to control the focus of attention, might be more prevalent that suspected.
The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet. -- William Gibson
You're kidding, right? So it's more productive for me to track down that one last news story on an obscure subject then it would be to leave early and get more billable hours?
"The more information the better?"
Really?
Opportunity cost, my anonymous friend, opportunity cost.
Speaking as somebody with the email tag of "data omnivore", (used to be "Mycroft") I can assure you that while more information can be good, making money, dating, exercising, and a dozen other things, can be better.
"Hello everybody. My name is Rustin and I'm a dataholic."
Yeah, when you have an idle moment in the airport and you start reading the ingredient list on the granola bar because suddenly you care, then you know that the pursuit of data has passed beyond the rational and entered the, yes, that's right, addictive.
Rustin
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
this explains a few things for me... while i've just come home from spending an hour at the beach reading a book, these occasions of absense from the network of news and friends have become rare for me. i found relief in managing my news addiction in reading news with an RSS newsfeed reader that polls all the news sites automatically. This saves a lot of time -- i have no excuse any more to spend (probably hours each day)/a lots of time checking web sites like the BBC site, slashdot, macslash, versiontracker.... i welcome the productivity boost. let's see how long until my brain has increased the daily news volume...
Do we know why eating chocolate is pleasurable? Probably, since we can do CAT scans on people while they eat chocolate, and probably identify what chemicals get released in the brain when eating it.
Do we know why being online is pleasurable? The article says it's a dopamine rush, similar to narcotics.
In one sense, we understand both. In another, we understand neither.
Doing the Right Thing should not be preempted by making a buck.
I watched a program on PBS some months back (NOVA, perhaps) that chronicled a series of scientific studies that demonstrated women exhibited a natural ability to work at multiple things at the same time ("multi-task"?), and men were able to accomplish successfully only one task at a time. The inference was that the natural talents women have for raising children and taking care of families lend themselves to being excellent secretaries (politically incorrect, perhaps, but a valid example of having to do multiple things at the same time).
In one of the videotaped studies, a man was shown trying to pull off the secretarial equivalent of walking while chewing gum -- he was given a series of tasks which included making sets of photocopies while being subjected to a repeated series of interruptions that included a ringing telephone. To sum up, he didn't perform any of his tasks very well, whereas the woman in the identical situation performed all of them efficiently.
I don't know what long-term effects of information overload are on men or women, but I do know that while parties are fun, trying to have a real conversation with someone at one is a waste of time. Then again, the same can be said of most parties. The distractions can be fun, but often a waste of time.
I've noticed this at work. I'll be trying to do fifteen things at once, with at least a dozen windows on my taskbar. Other people just have one or two.
At home, I don't feel comfortable watching TV or movies. I need to be reading, writing, or playing a game as well.
I know several friends (all nerds/geeks/dorks) who feel the same way. They are bored by simply "chilling".
I definitely think this topic should be explored more, especially in the mental health field, since, said friends and myself, are all in counseling for depression among other things. It could be a coincidence, but it's strange that all of us are in it. No other click I've been in has such a high rate of depression
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.h
I draw an analogy to food. Human beings evolved in a calorie-poor environment. The optimal survival strategy was to scarf all the available calories and store as much fat as possible.
Now the human beings around me, at least, live in a calorie-rich environment. I've had to develop an entirely different way of looking at calories.
Similarly, within my lifetime, my environment has changed from data-poor to data-rich. I used to be able to read every bit of information about certain topics of interest to me. But now, I have to choose how to allocate my information-intake time, just as I have to choose how to allocate my calorie budget.
I loved to buy a few magazines and sit in a cafe and read them and write in my journal or sketch someone. People talked to people that they didn't know in public places. Now I choose my cafes according to the speed and expense of their WiFi connections and the top floor of my favorite cafe in Seattle resembles a computer lab. I don't often buy magazines as I usually already read the content online.
The last time I tried to spend an afternoon in a cafe without my laptop and a good book by an author I enjoyed, I found myself quickly getting very bored and cut the afternoon short. You can't go back I guess.
Slashdot itself is a perfect example of pseudo-attention deficit disorder. As I often post comments to stories late in the life of the story, I rarely think that many people read what I have to write as their focus has already passed on to the newer story. You can see it in how quickly people scramble to post their half-formed thoughts... which often get modded up higher than they deserve by virtue of being there first.
