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March 1, 2019 Vol. 94, No. 15
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Removing the Mask: A 3-part series of personal narratives of addiction throughout the Christian community
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by Emily Nicks
How does society grapple with 21st century technology and a constant desire to be connected?
Internet Addiction Disorder was first brought to light in a 1996 paper by Kimberly Young, a psychologist who became an internationally renowned expert on internet addiction. Since then, the topic has been researched extensively and thoroughly. The results are staggering: digital addiction is a fast-growing issue. President Bruce McLarty, an avid social media user, said it best: “I think it’s a very opportune time for us to talk about and address some of these things.”
THE BASICS Dopamine, sometimes referred to as the “feel-good hormone,” is a chemical in the brain that, when released, is associated with feelings of happiness. Positive social stimuli, such as affirming words and laughter, trigger the release of dopamine, connecting those positive emotions with a physical neurological experience. According to Harvard University’s “Science in the News,” digital exposure can essentially overwhelm the dopamine exposure within the brain. “Smartphones have provided us with a virtually unlimited supply of social stimuli, both positive and negative,” states Trevor Haynes in a 2018 article on the website. “Every notification, whether it’s a text message, a ‘like’ on Instagram, or a Facebook notification, has the potential to be a positive social stimulus and dopamine influx.” Professor of Communication Pat Garner is well-read on the topic of digital communication and its effects on people. Garner, who recently had to trade in his flip phone for a smart phone — which he detests — said he is wary of the impacts digital addiction can have on the human brain and psyche. “There is [separation anxiety] when you lose your phone,” Garner said. “People panic when they lose their phone because it’s their life, and of course they’re addicted to it.” In addition to affecting individuals, digital addiction influences relationships and communication within communities. McLarty said he has witnessed digital addiction walking across campus and elsewhere within the Harding community. “[It could be] a beautiful, sunny day, and you’re here with 4,000 other young people, and what are you doing?” McLarty questioned hypothetically. “Probably a concerning number of people are in a room, isolated,
maybe with a friend, playing video games.” McLarty said he has felt the draw of technology himself. “When I’m out around campus, there are times I feel like I need to make a post or something like that, and I have my phone up,” he said. “I know there are people who walk by me, and I don’t engage with them.” According to MarketWatch, Americans in 2018 spent over 11 hours each day interacting with the media. That is almost a two-hour increase from four years prior. This amount of almost constant exposure makes digital addiction a different phenomenon from other traditional forms of addiction. While she would not have ever considered herself addicted to media, junior Rebecca Stratton recognized her unconscious habit of spending time immersed in her phone, especially with social media apps. “I noticed any time I got a notification, I’d go to check it and then spend 10 or so extra minutes just scrolling around,” Stratton said. “I’d get on it without thinking about it at all and just mindlessly scroll.”
DIGITAL ADDICTION From a generational viewpoint With Millennials and those considered to be part of Generation Z engulfed by media for the majority of their lives, digital addiction may be thought of as a problem experienced only by the younger generations. But is that really the case? Garner believes the problem runs deeper. In fact, he said younger generations may be even more aware of the all-encompassing nature of media than the older generations. “I think more young people are … becoming more circumspect about it,” Garner said. He went on to recall an experience he had while teaching a few years ago. “I said, ‘How many of you find it irritating to be wanting to talk to your parents, and they pull out their phones and don’t engage you?’ And the hands went up,” Garner remembered. “And so the adults have a big problem with it. It’s not just young people, certainly.” McLarty said he, too, thinks digital addiction is something that is felt by more than just young people. “[A professor on the spiritual life committee] said he thinks you’d be surprised how many students feel that they have had to pay a price in their lives for their parents’ digital addiction,” McLarty acknowledged. “It’s not something that starts with this generation. It is a cultural phenomenon in modern culture that knows no age.” Kay Gowen is the director of Abundant Living, an outreach from Harding’s office of church relations aimed at Christian senior citizens. As someone who spends significant time with both college students and senior citizens, Gowen has a different view of the generational gap, especially in regards to technology. Gowen said she would classify seniors’ digital use as mindless but would hesitate to call it actually addictive. “I doubt that too many overdo it, although I think it’s easy,” Gowen said. “I mean, you can start playing a game of solitaire and think you’re going to do this for 15 or 20 minutes. The next thing you know, it’s been two hours, and maybe the TV was on the whole time … and in a way, it’s kind of what you call downtime.”
DIGITAL ADDICTION From a SPIRITUAL viewpoint According to McLarty, digital addiction is not just a societal issue, but also a spiritual one. He said Harding’s spiritual life committee read and discussed the book “Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked” by Adam Alter after McLarty became aware of the need for a conversation last year. Garner said he feels the spiritual implications of technology use, too. He pointed to Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 10:23 as a reminder for Christians to use things without being mastered by them. “I think it’s very important that [Paul] says ‘Everything is permissible but not everything is constructive, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God,’” Garner paraphrased. “So, he’s calling us to say ‘yes, this is permissible, but not everything is good that’s permissible.’ Certainly, we need to be users of things in the world but not controlled by them.” McLarty said he thinks the combination of technology’s
addictiveness and its tendency to be mean-spirited makes it particularly dangerous. “We can tear people down or build people up, and that’s the fundamental decision,” McLarty said. “The addictive nature of [technology] makes it especially insidious that we get drawn into a world where I think a lot of people get more negative and cynical than they realize … I think that’s part of why our culture seems so angry these days.”
GETTING PAST DIGITAL ADDICTION Stratton, who found herself mindlessly opening her social media apps and scrolling without fully realizing it, deleted the apps from her phone for a month during the fall 2018 semester. She said this gave her a chance to get rid of the distractions they had become. “I definitely would tap on where the icons used to be out of habit without even thinking about it, and that made me realize how mindless I was being,” Stratton said. Although she decided to redownload the apps to her phone, Stratton said she is more thoughtful about her use of social media now, and she would recommend it to anyone who would like a chance to refocus. “My relationship with social media is better now,” Stratton said. “When I redownloaded [the apps], I moved them to a page on my phone that I don’t scroll to very often, so I wouldn’t see them as often. I definitely got on them a lot less after this.” If someone is worried about missing important information such as club announcements, Stratton suggested turning on email notifications for Facebook groups; she said this allowed her to get necessary information without being on the platform itself. McLarty suggested finding an accountability partner to help monitor your digital use, similar to how his wife, Ann, helps him refrain from using sarcasm or potentially harmful words on social media. “[Our phones’ screen-time features] would be a great accountability baseline for people,” McLarty said. “‘Our goal is no more than x amount, and every Monday night we’re going to check each others’ phone on that.’ You know? It would be a wonderfully, fairly non-intrusive way to help each other be accountable for something.” Garner said he thinks being aware of your digital use is a good first step toward making changes in how you use technology. Once aware, he said you can implement strategies to monitor your usage. “We can’t escape it — none of us can — but we really can begin to monitor how much we say and do,” Garner said. “There are ways. You will have to work to do it, but there are ways that you can navigate around some of this. I think we can do it. I really do.” McLarty said while digital addiction may seem overwhelming, he thinks the Harding community is still socially engaged. “For all the problems we’ve got, we’ve got a lot of good things going,” McLarty said. “We’re all in it together, and I think the conversation needs to continue.” Photos by EMILY GRIFFIN