My ex-husband*, our two grown kids and I recently switched from AT&T to Verizon for our cell service. [*A marriage may end, but a family cellular plan goes on!] In the process I got a new free LG smartphone.
As I was familiarizing myself with my new phone—blessedly similar to my former Android—I was bummed to discover that it doesn’t have a notification light. You know, that little blinker that alerts you that you have notifications? Even from across the room?
I couldn’t believe it. I went online to read reviews of my smartphone, and sure enough, I saw that this was other folks’ main (and mostly only) complaint about this phone: no notification light.
Well, it only took a day or so for me to realize I was relieved to have suffered this kind of personal tech “regression.” My device would no longer be winking and blinking at me, beckoning me to “Pick me up, light me up. Press my buttons. Let me manipulate your brain chemicals!”
And as timing would have it, I stumbled upon this article that same week.
Huzzah! Now I had expert corroboration that my missing blinking smartphone light
is a GOOD thing:
Endocrinologist Robert Lustig tells Business Insider that notifications from our phones are training our brains to be in a nearly constant state of stress and fear by establishing a stress-fear memory pathway.
As someone who wrestles with lifelong PTSD from childhood trauma, I don’t need any extra stress-fear pathways! Or, anything to make me jumpy or jittery:
Brand new research on dozens of smartphone users in Switzerland also suggests that staring at our screens could be making both our brains and our fingers more jittery.
And I always love reading about research findings that surprise scientists, like this:
In research published this month, psychologists and computer scientists have found an unusual and potentially troubling connection: the more tapping, clicking and social media posting and scrolling people do, the “noisier” their brain signals become. That finding took the researchers by surprise. Usually, when we do something more often, we get better, faster and more efficient at the task.
If you’re curious—and be curious, be very curious—read on.
Business Insider: This is what your smartphone
is doing to your brain…and it isn’t good
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Tags: depression, digital-dependence, dopamine, handheld devices, serotonin, smartphones, tech addiction, technology