That's not a dig... just an observation.
"Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me."
Sometimes medicine can be a Bad Thing; if it doesn't have its desired effect, it probably isn't doing anything good and most likely is ruining you...
I stopped taking Prozac and refused to take Zyprexa when prescribed for that reason. It turned out my problem (depression) was a product of environment. When I could afford to get out and *do* stuff - go to the mall, watch movies, buy new clothes - I was no longer depressed.
-uso.
Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
BTW--the word you're looking for is 'lethargy'. I'm sorry to hear that.
:) as well. I personally can *see* how my sometimes short attention span can take control and screw me up.
I fear the I may be mildly ADD (though not ADHD, as anyone who has met me will know, I'm anything but hyper.
OTOH, look at my vantage point. Since I'm able to control it, and sometimes even use it to my own benefit (when working, as someone on the ADHD story said, I, too, am able to call upon my 'inner spaz' so to speak to get major productivity benefit). A large percentage of the hacker/geek culture would probably meet the DSM-IV criteria for ADD and/or ADHD. Yet, it seems that most of us are able to function perfectly well in society.
Does this mean that we ALL have a disorder, or does it mean that this is just another one of the standard personality variations found in differing inviduals.
At what point is it a 'disorder' vs. a 'personality type'. Do you see what I'm getting at?
My journal has hot
Q: What is an addiction?
A: An addiction is something you disapprove of, and yet enjoy doing enough to override your own disapproval, so you pretend to yourself you can't control it.
Q: Why is there a word "addiction"?
A: It serves the same function as mediaeval demons of temptation: it's a socially accepted way of excusing yourself for hypocrisy between your moral opinions and your preferred actions. There's a huge puritannical streak in "western" culture which disapproves of self-destructive pleasant activities. It's nicer for your self esteem to see yourself as a "disease victm" rather than a "libertine sot".
Q: Why can't I kick my addiction?
A: Because you don't want to, not as much as you want to carry on.
Q: Why did I succeed in kicking my addiction?
A: Because you did want to, or something else showed up that fulfilled the same function better.
Q: What about addiction cures (12step, religion, meds, etc)?
A: They are alternatives that give you equivalent pleasure/stimulation/attention/whatever as your addiction did, only they're more morally acceptable to you, so you don't agonize over "needing" them. Smile, now you're addicted to religion/etc/whatever. Don't it feel grand?
Q: So what about all this medical stuff?
A: It consists largely of overblown readings of the blindingly obvious. Yes, pleasure has a neurochemical form. Yes, people seek pleasure, and will make a habit out of consistently pleasant things. No this does not constitute some sort of disease. But it pays in funding to "research", rather than debunk, addictions. And if you can invent a new addiction, people will suck up to you and make laws forbidding it, which will make you feel grand and help puff up your ego.
And needless to say, the Internet is a joy for me. I'll have multiple windows open, be chatting with a couple other people, doing various other things, and my attention is *completely* occupied. This isn't a lack of attention span - I'm doing more things simultaneously than anyone with an exclusive focus could dream of pulling off. This isn't a disease - it's a boon.
I suspect that in all these "information addict" examples, if they were to dig into their childhood and psychology, they'd find these people are naturally ADD. Or, as I prefer to put it, naturally able to multitask. God help them if the psychiatrists ever "cure" their "disease" - they'd lose one of the greatest skills they have.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
Chocolate contains tryptophan, a seratonin precursor.
Seratonin is connected with depression, boosting it seems to make people happier.
My Journal
I agree there's a tendency to label personality types as disorders. I'm not saying there is no such thing as ADD/ADHD, but it's not as prevalent as some would think (IMHO).
Just as Billy Gates said, I can check Slashdot incessantly (along with several other *news* sites I frequent), if I don't check myself. I made it through engineering school with DSL & cable, but it wasn't without some very strong discipline. It also "helped" that I picked up another addiction - smoking (which I have now quit).
In the end, I think self control, discipline, and an organized schedule are the best ways to combat "info addiction."
***
Radio Shack. You've got questions...we've got blank stares(TM).