M.S.: Ok, it's just essentially the heightened arousal. What will or won't be, and maybe I should go back to gambling. It's that state whether a slot machine put in the coin feeling in the breast, in the belly and the brain when you pull the handle, my age is coming, or push the button I shouls say. It's that state of excitement that you have and the reason why people sit at those machines more and more and more. It's not really seeking the win per se, they're seeking that anticipatory arousal and the "proof" of this is when people do actually win the sums that they want, they don't stop. Somebody on those machines does win $500 they don't go home and take their $500 amount of tokens and cash it in and off they go. The majority of people will sit there and put them back in because that is a high they want. It's not the high of the win, it's not the high of the gift, it's the anticipatory high.
Rob: You know it's interesting, UNESCO actually, I have this as a tab on my computer that I haven't opened for a while, I want to explore it more. UNESCO has project anticipation, a scientific study of anticipation and the anticipatory systems. This is a big topic there's a lot in there, it's a very important thing and so it's fascinating. So basically what you're saying is people no longer appreciate what the gift is, they're more excited about what it could be the moments before they open it.
M.S.: Yes.
Rob: And in my work, in another world where I founded this conference on optimal functioning and positive psychology as you know, I've long found that one area that people miss is anticipating things that they plan like vacations or weekends and that a lot of the pleasure is in anticipation. What you're saying is this can go to an extreme and it can even become more important and more loaded for the individual than the actual experience themselves.
M.S.: There's nothing wrong with it, in fact it's a lot of fun, but it crosses over. And again what we're seeing in texting, in searching; this is why people continuously text. This is why people continuously search. They're not actually after the content, I mean look at your conversations on text, they're not really that fulfilling but it's crossing over into everything. Another really good example is the Internet dating phenomenon. It's really affecting the way people date or used to date and again, it's the anticipatory cycle. It's the opportunity more it's completely hoarding pair bonding. Individuals might find somebody that they're really intrigued with, met all their classifications and what have you but they don't only pursue that person, they pursue the feeling of moreness, that anticipatory state and again we can kind of go around in terms of many of the functions of Internet.
Rob: Yes, you have a chapter on sex. This is it seems like a good transition to talk about that.
M.S.: Ya, I don't know where to start on that one. It's essentially the mass dissemination of porn that occurred with the Internet has really changed what I refer to as arousal cycles and I guess the easiest way to talk about this is again, it's the needing of more.
Rob: The what of more?
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).