Beyond the rhetoric of tech addiction: why we should be discussing tech habits instead (and how)

• Main Author: Aagaard, J. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media B.V. 2021
• Subjects: Addiction; Dopamine; Habit; Neurobehaviorism; Phenomenology; Technology
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 In the past few years, we have become increasingly focused on technology use that is impulsive, unthinking, and distractive. There has been a strong push to understand such technology use in terms of dopamine addiction. The present article demonstrates the limitations of this so-called neurobehaviorist approach: Not only is it inconsistent in regard to how it understands humans, technologies, and their mutual relationship, it also pathologizes everyday human behaviors. The article proceeds to discuss dual-systems theory, which helpfully discusses impulsive technology use in terms of habit instead of addiction, but can be criticized for its mentalist celebration of conscious control. Finally, the article introduces a phenomenological approach whose conceptualization of habit manifests many of the experiential qualities that we try to capture with addiction, but remains non-pathologizing and opens a space for learning: While tech addiction is bad and must be eliminated, good tech habits can be trained and cultivated. © 2020, The Author(s).