When your dog needs to go out and you can’t get back to sleep, do what I am sure millions of other individuals do, check out Facebook. This is not typical for me, the FB part anyway. In this case, I’m glad I did because I watched a video that changes the way I see addiction and dopamine. It’s not that I was thinking very much about either of those subjects before; however, thanks to Simon Sinek, I am thinking about them a lot right now. Here is a link to a video of his comments if you want to stop reading this and watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrT8lJNa9Z8.
Addiction, according to Wikipedia, the brain trust of America and the World, is “a central nervous system disease characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences. . . [and] a biological process – one which is induced by repeated exposure to an addictive stimulus. The two properties that characterize all addictive stimuli are that they are reinforcing (i.e., they increase the likelihood that a person will seek repeated exposure to them) and intrinsically rewarding (i.e., perceived as being positive or desirable).”
Dopamine, again, according to Wikipedia, “In the brain, functions as a neurotransmitter—a chemical released by neurons (nerve cells) to send signals to other nerve cells. The brain includes several distinct dopamine pathways, one of which plays a major role in reward-motivated behavior. Most types of reward increase the level of dopamine in the brain.”
Sinek makes the point, thanks for continuing to read by the way, that Millennials and everyone else are addicted to their phones because you get a release of dopamine every time you check out FB, Instagram, email, texts, etc. The compelling thing about this for me is that I will be returning to the classroom to teach in a little over a week to new reality. Every semester I see many of my students ignoring the lecture for their phones. I’ve been perplexed by this for a long time. Why pay for an education and come to class only to ignore the message? It would be like going to a restaurant, ordering a meal, paying for the meal, and not eating it because you would rather use your phone to engage with a world outside the restaurant. Now I understand what is going on. Yes, my lecture might not be the most engaging thing anyone has ever heard; however, there very well may be another explanation for their disengagement. These students are addicts, and they are using my class to get a fix. I am witnessing addiction in its truest form. What’s more amazing is that unlike other addictions, this one is totally legal. What is a professor to do?