Addicted to your phone??

Addiction and Motivation

In these crazy times we are all always looking for motivation. Everyone wants to be motivated. There are so many videos on You Tube about motivation, so many articles and so many motivational speakers. It’s something we all strive for, to be MOTIVATED.

Whilst I personally love all of the above and am also striving to always be motivated, one of the common recurring threads that I have picked up on is that we are in very advanced times where the younger generation of today generally struggle a lot more with motivation than older generations.

And what is the one difference between today and the past. Technology!! It has advanced so fast and so far that the world has changed dramatically over the last 40 years. Especially with the advent of Smartphones and Social Media.

And what has this done to us? As a person whom is always striving to be motivated, one of the hardest things we are all looking to be is motivated in hard work and exercise. We all want to be fit, healthy and have six packs but that requires us to train regularly and eat healthy. We all want to have booming businesses and be wealthy but that requires us to work long hard hours and push through good and difficult times. Whilst we want all of this, when we need to sit down and start working at it….. We first need to quickly check our phones and see what the latest news is and what is happening on facebook, instagram, snapchat? Then we log onto our computers and check our emails. Wait, lets get onto our smart tv’s and watch you tube and Netflix. Im just going to play candy crush on my phone for 10 minutes. These are addictions which are holding us back from being truly motivated and from being the people we really want to be.

Even whilst typing this article I would rather be watching a motivational you tube video or play a game on my phone. Surely that would be soo much easier and more fun!

Technology is such a blessing and such a curse at the same time. It has made it possible and easier for more people to become super rich but at the same time it holds so many people back. I definitely do not believe technology is the enemy but it is important to understand what it is doing to us so that we know when we are on the positive side of technology or on the negative side.

DOPAMINE! So as not to type a very long and technical article (This is already longer than I wanted it to be….. Taking up my You Tube time!!), I would suggest that everyone just (yes, use a bit of technology) and google Dopamine. You would be amazed what comes up and the research that has come about because of it. I am sure most of you have already heard the term and most even know what it is.

It is essentially the driving force behind all our technological addictions. As with all addictions, when we attend to our addictions, we get a dopamine fix. It is a reward system that feeds our brain. As with Cocaine, you get a surge of dopamine and a very high reward for the brain when you take it. Same with technology. Every time we log onto our smartphones, we get the same dopamine surge. Maybe not on the same level of Cocaine but the stimulus is there. This is when the addiction begins. It is always fun at first and seems innocent in the beginning but you start needing it more and more to the point that your life begins to revolve around it.

This is when the rewards from things likes exercise and hard work begin to fail in comparison to a quick fix on your smart phone as it is so much easier and quicker to get that dopamine rush from your phone than to try and work hard for a day or exercise for an hour. Before we know it, our lives revolve around our phones and your phone becomes like an extra limb that goes with you everywhere. I am speaking from my own experience. Every time I have a moment of peace or time to myself, the first thing I do is pick up my phone and blindly start scrolling through the news, emails and facebook. It’s a quick distraction from all the stress and tiring work of my own life.

“But how BAD can this really be”. “I mean, I often find nothing that is interesting on facebook and its important to know what is happening on the news and my emails?”. These are questions I have argued within myself various times. “I say that it can’t be an addiction as I am on and off within a quick frame of time and I didn’t find anything interesting to sit and read on my phone anyway…. “. Then I read about dopamine and gambling. What makes gambling so alluring is the randomness of it. Gambling is so exciting because it is a game of chance. Most of the time you will lose but what keeps you hooked is the possibility that on the very next spin, you could win and win big. Just the possibility of winning releases a dopamine rush even though you don’t often win and when you do win the rush goes through the roof. That is what keeps you coming back for more. This is where I realised how bad the addiction to my phone has become. It is very similar to gambling. Every time I open my phone, there is a real possibility that I will see an interesting news article, “Coronavirus and the economies of the world crashing!”, open up facebook and the possibility of a messy break up on a friends page or some great new fishing destination, find an email with new exciting work or even bad news. Every time I log onto my computer or phone and check the news, emails and social media pages…. I am spinning the wheel on the slot machine. I am a flipping gambling addict! Most of the time I lose but just every now and again I win! And I thought I was better than most people as I have removed all games from my phone but all that is now happening is that I am logging onto facebook and emails and news more often looking for a fix so even just removing games never fixed the problem.

So is this a big problem? YES!!

