With the pandemic period, families are worried that their children will become addicted to technology as well as moving away from their responsibilities. So why do people become addicted?
Every addictive action and substance causes intense secretion of happiness hormones in the brain. The person feels truly happy and relieved at that moment. However, in order to release the same amount of happiness hormone again, this time it has to increase the amount and intensity of that action. This allows the addiction to continue until it takes over the person's entire life. This is the neurochemical dimension of addiction. What I really want to touch upon is the psychological dimension of addiction.
First of all, we need to know that every addiction stems from the gaps created by emotional deprivations and the desire to escape from the pain of reality. These emotional deprivations create anxiety and pressure. The brain clings tightly to a substance or an action that makes it feel happy and comfortable in order to suppress anxieties and get rid of the stress and pressure of the real thing. This lies behind people's sentences like "I'm bored, let me light a cigarette." Even when people say they are experiencing a happy development, they tend to continue their addiction. Addiction is our brain's defense mechanism.
Whether it is addiction to alcohol, cigarettes, work, technology, shopping, gaming and social media, all of them are based on emotional deprivation. For example, when we look at the family lives of drug addicts, we see that they have been neglected and have not received sufficient and healthy emotional love and support from their family and environment. When we look at social media addicts, we can see that their needs to be liked, to express themselves, to communicate with others and to be valued are at the forefront. When we look at workaholics, we see that they are people whose needs for appreciation and approval were not met, and who were often constantly criticized and made to feel flawed and inadequate in their childhood. In short, addiction is a way of satisfying existing deprivations or escaping from the negative emotions caused by deprivations. It is a solution that is implemented for the sake of protection but is not functional. Because this situation negatively affects the person's daily life and human relations, becoming an increasingly challenging situation.
Coming to game addiction, which is another addiction of today's young people... The most dominant emotion here is the need for success and development. As you progress in the game, as the enemies are defeated and the character you control levels up, a feeling of success and satisfaction occurs. Here he produces a product with young success. It can be appreciated by other players. Enjoys the taste of production, development and success. However, this feeling increases exponentially when you play these games with real people on the internet and manage to become a better player than them. The reason why they throw a tantrum when they fail during the game is that they try to satisfy all the feelings of success in this environment. When one fails in this environment, the person faces failure and becomes ambitious. That's why I emphasize the importance of giving simple responsibilities to children from a young age, satisfying the sense of success and production in "real life", and always appreciating their efforts.
Finally, when we look at the internet addiction brought on by the epidemic, the priority is being confined to home and social life. We see the effect of being very limited. Human is a being that needs social and interpersonal interaction and social sharing. This process, which started with boredom, has triggered people's need to share and reach each other, even virtually, in these environments by limiting face-to-face communication and restricting freedom. In addition, the internet environment is seen as a way to avoid feelings such as intense anxiety and hopelessness caused by the epidemic.
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