Stimulation Addiction

Sometimes I think with modern technology and advances it is easy to develop an addiction to stimulation. Whether it be music, tv/movies, drugs, etc. it all helps us take our focus off reality to a degree. It almost become like a coping habit to deal with a reality that we aren't comfortable with.

What do you guys think about stimulation in today's world?

I think people are just getting shorter attention spans and don't like to be bored. I've noticed my attention span got ridiculously short after I graduated from high school and now I'm not really happy unless I'm listening to music or doing something physical.

Just look at any child, or adult man child, who plays video games 24/7.
Visual stimulation can be similar to drug induced stimulation, and withdrawals from video games make people freak out like a Heroin addiction.

reply to post by JibbyJedi


Ah, the video game hate club is only so funny. "Man Child"
So everyone who plays video games is a child? Great.
What do great, adult minds like you do? Getting stimulated on ATS? Not much better i'd might say.

And i don't see a bad thing in "Stimulation". People need it, people get stimulated by different things. Some do it while reading a book, other while playing a game, other while playing an instrument or take a walk in the park. People need to get their mind away from the 'real world' so to say. If not, we would all go crazy because we would only thinking about the bad things in the world, rarely experiencing something nice.

Too bad this topic will soon turn into a 'modern media sucks and is evil' thing, like JibbyJedi already showed.
People should learn, that there's no difference between new and old media. Reading a book is as good/bad as playing a video game, though playing an online game, not only is stimulating but you're also in contact with other people, that makes it even better and more stimulating when you're kicking their asses

I think you're on the right track... many people, including myself, have brought this up before. Attention span and receptivity to normal, baseline environmental stimuli has decreased dramatically, especially within the last 20 years. Look at how adds have changed, as well as movies and TV, it constantly takes more to stimulate us (sheeple) and grab our short attention spans... content is decreasing and hollow flashiness increasing. Hell, adds today practically have a hypnotizing and subliminal quality to them. It's comparable to someone who has to take more of a drug to get the same high.

That being said, there are still great modern movies being made, and great products are entitled to some respectable advertising.
Music is definitely a tricky subject too, because there is a heap of audio-defecation out there in the pop world that follows the same line of 'all flashy and no content'. However, I'm addicted to music and I would not want it any other way! I'd like the music I listen to and create to push the envelope and give the listener a buzz. Music is an exceptional natural high. Besides, good music usually grows on you anyway, sheeple want instant gratification on junk music. Music is the best form of modern stimulation and can literally work miracles. I recommend this NOVA program on music's powers over our minds:

www.pbs.org...

Just scratching the surface of course.

Any kind of stimulation that doesn't immerse you directly in the context of helping others and loving reality is bad for you.

Video games/ tv are bad, especially in high doses. They make you lazy and take your mind off of the real world. They take your mind off the real world long enough that when you return, you don't know how to behave normal. You turn your back on your friends and family when you sit down for too long entertaining your self, and doing that repetitively is bad for relationships.

Go out doors and enjoy the fresh air. Plant a garden. Do something productive. Sitting in a chair twiddling your thumbs fries your brain.

I am a 21 year old ex video game player and I am speaking from experience.

Drugs are bad too obviously.

Reminds me of the the song Stinkfist by Tool.
"Constant over stimulation numbs me and I wouldn't have it any other way."

Lyrics

Originally posted by ShadowAngel85
reply to post by JibbyJedi

 

Ah, the video game hate club is only so funny. "Man Child"

So everyone who plays video games is a child? Great.
What do great, adult minds like you do? Getting stimulated on ATS? Not much better i'd might say.

And i don't see a bad thing in "Stimulation". People need it, people get stimulated by different things. Some do it while reading a book, other while playing a game, other while playing an instrument or take a walk in the park. People need to get their mind away from the 'real world' so to say. If not, we would all go crazy because we would only thinking about the bad things in the world, rarely experiencing something nice.

Too bad this topic will soon turn into a 'modern media sucks and is evil' thing, like JibbyJedi already showed.
People should learn, that there's no difference between new and old media. Reading a book is as good/bad as playing a video game, though playing an online game, not only is stimulating but you're also in contact with other people, that makes it even better and more stimulating when you're kicking their asses

Actually I play Xbox quite often, and I've written articles for online gaming sites back in the early 2000s, so I know a little bit about video game addiction/stimulation. Been playing video games since arcade Asteroids & Pac-man. I also play guitar, watch a lot of movies, and enjoy nature... that's how I escape the prison planet reality from time to time.

I'm referring to the "average" video game junkie, I see them all the time, most of my friends are playing Call Of Duty Live when they aren't at work. I lost 2 years of my life to online gaming, can't remember anything that happened in the real world those 2 years. But it's just one of MANY addictions we have at our disposal, I was just referring to that particular one.

reply to post by Ralphy


It seems you are right. In fact, it seems the majority of our society is addicted to one form of sensory stimulation or another. Entertainment, media sensationalism and gossip seem to be the leading the pack right now.

Good post.
Peace.

Originally posted by smithjustinb
Go out doors and enjoy the fresh air.

Tell me where you can find 'fresh' air. You don't mean the poluted, radiated crap air outside that smells bad, right?

And tell me why planting a garden is better or more useful? I don't see it, besides, not all people have a garden. I do, i like to sit there on a sunny day. Though i don't think it's a more 'intelligent' or 'useful' thing to do.
When the weather sucks, like it does now, i rather play video games and in a couple of a hours will go to a concert. I guess i'm addicted to stimulation and 'waste' my time but doing fun things...poor me

Originally posted by smithjustinb
Sitting in a chair twiddling your thumbs fries your brain.

