Perhaps because I write a lot about technology, someone recently asked me if I think technology is somehow causing this increase in the verbal violence and overall bad behavior we are now witnessing.

In truth, technology is not creating our bad behavior or making us behave in the ways we are now behaving.  Rather, technology is simply making it easier and more acceptable for us to act out the most primitive aspects of who we already are.  Technology is the perfect partner and tool for our reptilian self.

Inherent in each one of us is a strong drive towards pleasure, instant gratification and comfort.  At the most primitive level, we are predisposed to judge, blame, and if at all possible, surrender responsibility. Our primitive nature inclines us towards distraction, entertainment, addiction and self-involvement. We see all of these primal tendencies being acted out on the public stage.

Technology is the snack food of choice for our reptilian self.  This is problematic for many reasons, the biggest of which being that our overfed reptilian self does not have the wisdom or maturity to lead us towards a state of wellbeing, which is where we want to be headed. At this time in history, we are bingeing on technology as if we were at a cruise ship buffet, allowing ourselves to behave like addicts, to become addicts—because we can and no one is going to stop us.

When we succumb to what’s easiest, we give up the satisfaction and confidence that comes from hard work and effort.  When we opt for immediate gratification, we miss out on the joy of process and determination.  When we indulge in constant distraction and entertainment, we are deprived of the meaning and excellence that presence and focus deliver.  When we live in the shallows, we forego the richness of depth.  When we judge, blame and attack, we are left to live in a soup of toxicity.  The nastiness we are seeing on the public stage right now is not leading us and not going to lead us to a state of fundamental wellbeing, or happiness for that matter.

Watching this election cycle, it is clear that we need to stop indulging and thereby strengthening our most primitive tendencies, drinking the Koolaid and tacitly agreeing that our sub-par behavior is okay. More than ever, we need to become aware of how we are feeding our reptilian nature with our devices, and what it is creating in our inner and outer worlds. We need to regain control of our primitive proclivities so that we can remember and start acting from our higher wisdom and more evolved self.  And, ultimately, so that we can redirect our species towards forward-moving evolution.

Read more on Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/inviting-monkey-tea/201609/is-technology-feeding-our-inner-reptile

The post Is Technology Feeding Our Inner Reptile? appeared first on Nancy Colier.

Email triggers a part of the brain that I call “lottery brain.” It is the part of the brain that produces the thought/hope/belief that miracles can happen, and specifically, to us — personally. To some degree, “lottery brain” is an adaptive part of us, as it inspires hope and a sense of possibility, as long as that hope is also supported by proactive agency in our behavior. When I asked people what they were secretly hoping to find in their email, what the lottery email would be, I was told everything from:

“An old sweetheart, the one who got away, saying that he/she needed to see me.”
“A family member/friend finally apologizing to me for what he/she did to me.”
“News that a windfall of money is owed to me.”
“A perfect job/professional offer from someone who happened to discover me.”
“An acknowledgment of a piece of work or good deed that I did.”
“A note expressing my importance in someone’s life.”
“A love letter from my husband.”
“A note of gratitude/expression of love from a child.”

There were others, but most fell into one of these general categories. Regardless of the answer, just asking the questions, “Who would we really want to hear from? What would we really hope for?” is a wonderful exercise and can help us understand ourselves better.

Lottery brain is susceptible to addictions. The fact that it doesn’t make sense — our checking something every 15 minutes that has never or rarely provided the result that we are hoping for — is irrelevant. It doesn’t need to make sense. In fact, its non-sense-making nature is part of its seduction. Miracles don’t make sense, and still they happen. Don’t they? Email is also addictive because it contains what I see as the four features of highly habitual/addictive behaviors:

1. Attention, specifically, attention is focused, but mindful presence is NOT necessary.

2. Distraction is readily offered. We are successfully pulled away from whatever we were (or were not) doing.

3. Hands. We use our hands in executing the task (which I surmise is related to the evolutionary importance of hands as a tool).

4. Delight is possible through the behavior (lottery mind). Its acronym makes for an ironic ADHD (which bears no relationship to attention deficit hyperactive disorder). Behaviors with these four features have a great capacity to hook us and hypnotize us into paying a lot of attention to something that doesn’t justify the time and energy invested.

If we were rats in a cage whose food only slid down the chute when we opened an email that made us feel better, would we keep checking, or move on to another task that delivered food more efficiently? Probably we would move on and start banging our paws or flitting our whiskers on some other surface. We keep at it because (in many cases) we are addicted, which means that we are not making wise or thoughtful decisions but rather are following a kind of primal urge, which has trumped the part of the mind that can choose whether to check or not to check.

In the grand scheme, does checking email really matter? Is email (or text) addiction even important enough to understand or try to tackle? I believe that the answer is an emphatic yes, and no less worthy of our attention than drug, alcohol, food, sex or any other addiction. Every addiction, no matter its lure, pulls us out of our lives and out of the present moment. Knowing that we can always check, we become more distracted and more dependent upon something external to escape whatever we don’t want to feel or do. We can’t or don’t stop doing something that no longer nourishes us, and that we don’t want to keep doing. Slowly, we start to lose or abandon other important parts of our life in order to be able to engage more fully in our addiction.

The first step in breaking any addiction is awareness. We can start by simply noticing the impulse to check when it arises, pausing before checking, and asking ourselves, “Why do we want to check in this moment?” “Is there an email we are expecting, needing or hoping for?” “Is there something we are feeling or doing that we want to get away from?” “Are we bored and looking for a place to put our attention?” Getting to know the beast is the first step in taming the beast. I know that I personally feel significantly better when I check less — less distracted, anxious and agitated, more grounded and present, with far more interesting ideas (that I can actually finish). And so, regardless of whether you feel yourself to be addicted to checking email (or text messages for that matter), I offer this inquiry as a step in the direction of feeling well. Investigating our impulses, whatever they might be and however often they might arise, is a path to becoming more self-aware, which is always a worthy pursuit, and the natural antidote to all addiction.

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