AHA!! I'm beginning to understand the phenomenon of Facebook. This addiction can only be understood if one understands the craving and chemistry of.....chocolate. (The craving for some Johnny Depp is a separate subject altogether and you should mind your own business!)
Why do we love chocolate? Sure - there's the obvious. It's DELICIOUS! (that was my Kosmo Kramer impression in case you didn't catch it). We've learned recently that it's actually good for us because of those powerful Flavanoids and antioxidants (whatever excuse you need, right?). We also equate chocolate with love (ahhhhh).
But here's the real reason.....opioids. Chocolate contains chemicals called opioids. Opioids are also found in opium, and they serve to dull pain and give a feeling of well-being to people who ingest them. According to a study, people who eat chocolate produce natural opiates in their brains that soothe their nerves and make them feel good.
Still with me? How, you may be wondering, does chocolate correlate at all to Facebook?
Accoring to Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963) he says this about Opioids:
"If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution - then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and earth would become paradise."
It is our need to absolish our solitude as individuals and atone us with our fellows (aka 'friends'...even virtual friends as it may be). A Facebook Fix! That's not such a bad craving or.....addiction, is it? So there you have it....Facebook must contain the same mind altering, pain-dulling, sense of well-being, love feeling inducing ingredients as....yep, chocolate.
I'm feeling a little solitary right now - I think I hear those brownies calling my name.
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Perfect-it's the chemicals in my brain making me spend time on the social networks! How could I resist? Didn't have a chance.
ReplyDeleteAnd yum...Johnny never looked so good as he did in that movie.