This morning I stumbled across the Sunday Book Review of “Hamlet’s Blackberry” from the New York Times, and was intrigued by the article title, “Born to Check Mail.”
The author, Laurie Winer, comments on society’s “obsessive connectivity and its effect on our brains and very way of life.” Winer in fact, admits to frequently tearing herself away from reading to address the email notification pings on her iPhone. This made me chuckle to myself, as I also frequently pause during reading or my favorite episode of Grey’s Anatomy to make sure nothing new and exciting has popped up on my Facebook wall.
According to the article, these kinds of notifications may actually set off a “dopamine squirt” in our brains. Marketers told us that we need to be connected, but our genetic brain processes may have solidified the need to repeatedly do so. We are literally getting a high from the attention delivered through social connectivity.
This information led me to think about the vaguebooking phenomenon posted by Vanessa earlier this week. Are vaguebookers actually being compelled to seek attention through biological chemical processes in their brain? Just some food for thought…
I've actually been reading that very book this weekend and was planning on posting about it sometime in the next few days :)
ReplyDeleteI often find myself interrupting a current activity to check the sounds of email. With this course particularly, since I am tracking several feeds of information.
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