Many people turn to their smartphones for dopamine.
However, one study found that it could “cause a breakdown in social values”And “inadvertently exacerbate feelings of despair while simultaneously promising to resolve” life’s questions.
Baylor University researchers and Campbell University researchers say that the internet can lead people to believe that they are looking for higher meaning.
But, technology addiction could lead to technology withdrawal, which can cause people to feel more disconnected from their real lives and develop feelings of apathy. “unhappiness, depression, suicidal ideation, and loneliness”.
The study was published in the journal Sociological Perspectives, Christopher M. Pieper PhD, Baylor University senior lecturer in sociology, stated: “Human beings are seekers – we seek meaning in our relationships, our work, our faith, in all areas of social life,”
“As researchers, we were interested in the role that smartphones – and the media they give us instant access to – might be playing in meaning-seeking.”
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Pieper added: “Seeking itself becomes the only meaningful activity, which is the basis of anomie and addiction.”
“What is interesting is this association decreases for the heaviest of social media users,”Pieper concluded.
“While we don’t know how this group uses social media, it might be that normalized use at the highest levels erases feelings of attachment for the individual – as we put it, it would be like saying one is attached to their eyes or lungs.”
According to the study, they found a social mechanism which draws people to smartphones. “exacerbating feelings of attachment and anomie, and even disconnection, while they promise the opposite.”
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