Says the guy who sits in his chair, writing on ATS
People should think, before they write crap but ok, you're only 21 and the younger generation is completely stupid, must be coming from the 'fresh' air

Originally posted by ShadowAngel85

Originally posted by smithjustinb
Go out doors and enjoy the fresh air.

Tell me where you can find 'fresh' air. You don't mean the poluted, radiated crap air outside that smells bad, right?

And tell me why planting a garden is better or more useful? I don't see it, besides, not all people have a garden. I do, i like to sit there on a sunny day. Though i don't think it's a more 'intelligent' or 'useful' thing to do.
When the weather sucks, like it does now, i rather play video games and in a couple of a hours will go to a concert. I guess i'm addicted to stimulation and 'waste' my time but doing fun things...poor me

Originally posted by smithjustinb
Sitting in a chair twiddling your thumbs fries your brain.

Says the guy who sits in his chair, writing on ATS

People should think, before they write crap but ok, you're only 21 and the younger generation is completely stupid, must be coming from the 'fresh' air

You speak w/o thinking. You do w/o reason. You just want to have a good time, but you don't care who gets in your way.

I'm on ATS writing so that others might become enlightened. I am. I am here to share my knowledge and wisdom with all of you so that you can benefit from it. I am here for you. When you play video games and watch t.v., who are you helping??????

Hard to say. I think the OP is right to a good extent. But I tink this doesn't apply to everyone. For example, more social-oriented people, I think, find it easier to mingle in this world. Anti-social or people who have anxiety around others will find it easier to go online because for them it's a liberating process. But the thing is, our body needs to move to be healthy and if you live on a computer you will lose the skills necessary to function well without one. It's a net loss. But even without the computers, anti-socials get left behind anyway because our society is so extroverted.

Regardless, we're heading into even denser territory. A world with even more computers and more people staring at the screens. I think many will be hurt by this. I think this is evolution. Those who survive well in this environment will bear the children who will be our future. Those who do not are another failure and there're many failures in our millions of years of evolution. In fact, I could argue that those with social anxieites will be one of the first casualties. Because while social people use computers, anti-socials are too reliant on them. Exclusive behavior is bad.

But it could also be that anti-socials will be used in a similar way that low-income people are 'bred'. Low-income people are the way they're because society has deemed them fit for their role. Society needs cheap workers. It could be the same way with anti-socials. Perhaps society will deem them a cheap computer worker since they're so reliant on computers. But I would think that it would still limit their evolution in the same way that low-income are limited.

I think it also has something to do with the nature of reality. There're so many negative things. People being used, ignored, murdered, and so on. Some people don't respond well to these things and try to escape. Recent research has shown that those who have had intense exposure to cortisol (brain stress hormone) tend to not learn as well and find comfort in repetitive actions. And also they found that mice that're stressed will get stuck on coc aine harder and faster than mice who're less stressed. Etc. I'm too bored with this topic to go on. If you want to learn more, google it. Google is probalby one of hte most powerful things the internet offers an average person. And when you think about how it will only get better: did you see Watson on Jeapordy?

Well, we know that people can definately become addicted to specific hormones their body produces in response to stimuli- when you get enough of a certain type of strong emotion long enough, your nervous system cells develop specific receptors for those hormones and develop a need for them to function.

So people can get addicted to adrenaline states, to alertness, to depression, to anger.........I think I read studies that showed babies can be born with an addiction to such emotional states, like if the mother was depressed through her pregnancy, the chemicals her body was producing influenced the development of the baby's nervous system.

That would explain people you see who seek out and seem to re-create problems or drama for themselves repeatedly.

I know that after leaving the US and coming back years later, I felt really really uncomfortable and anxious because I felt over stimulated all the time. I'd try to talk to people, but in the room woudl be a TV set with a news channel blairing and dramatizing so much it sounded like a major world disaster was happening every five minutes, and it grabbed me. Or commercials were so over stimulating.... It made me nervous and anxiety ridden and I couldn't understand how the people around me could be insensitive to it and not pay attention!

But of course I must have been the same once too! But a few years in the mountains of South France, where socializing with other people takes the place of TV, crickets of traffic, fig trees of billboards, and a sliced tomato with a bit of olive oil instead of a massive plate of over spiced, multicolored food must have allowed my body to become more sensitive to subtilities!

I just saw this in my subscriptions while checking out this thread.



Very interesting!

reply to post by Ralphy


Ralphy. This?
All this around us?
Every time I try to break a personal addiction, I find that I have replaced it with another, or at best, have uncovered a deeper addiction which was fed by the later addiction.

The breadth of my addictions led me to the thought that life here all around us is addiction.
We are easily addicted to our favorite foods.
We are easily addicted to our favorite sexual experiences.
We become addicted to the same travel routes to work or the store even though other avenues are available.
All of the mindless patterns, our habits, that we blindly follow each day can be understood as addictions.

We get addicted to ideas and cling to them as if they were truth, instead of just ideas.
And some of us are addicted to change and new ideas in our attempt to flee the old ideas.

And you know what I think? It's just an idea. I think the biggest addiction any of us have is the addiction to our selves. Try giving up that addiction.

I'm addicted to news and my coffee but that's bought it. If I can't find out what's going on around the world, I freak out! I don't need anything to keep me busy or entertained. I have enough things in my head to do that. What's weird is I can create a movie in my head and watch it, weird I know. If I have a good book then I can just read forever.

My brothers on the other hand can't just sit without doing anything. I mean it's like they go into some sort of withdrawal. The bad side to that is they go drinking or using narcotics. It's a really sad thing to see ya know. Todays society is brainwashed and need to be disconnected from the Matrix.