Information Addiction
I often ask myself why it’s difficult for people to change. Certainly we have ideals that we strive to be like, and there are a myriad of ways that we can get closer to this ideal. The reality of most situations is that we choose the comfort of what we already know over embracing the uncertainty of what is unfamiliar.
People usually believe that comfort and pleasure are synonymous, yet long-term comfort is often accompanied by depression when an individual is met with unrealized potential. At the same time, our brains choose familiarity over the perceived pain of uncertainty as a way of protecting us.
Leaving a partner or changing a career are often necessary fixes for our self-imposed misery. The most difficult part of enacting such necessary change is communicating the message to the brain at an emotional level. The pre-frontal cortex, responsible for cognitive processing, is not able to communicate with the amygdala, our fear center, creating a disconnect that leaves people stuck in their own painful comfort zone.
Someone who reads about lifting gym weights is well versed in gym etiquette and proper form. They understand how to stand when doing a squat, or the proper way to grip a barbell. Yet they lack any firsthand knowledge about lifting weights- they wouldn’t know what to do if they set foot in a gym.
What remains is someone who has a multitude of technical knowledge about working out, yet they lack practical experience to actually lift gym weights. If you take said person to the gym, their body will not be able to adjust so quickly to what their brain is communicating. They lack muscle memory, or even any experience lifting weights for that matter.
The same applies when someone reads about an issue they’re dealing with. They understand the problem very well and what needs to be done, yet the amygdala is still stuck in the stage of infancy that prevents any real change from happening.
This lack of first-hand experience applies to practically every domain. Nassim Taleb refers to these types of people as “intellectual, yet idiot.” This is to distinguish between different types of knowledge; the politician who makes military decisions has no first-hand knowledge; the lieutenant with actual field experience does.
It was also Taleb who lamented in his latest book, Skin in the Game, that taking high-risks when making a decision, to have skin in the game, is a necessary precursor to having a better understanding of the world. Further, our ability to understand the world is not correlated to the rate at which we consume information digitally.
Our world is inundated by information. We are bombarded 24/7 by advertisements, influencer marketing, on-demand video media; to avoid any enticing piece of content while still maintaining an online presence has become increasingly difficult.
We are addicted to consuming information 24/7. This is different from actually applying the information that you’ve learned in practical life. Most of us are stuck in the stage of passive information consumption. We will accumulate new ideas that give us hope about the future while doing little to change the present. Dopamine is released the same way when you think about your goals as when you actually try achieving them. This is how our minds trick us into passive consumption.
The overabundance of information doesn’t only apply to behavioral addictions exacerbated by social media. Our desire to be the best version of ourselves and make the most of the short time that we have on the planet stems from the need to feel unique and with purpose.
The self-help industry has grown tremendously over the past decades building off of this individual need to feel like your life is meaningful. Most self-help is a pornography of delusional optimism, feeding either off of the idea of an ever receding ideal future self or deep insecurities that remain from childhood.
One of the issues with a future ideal is that it remains just that: an ideal. Our brains release dopamine when we consume valuable information about getting closer to this ideal; it’s how our ancient ancestors were able to survive in an information-scarce environment, similar to how they were scavenging for food. If we are hard-wired to be rewarded for gathering information that aids in our survival, the adaptation in our modern world can often be used against us for commercial gains.
When we read or watch a video about how we can become richer, more charismatic, or to achieve our full potential in the limited time that we have on this planet, we experience a release of dopamine.
Most self-help begins with the premise that there is some deficiency about you. That isn’t to say that you are fine just the way you are, and that no changes are necessary. It’s simply to say that most-self help books use the same advertising model of you’re poor, but you could be richer in order to amass their own wealth.
Let me come back to Taleb’s point: our primitive brains cannot distinguish the information-rich environment of the internet from that of the ancient savannah our ancestors foraged for information in. Knowing the scent of the jaguar lurking in the bushes allowed us to make an executive decision about our willingness to drink at a stream or not. Our belief that the next thing we’re learning about is the crucial thing that will change our life leaves us stuck in the stage of trying to find the nugget of valuable information that can change our lives permanently.
We watch endless videos on YouTube or Instagram without understanding that the problems associated with an overly-convenient world make us more miserable instead of happy. We need to overcome voluntary challenges to find a balance between pleasure and suffering; our addiction to information is the attempt to supplant this need for overcoming obstacles. Yet the variety of information we consume leaves many of us in an endless cycle of problem solving and no action, like a rat running on a treadmill thinking of a better future ahead.
A Problem of Overconsumption
Most problems in developed societies are now related to overconsumption. This is exemplified by the obesity epidemic that we see in the United States. Similarly, we are going through a crisis of over-consuming information. If we are addicted to information, we get stuck in the stage of passively feeding off of advice from an endless pool of self-proclaimed experts.
We have a lot of knowledge about what needs to be done with our lives, but we lack any emotional intelligence about how to take the first step. Sitting in front of a laptop and crafting a plan to change your life is the easy part; what have you actually done to change anything?
While everybody on the internet is trying to get your attention, you are scrambling to find bite-sized pieces of information that you deem relevant to your success. The immersive experience of reading a book has been replaced by faster and more efficient ways of information processing.
Our tolerance for patience and subsequent demand for faster information processing leaves us in the unending cycle of mass information consumption. I’ve written on how attention has become a more valuable commodity than gold. Most people are writing about their opinions of truth, or others are telling you how to live your life. As consumers, we remain at the stage of retrieving this information, and choosing how we want to respond to it.
One reason why the YouTube algorithm is so successful at keeping people hooked on their platform is that it intricately understands your interests, perhaps better than you do. It curates a list of enticing videos to show you after you are done watching the current one. If you are addicted to self-help videos, then it will show you tons of ways to reach your full potential and become the best version of yourself.
But that’s just it. You won’t reach your full potential by watching a YouTube video or listening to a podcast, because the ultimate source of motivation is not dopamine-releasing self-help, but rather the voluntary exposure to novel experiences.
Exposure therapy is one of the most effective therapeutic methods to address anxiety disorders. Reading an article about the solution is completely different than actually exposing yourself to it in real life. You trick your brain into thinking you understand the problem better by reading about it, yet the emotional brain still lacks the ability that would allow you to enact the solution, similar to the example of someone who can’t lift gym weights.
Our consciousness is elevated to project a different image of ourselves the more we become addicted to processed forms of information online. We live in a constant state of short-term memory, like the goldfish who swims from one end of the tank to the other, only to have forgotten where he came from and become curious about the other side again.
Every new meaningful experience is accompanied by a sacrifice, whether that is the opportunity cost of pursuing another hobby in your free-time or time lost spent with your loved ones. The constant instant-gratification dopamine loop that most internet users are stuck in is a biological problem relating to our own neuroscience. Therefore, it requires biological solutions, not digital ones.
The existential angst that accompanies the realization of our own mortality isn’t assuaged by the YouTube video you watched on how to find meaning. At the end of the day, meaning is found where we have been avoiding to look, somewhere beyond the screen in front of you.