The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered

Johann Hari writes about his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs.  Hari has concluded that the chemical component of addiction is not as decisive as the social conditions that lead to it.  He draws from the work of Bruce Alexander, who offered cocaine water to rats with a place to play and socialise, and found that they took to it far less than a lone rat in a cage.  This suggests that developing addictive behaviour is a response to a lack of opportunities to bond with other rats.

Hari is chiefly concerned with drug addiction, but the mechanism appears to apply across the board.  The terrible irony is that one of the most prevalent addictions of the modern day is to an ostensible sense of connectivity with others, through ubiquitous smart phones and social networking.  That this constant compulsion may be masking a deeper dissatisfaction with the actual bonds being formed implies that technology will not save us from ourselves.