Information addiction

Introduction Professor Sun Peter from the Chinese University of Hong Kong Medical School put forward the concept of information addiction. He pointed out that in the era of information explosion, people's absorption of information is squared, but the human mindset has not been well adjusted to accept such a large amount of information, which will result in a series of self-forcing. And nervous.

Cause

Occupational repetitive behavior is likely to cause information addiction

Professor Shen Zheng from Peking University's Department of Psychology said that addictive behavior is divided into chemical substance addiction and behavioral addiction. Chemical addiction is easy to understand, such as dependence on heroin, opium, and cocaine. The other is behavioral addiction. Like chemical addiction, behavioral addicts will repeat one thing and they can't control themselves. For example, they can't control themselves to keep on the Internet, or they keep collecting something. Many girls will keep on going. Buy a variety of styles of bags. Information addiction is not only addicted to behavior, but also psychologically addicted. Addicts have a strong psychological need to browse information and repeat the process of collecting information. Once forced to stop, it will produce pain, anxiety, and physical symptoms.

One-third of the structure of the human brain belongs to the behavioral reinforcement system. Repeating one thing will over-excite the behavior-enhancing system, and the sympathetic nervous system will be highly variable, so that people will become addicted to repeated behaviors. When the behavioral pattern of addiction is frustrated and cannot be carried out, it will produce a similar reaction to the sudden use of opium abusers.

Many people are engaged in the continuous collection of information, but why not "information addiction"? Professor Shen believes that work psychology determines whether "information addiction." People with "information addiction" work very passively, and most of their work ends in maintaining their lives, and they do not put their ideals and pursuits of life in their work. In the process of collecting information, they did not take the initiative to use their creativity, and even found valuable information, just felt that there was a difference, and there was no sense of accomplishment.

There is no clear goal in accessing information, and there is no clear pursuit of life.

If there is a clear goal in reviewing the information, we can lock the scope of the review. If there is no clear reference to the target, we will browse the information indefinitely, find that it is not enough at any time, and psychologically do not get the sense of accomplishment after obtaining the required information, and only continue to check it. This objectively leads to the repetition of the same behavior, changes within the brain, and ultimately the formation of "information addiction." There are also a small number of addicts browsing information just to kill time. Their work is relatively leisurely, and there is no pursuit of career. Only when they keep browsing information, they feel that they are fulfilling. Once they stop, they don't know what to do, and they feel that life has lost meaning.

People with introverted and intricate details are prone to information addiction

People who have in-personality and specific details often do things at the tip of the horn, and they have the power of "not reaching the goal, swearing not to give up", and they are always looking for everything when doing things. When they do something, they are very committed and can hardly change once they have identified something. Therefore, they are more likely to stubbornly collect large amounts of information and are unwilling to miss any information that is even meaningless. This kind of behavior is repeated, and ultimately they can't control themselves, forming an "information addiction."

an examination

Related inspection

Brain CT examination of cerebral angiography

Information addiction is mostly caused by highly educated people between the ages of 25 and 40. The specific symptom is that a lot of time is spent on the Internet to browse information, read newspapers and magazines every day, but my heart is still not practical. Missing the information. Once there is a network blockage in the home or the unit, the TV is powered off, and the electronic reading cannot be opened, it will feel extremely uncomfortable, become anxious and upset, and always feel worried about missing important information and news, fearing negative work. influences. There are also physical symptoms such as insomnia, headache, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting.

Differential diagnosis

Internet addiction disorder, also known as Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD), is a psychological abnormality caused by excessive dependence on the Internet and a physiological discomfort. Some Taiwanese scholars believe that Internet addiction is a chronic or cyclical fascination caused by repeated use of the Internet, and it brings irresistible desire to re-use, and there is always a physiological and psychological dependence on the pleasure of surfing the Internet. . That is to say, because many characteristics of the network bring a lot of pleasure to the user, and at the same time, because it is easy to repeatedly obtain these pleasant experiences, the user gradually loses the sense of time while enjoying these pleasures, and gradually becomes dependent on the network. On the other hand leads to addiction and addiction.

Information addiction is mostly caused by highly educated people between the ages of 25 and 40. The specific symptom is that a lot of time is spent on the Internet to browse information, read newspapers and magazines every day, but my heart is still not practical. Missing the information. Once there is a network blockage in the home or the unit, the TV is powered off, and the electronic reading cannot be opened, it will feel extremely uncomfortable, become anxious and upset, and always feel worried about missing important information and news, fearing negative work. influences. There are also physical symptoms such as insomnia, headache, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting.

The material in this site is intended to be of general informational use and is not intended to constitute medical advice, probable diagnosis, or recommended treatments.