People cross streets, ride public transit and eat with their eyes locked on their and tablets. From time time, posters express dismay that guys in bars and sitting outside massage shops seem oblivious to their surroundings as they scroll their phones.

 

According to this CBS 60 Minutes report by Anderson Cooper, it's not just the visuals that are causing the behavior. Google and other developers are programming devices to chemically manipulate your brain to the point where some insiders now consider it an addiction.

 

Excerpts from program transcript:

 

Anderson Cooper: You’re almost saying it like there’s an addiction code.

 

Ramsay Brown: Yeah, that is the case. That since we’ve figured out, to some extent, how these pieces of the brain that handle addiction are working, people have figured out how to juice them further and how to bake that information into apps.

 

While Brown is tapping into the power of dopamine, psychologist Larry Rosen and his team at California State University Dominguez Hills are researching the effect technology has on our anxiety levels.

 

Larry Rosen: We’re looking at the impact of technology through the brain.

 

Rosen told us when you put your phone down – your brain signals your adrenal gland to produce a burst of a hormone called, cortisol, which has an evolutionary purpose. Cortisol triggers a fight-or-flight response to danger.

 

Anderson Cooper: How does cortisol relate to a mobile device, a phone?

 

Larry Rosen: What we find is the typical person checks their phone every 15 minutes or less and half of the time they check their phone there is no alert, no notification. It’s coming from inside their head telling them, “Gee, I haven’t check in Facebook in a while. I haven’t checked on this Twitter feed for a while. I wonder if somebody commented on my Instagram post.” That then generates cortisol and it starts to make you anxious. And eventually your goal is to get rid of that anxiety so you check in.

 

View segment and full transcript:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brain-hacking-tech-insiders-60-minutes
 

Soon enough people will be checking their phones during a massage. I hope no one checks their phone while having sex.

Soon enough people will be checking their phones during a massage. I hope no one checks their phone while having sex.

 

Experienced both on last trip (a masseur in both cases).

By BF once answered his phone to his mother during us having sex and waved me off like "you can wait" -- a) I was horny and b) I was miffed that I obviously came second ( no pun intended) even during an intimate moment between us - so to teach him a small lesson I simply kept going :-)   To hear him trying to communicate with his mother whilst getting gently and not so gently fucked was both incredibly funny and made him mad as hell so was a suitable pay back  His phone now goes on silent during sex ! :-)

By BF once answered his phone to his mother during us having sex and waved me off like "you can wait" -- a) I was horny and b) I was miffed that I obviously came second ( no pun intended) even during an intimate moment between us - so to teach him a small lesson I simply kept going :-)   To hear him trying to communicate with his mother whilst getting gently and not so gently fucked was both incredibly funny and made him mad as hell so was a suitable pay back  His phone now goes on silent during sex ! :-)

We all know with our Thai partners mum comes first.

But dont knock it, my partner's mum passed away 5 years ago and I know he still misses her.

 

Larry Rosen: What we find is the typical person checks their phone every 15 minutes or less

I'm glad to hear I'm not a typical person, it's still morning and Larry made my day already

We all know with our Thai partners mum comes first.

But dont knock it, my partner's mum passed away 5 years ago and I know he still misses her.

 

"Well, a boy's best friend is his mother."  Normal Bates -Psycho

I wish my phone had a separate button for airplane mode, so I can switch it silent instantly, even without unlocking. For various occasions, I switch my phone to silent: sleep, sex, cinema.