Crisis and Trauma Natural disasters, wars and other mass traumas are known to lead to significant increases in widespread psychological distress due to the often interrelated effects of isolation, stress, substance abuse and economic anxiety among other factors. These have led to dramatic spikes in domestic (intimate partner) violence and depression resulting from Covid-19.

Thank Goodness we’re all Online. A third or more of the world’s population is currently or has recently been under “lockdown,” so it is fortunate that most have the internet (59% of the world population, 80-95% in the West) to keep us “occupied,” both in the sense of work as well as keeping us entertained and connected.

But while smartphones and social media appear to be a lifeline to many, there is a creeping realization that they are not the benign force their creators may have originally intended. These addiction machines exploit many of the same elements underlying the “gamification” of consumers, methodically tapping into natural yearnings and human vulnerabilities.

Pleasure Seeking and Cuddles. Users get hooked on social validation, instant gratification, unpredictability and the anticipation of variable rewards through exactly the same chemical loops as gambling and cocaine, rewiring the brain to keep hunting compulsively for more more more. A former president of Facebook admitted that it exploited a “vulnerability in human psychology” with activity generating “a little dopamine hit”. Even back in 2012, Twitter was “harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol.” Now stir in the “love hormone” oxytocin, released in as little as 10 minutes on social media, and you have an irresistible cocktail.

But the key is that if they are hooked, they are generating more data.

It’s not the data. Netflix docu-drama The Social Dilemma highlighted that it’s not the data per se that is sold, but the “slight, imperceptible change in your own behaviour and perception… changing what you do, how you think, who you are” through algorithms processing data willingly generated in return for cat videos, Kardashian posts, sourdough recipes and anything else that you are looking for.

Those last few words are the key – influencing what users choose to look for is where the real money is made. All your clicks, likes, watched videos, posts, searches, purchases and everything else in your digital lives ultimately lead to ads uniquely targeted to you, your interests and your prejudices. Artificial intelligence continually improves those algorithms to generate ever more perfectly timed and profitable ads.

Is it  alive? Organism-like properties. One definition of life revolves around the idea of autopoiesis, “living systems, which are alive and maintain themselves metabolically whether they succeed in reproduction or not.” Gaia, the Ancient Greek personification of Earth, is considered to show organism-like properties. Perhaps today’s internet platforms should, too?

The Parasites.  Is Facebook like Toxoplasma gondii? The parasite which starts in cat feces, migrates into rats’ brains, where it alters its chemistry including releasing higher levels of dopamine (yes, dopamine again), leading them to be sexually aroused by the smell of cats’ urine and hence rather fearless. This inevitably leads to their deaths, and continuing the cycle with new cats. In humans, one study found higher suicide risk in infected women. Others showed increased entrepreneurship (dopamine fearlessness?) as well as more outgoing and warmhearted behaviour (love hormone?)

And maybe Google is like the Castrator Barnacle, which enters a host crab and takes control by sending chemical signals to its brain to care for the barnacle larvae as its own. Scarier still, if the crab is male, its gonads shrink, it grows a larger abdomen to carry and care for the larvae and even does the mating dance of a female ie “parasitic castration.”

The biggest hosts. Forget mind-controlled crabs – it seems like the biggest parasitic hosts are every one of us.
But unlike the poor crabs and rats in these examples, we can reverse the effect on ourselves and society at large. Though “companies like Facebook will continue to do everything they can to keep your eyes glued to the screen as often as possible… using algorithms to leverage our dopamine-driven reward circuitry”, mindful use of technology is still possible for the forewarned.