Social media:
Are we in control?
Social media has swept across modern culture, but are we really in control? Behaviourist psychology says otherwise. Kieran McMullan reports
P
sychologists and scien sts confidently say there are processes in our body and minds that we have no real control over; of which, actually have control over us. It’s these processes which can be commandeered, hacked or worked upon.Behaviourist psychology presides on a simple truth: we are drawn to pleasant things, and withdraw from unpleasant things. It could be argued then that all sen ent things seek pleasure, and avoid pain. The act of being drawn or withdrawing from a thing is called a response; and the sensa on is called the s mulus. Our brains have stores of self-produced neurochemicals that mollify
20 europeanbusinessmagazine.com
the struggles and unpleasantries in life—turning these into pleasure, or at least making the brain register it that way. As a direct result of evoluon, biology dictates that everything necessary for our survival makes us feel good and that life inside the human body is designed to be harmonious. For many the no fica on symbol that so readily features in our daily lives seems harmless. Today, a modern person’s device will undoubtedly feature a range of apps, easily downloadable and acquired within an instant. But stop for a moment and think about how many thousands of hours have gone into the concep on and development of these apps.
Social media activates the reward centres in our brains, directly affecting the release of dopamine — the neurochemical which regulates feelings of pleasure and desire. This process is why social media arrests our consciousness and feels so utterly irresis ble. The s mulus of social media is the experience we take from using an app. The response is our interac on with the app, in other words, our a en on. It’s important to establish social media’s influence on its users as something voluntary; it’s an act of will to use social media. But this by no means so ens the pernicious effect social media has on many users. Thus