As with any addiction in life, you start becoming more and more tolerant of what is happening and so to get the same rush as before, you need more and more of it! What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? 98% of us… We check our f@#$%g phones. We just can’t help it. “But I am only looking at my phone to see what the time is? And I need it as an alarm clock?”. You pick up your phone and before you know it, 30 min have gone by and you still in bed. This is how most of us start our day!

So now we have gotten to the route of the problem…. Technology just steals time out of our day? I will just go on it less and problem resolved. YAY!!

……. NOOOO. It is not just a time waster! Have you not been reading this article? It is a dopamine rush. Why is this so bad? When we exercise, we get a dopamine rush. When we work hard and finish a project or do well in an exam or finish cleaning up the kitchen or even make our bed, we get a dopamine rush. A dopamine rush is our reward for completing a task! But why the hell would we want to do all this hard work when we can get an even larger dopamine rush with less effort and much faster from a quick 5 minute session on our phone or on our computer. This a massive problem. We have started our day by immediately picking up our phones and spending 30 min on our phone getting a dopamine rush. Now that we have already had our dopamine fix, any dopamine we get from the good activities I have stated in this paragraph will pail in comparison and so we lack the motivation to go and get our dopamine rush naturally as we have already had a large dopamine fix from our phones. This is why we struggle to get going in the mornings and why everything feels like such a chore!

This is the same reason why people who have been on drugs for such a long time struggle to stay off drugs and struggle to find things to love in normal every day life. We have been experiencing such high dopamine rushes from accessing our phones and over such an extended period of time that we have become very tolerant and numb to the normal dopamine levels enjoyed when we exercise or work hard or even spend time with our friends. We simply forgot how to take a break and smell the roses and have become numb to the real world. And like drugs, we know it is bad for us and we know that we don’t want it but because we are addicted to it we simply can’t stop doing it and this leads to so many problems like stress, anxiety, depression and a complete lack of motivation.

Now we aimlessly watch you tube motivational videos looking for that spark we used to have and we may even feel it for a few minutes and feel great when we go out and experience the real world again but before we know it, our addiction takes over and we back seeking the fix from our social media accounts. So we give up a great life with long term happiness and success for a quick fix and short term happiness on our phones, tablets and computers.

I have also been thinking that it is so bad for parents to simply let their kids watch as much tv as they want, play on tablets and smart phones and computers. I just could never put my finger on it and I am still not sure I have but is it possible that we are turning our kids into dopamine technology addicts. How are the generation of today going to fair in the world once they grow up? Will they be motivated and gearing to reach their full potential or will the constant rush of dopamine from technology whilst they are most impressionable ruin their lives before they even began?

WOW, I am feeling depressed after reading this article….. But that is not the purpose of this article. The purpose of this article it to wake you the F$#% up and make you realise what is happening to you when you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is log onto your phone.

I want to wake you up to the possibility that you can have a great life, become very motivated again and remember what is was like to smell the roses.

It’s time to realise what all that technology is doing to you so that we can actually use it for good and use the technology to improve our lives. But to do that, we really need our technology sabbaticals. We need to take more breaks and time from technology to get peace within our selves so that we can again smell the roses. Eat supper with your family without having to watch tv and or check your phone every five minutes. Go out with your friends and just talk to each other with no need to show the latest funny videos on your phone or message other people in their presence. Do you remember a time when you were with a good friend and got so lost in conversation that you forgot the world around you? Instead we break up a good conversation by picking up our phones every five minutes.

We are telling you this because it is holding you back from a truly fulfilling life and also stopping you from reaching your potential. We want to put you back in control by making you aware of what is happening to you so that you can take control of your life, happiness and motivation again.

It is for these reasons that it is very important to take a break from technology every now and again. Have a braai with your friends and leave your phones at the door. Go away camping for the weekend and leave the phone in the car. Spend a day fishing with family and friends. Go for picnics and walks in the park. Meditate! The more you break the cycle of addiction the more you get back to your soul and start leading a fulfilling life again. The more you take a break from technology or use technology for good the more your will get your dopamine levels back in check and get the good dopamine rushes you should experience from the good activities in your life such as exercise and hard work.

And yes, I am sorry for making you spend …. 15 minutes on your phone reading this article but I hope that it is the start of waking you back up to the real world and to help you live to the fullest potential your life has to offer. Now shut the damn phone off and go for a walk and a breather outside and enjoy some vitamin D!

Article by The HFS CONSULTING and TAX ANGEL TEAM