Addiction in the age of the metaverse
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Are we past the point of no return when it comes to our obsession with online technology? Elaine Moore considers her own tech use and explores our future in the metaverse.
According to a YouGov poll, the majority of Brits can’t get through dinner without checking their phone. Children and young adults can now be treated on the NHS for ‘gaming and internet addiction’. So, with the arrival of the metaverse, which promises to seamlessly blend our real and virtual worlds, are we facing a future which could potentially turbocharge this issue?
Elaine asks if addiction to technology is real, and as it becomes more entwined in our everyday lives, what’s being done about it? Speaking to addiction specialists, tech experts, and others, she finds out how we can live more harmoniously with technology and develop healthier relationships with our screens.
With contributions from: James Ball, author of 'The System: Who Owns the Internet, and How it Owns Us'.
Anna Lembke, Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and author of 'Dopamine Nation'.
Dr Rebecca Lockwood from the National Center for Gaming Disorder.
Catherine Price, science journalist and founder of ScreenLifeBalance.com.
Professor of AI and Spatial Computing, David Reid.
Producer: Craig Templeton Smith
Transcript
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| 0:41.0 | Hello, my name is Aleic. podcasts. to make. I've got a phone problem. The best statistics I found were that people are |
| 0:55.2 | spending on average about four hours a day on their phones. That adds up to |
| 0:59.7 | 60 full days a year and it's essentially a quarter of our waking lives. |
| 1:04.0 | Oh God, my stats on my phone are much worse than that. |
| 1:08.0 | What are your stats? |
| 1:09.0 | Seven hours, maybe eight hours. |
| 1:11.0 | Yes, I know it sounds bad, but it seems I'm not alone. |
| 1:15.0 | If you're anything like me, then I bet a fair few of you are scrolling through your phone |
| 1:18.9 | right now as you're listening to this. |
| 1:21.5 | I've pretty much given up trying to moderate the time I spend looking at |
| 1:24.4 | screens, but here's the thing, phones might be the start of a bigger problem. |
| 1:28.6 | Don't just take my word for it. People who are literally addicted to video games, to social media, to online pornography, |
| 1:38.1 | to online shopping. |
| 1:39.7 | I see those people in my practice every day and their numbers are growing. |
... |
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