Why do people insist on multitasking by using a cell phone while walking or driving even though we know it is a dangerous bad habit?
When a person glances down at his smartphone, he sees a helpful device that makes his life easier and keeps him connected to loved ones. But a smartphone is also like a drug-delivery system, according to Paul Atchley, Ph.D, a psychologist and dean at the University of South Florida.
Dr. Atchley has studied texting and talking while driving and walking. He states that a cell phone can be compared to a morphine pump with a button you can press when you want pain relief. Instead of relieving pain, cell phone communications give you a hit of dopamine, a feel-good hormone that lights up your reward center in the center of your brain and makes you want more. Dopamine is the same hormone your body releases after you eat a sugary doughnut or a run ten miles.
Here is how it works. Your phone beckons you with a ping, vibration, or ring. This signal prompts your brain to release a little dopamine. So you check your phone and see that a friend is trying to contact you. When you read her text and reply, your brain releases even more dopamine.
This dopamine release is the reason too many people struggle to ignore their phones and walk or drive distractedly.
But multitasking is a bad habit. Your brain cannot focus on two things at once and do both of them well and safely.
If you have this habit, please try to break it before you or someone else gets hurt. Remind yourself to focus on one thing at a time. Or, better yet, have your phone available and turn it on only when it is safe to use it.
Let the encouraging words in these bobbiejrae posts help you
soar like an eagle above life’s storms.
Another important warning post…
Don’t believe you can break a habit?
Failure to heed this warning can be costly!
The smallest things are most likely to ruin a life.
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