Infobesity: The Science Behind the Pings, Dings, and Dopamine

Attention Economy is ONE of the many strategies digital platforms use to keep you engaged in digital activity.

For example, the science behind the pings and dings of your digital device is to offer you small hits of dopamine. Like a key opening the front door to your home, dopamine stimulates the neurons of your brain to engage you in activity.

And every time you engage in a digital activity; such as the ping and ding from your digital device (notifications), your brain is designed to immediately respond, releasing small hits of dopamine. (For example, texting and driving…)

The more you do this, your brain experiences reward theory – the satisfaction of completing a small task or duty.

But, our brains, have a limited capacity for attention. Over stimulation from digital technologies, I call infobesity, decreases your well-being; causing you to experience brain fog, fatigue, irritability, and ongoing frustration known as brain channel.

And behind the science of the pings, dings, and dopamine, we have a God who designed dopamine to be experienced in relationship with Him. When we put our attention on the divine, rather than the digital, we experience increased levels of well being (see Mark 12:30-31).

The question is, WHO gets your attention? The digital or the Divine?

Sources: The Organized Mind (2014) by Daniel Levitin (51) / Alone Together (2011, 2016, 2018) by Sherry Turkle (167, example).