'Temu is as addictive as sugar': How the ecommerce retailer drives a shopping frenzy
Apr 2024, BBC News
China was the first (and to date the only) to use the term "electronic drugs"
--Shares slide after China brands online games 'electronic drugs'. Aug 2021, BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58066659
This article came at a significant moment, one where I notice an inordinate amount of friends self-diagnosing as afflicted with ADHD (formerly known as ADD, after we realized that half the problem was the diet, but before we were allowed to call out the food industry for it, hence we still refuse to accept the affliction for what it is).
We eat an entire extra meal's worth of calories in snacks every day. Americans that is, and half of us. We are, again likely the majority, all suffering from sleep deprivation due mostly to social jetlag and a bit of just-in-time algorithmic gig-worker flex-scheduling.
But now, let's add this to the onslaught - we're all addicted to algorithms, groveling at the feet of the eternal, anti-dimensional Al-Khwarizmi. Pick your program - on a scale from simple social media to shopping to straight-gambling. Dark patterns, endless scrolls, rabbit holes, notifications specifically designed to bypass your fatigue thresholds, your fragile cerebral manifold.
These programs, software, applications - basically anything you click or touch - they are engineered to game your brain. We learned the 4 rules of game theory a very long time ago, and have been plugging them into every user interface possible to extract every grain of attention from your fully-assembled, indivisible self that we possibly can.
And then we come to the conclusion that we're the problem, because we have ADHD. The solution? More fucking drugs. If you don't think drug companies pay social media influencers to convince you that you have a mental disease that requires medication ,you're really not paying attention. (Granted, the influencers don't know what they're doing, or who they're really doing it for.)
I can imagine it being hard for people to believe - I'm not injecting this into my veins. It's just a phone.
No, it's not just a phone. It's neuromimetic virus that's been engineered to override your endocrine system. It hijacks your dopamine system to force you into paying attention, very close attention, to whatever it wants.
You might have attention-deficit disorder all right. But after you're done watching that superhot 24 year old explain the epigenetic precursors for prefrontal cortex regulation dysfunction, or whatever she's saying that sounds really scientific and well-researched and must totally be highly credible information, stop and think about how endless scroll works. Or how sex sells. Or how humans can't not turn their head when they smell something rotten. We have reflexes, they're hardwired into us. We have biological limits, and we understand those limits really really well, and we know how to overcome and manipulate them. Do you know what an abusive relationship looks like? This is what it looks like. Maybe it will be easier to see it this way once the algorithms become people. We're almost there:
The CEO of Zoom wants AI clones in meetings
The Verge, Jun 2024
Post Script, on features of post-consumerism:
"You're either going to get something really good and an absolute bargain. Or you get something that's a bit naff, but won't actually return it, because it's less than £10 so it's not worth your time". [link]
Image credit: AI Art - Norwegian Man Putting Pebbles from the Hudson River into a Perfume Bottle - 2024
And finally, just for good measure:
"Crack cocaine of algorithms"--Imran Ahmed, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, TikTok sets 60-minute daily screen time limit for under-18s, Feb 2023, BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64813981
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| AI Art - Scruffy British Man Sitting on a Dirty Couch - 2024 |
See further:
On the Imagery of Addictions as Seen through the Eyes of the Internet, 2022
Electronic Drugs and Addiction by Design, 2022
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