Can Theoretical Neuroimaging Solve Problematic Internet Use?

By David Stephen who looks at Theoretical Neuroimaging in this article.

There is a recent analysis on Forbes, A $6 Million Jury Verdict Ruled Social Media Is Addictive. Now What?, stating that, “On March 25, a Los Angeles jury delivered a verdict that Silicon Valley had spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars fighting to prevent.”

“After more than 40 hours of deliberations spread across nine days — including live testimony from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri — the jury found that Meta and Google’s YouTube had been negligent in the design of their platforms, and that this negligence was a substantial factor in harming a young woman identified in court as KGM, or “Kaley.””

New uses for Theoretical Neuroimaging?

“The jury awarded her $3 million in compensatory damages and, after concluding the companies had acted with “malice, oppression or fraud,” an additional $3 million in punitive damages. Meta was assigned 70% of the responsibility; YouTube bore the remaining 30%.””

“There is also a scientific distinction. The Surgeon General’s advisories acknowledge that social media has mental health benefits for some individuals — a claim cigarette manufacturers would never have been able to make. And the lack of an official clinical diagnosis for social media addiction remains a genuine legal and scientific complication.”

Social Media Addiction

Lawsuits alone would not be effective against social media giants, to solve problematic internet use. It is also unlikely that regulations or legislations would be able to make much difference.

Problematic internet use is the assessment label for social media addiction or internet addiction disorder. Although it is linked to other non-social media internet use, social media is the flashpoint, especially for kids, teens and youths.

In general, legislations, regulations and lawsuits are efforts that will add what is widely called friction to social media platforms. Friction are problematic [usage] blockers, like reductions in notifications, time spent, better age verification, limited doom scrolling and much else.

Friction can be effective to certain extents. Still, there may not be enough willpower to stop, so friction can be sought to be bypassed, since possibilities sometimes exist digitally.

Friction, however, remains the main approach against problematic internet use. So, what else can be added, to bolster the reach of friction or to surpass friction as a gate?

Theoretical Neuroimaging of Mind

This is a conceptual display of the human mind, for destinations and relays, showing the targets of problematic internet use and what it avoids.

All the components of problematic internet use can be mapped on the mind, specifically with real-time contents, and dynamics that is parallel to an approximation of what is going on within.

The goal is to show the influence [of internet addiction] on the mind, and sometimes effects, especially with what is ignored [like caution and consequences], to what is used routinely [like certain memory and emotions].

The objective is to give a score, and bear visibility against the current opacity. Such that it is more relatable when friction is recommended and likelier to stick with it.

This could be developed as a separate application, but hosted within some social media platforms, so that data points, like contents, time spent, and so forth can be visualized, for the mind.

The solution can also come at a subscription, since displays will be unique to sessions, not just general. The free version can have a sample display.

Theoretical neuroimaging of mind is based on the postulation in Conceptual Biomarkers and Theoretical Biological Factors for Psychiatric and Intelligence Nosology.

The opportunity is to scale the solution across social media misuse cases, make it more expansive, towards solving problematic internet use, as the algorithms get better, and artificial intelligence dominates.

David Stephen currently does research in conceptual brain science with focus on the electrical and chemical configurators for how they mechanize the human mind with implications for mental health, disorders, neurotechnology, consciousness, learning, artificial intelligence and nurture. He was a visiting scholar in medical entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, IL. He did computer vision research at Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona.

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