Digitally Addicted
Digital technologies such as smartphones, games, social media, and the internet have revolutionized the way we work and play, our access to the totality of human knowledge, and our ability to transcend the confines of geography and social standing. But they have also created the phenomena of digital addiction, generally contributing to an erosion of focus, decline in mental health, and a loss of meaningful social connections. Digital addiction can specifically manifest itself in the form of anxiety, irritability, sleep disruption, interpersonal conflicts, and an inability to prioritize responsibilities. These are the same symptoms found in PTSD and Dissociative disorders.
Dr. Anna Lembke, a Stanford psychiatrist and author of Dopamine Nation, explains the mechanism of digital addiction: “We have rewired our brains for instant gratification. Digital media, especially social media and video platforms, act like modern-day digital drugs, offering fast, easy dopamine hits.” Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in the brain’s reward, motivation, pleasure, attention, and motor systems. The very technologies that have become a part of our daily lives are also making us dopamine junkies. We are being hacked by persuasive design and it has resulted in a loss of agency and negatively impacted workplace behaviors. A simple demonstration of this will be at your next in-person team meeting - count the number of faces looking at laptops while someone in the room is speaking. This is deeply unhealthy.
Interestingly, the brain releases more dopamine in response to new and surprising stimuli, and spikes when putting in high levels of effort in order to achieve a goal. One mechanism that regularly stimulates high levels of dopamine is participating on a High Performing Team (HPT), which can be a powerful counteraction to digital addiction. HPTs are aligned around a shared vision, collaborative work, efficiency, trust, and the desire to consistently strive for superior results around a difficult task. They are resilient, motivated, innovative, and frequently outperform the sum of their parts. They cooperate in an environment of strong trust and psychological safety where team members feel safe to speak up, admit mistakes, and challenge ideas without fear.
Building an HPT doesn’t happen by accident, it is cultivated through intentional hiring and onboarding, leadership development, conflict training, feedback culture, and clear goals and metrics. Begin with the “Why?,” hire with intent and seek EQ, create a “safe-to-fail” environment, master communication and feedback, focus on output, empower autonomy, emphasize learning, build rituals and culture, and keep a finger on the pulse of the team. It is about being fully engaged at a leadership and team level, and restoring the genuine and meaningful human connections that are so critical for us to maintain in the digital age.
