The other day, the New York Times reported on the creative work of a French photographer, "Mouse"....
Screenshot from the New York Times).
The French photographer was Augustin Lignier, who lived in Paris.
In 2021, when Augustine was in graduate school, he kept thinking about the question - "Why do so many people feel the need to film their lives and share them online?"
I couldn't figure it out until one day, Augustine saw an experiment done by behaviorist B.F. Skinner and was inspired....
B.F. Skinner once designed a famous psychological experiment to study the learning ability of mice. He placed the hungry rats in a box named "Skinner Box", with a lever on one side of the wall that could be pressed, and a small box next to the lever where the food was placed.
Skinner experiment).
When the rat presses the lever in the box, the food box will release the food into the box, and the rat will keep pushing the lever when it finds the pattern after receiving the reward, and this behavior will even become a mild electric shock that directly stimulates the brain's happy center...
Augustine intends to conduct a similar experiment of his own to explore the answer to why modern people are so keen to take pictures....He bought two male rats, one white and one gray, from a pet store, named after himself and his brother Arthur.
He made a "skinner box" according to his own assumptions and put the two mice in it. Whenever the rats in the box press the button inside the box, they will be rewarded with some sugar, but unlike the original box, the camera on the outside of the box will also take pictures of their **.
Augustinian experimental apparatus).
These ** are immediately displayed on the screen and the rat can see them.
Augustinian experimental apparatus).
After the rats became familiar with the button's rewarding effect, Augustine changed the settings, and the rats were still photographed each time they pressed the button, but the sweet tooth became once in a while. Although the rewards have decreased, this intermittent nature has made the enthusiasm of the two rats even higher, and they keep pressing the buttons, and in a short time they take dozens of shots**.
And Augustine found that after a while, even if the sugar occasionally dropped, they would ignore it and just keep pressing.
Rats, too**addicted....
Gray and white mice in the experiment).
Augustine believes that by this time the rats had begun to associate the action of the button with happiness, so they triggered the button more enthusiastically.
That is, rats and rats began to ** purely for pleasure....And it's a lot like how people use social networking – at first for likes, but only to trigger chemicals in the brain.
Augustine's device).
The reason why people want to take pictures is to interact with different devices, such as mobile phones, apps...In fact, social ** is the "skinner box" of modern people, press the button, it will regularly issue unavoidable rewards - such as likes, followers, and new opportunities that may arise, so people have been staring at their mobile phones, not leaving an inch....
While the "rewards" given by social networking are extremely volatile, it's the dopamine in the brain that really drives people to refresh their screens and post new posts....The effect is similar to that of taking medication....
Dopamine motivates people to continue this pleasurable behavior, which is why there is a "social ** addiction", and it's no wonder that Anna Lembke, the author of "Dopamine Country", called the smartphone "the modern syringe"...
There is also a 2014 scientific study that suggests that perhaps "pressing the button" so often is a reward in itself....Because people prefer to "shock" themselves to think, they would rather sit down and push whatever levers are placed in front of them, even those that may make them feel bad, rather than sit down and meditate quietly.
Screenshot of the science article).
With this theory in mind, back to Augustine's experiment, the two mice took hundreds of shots** and tried different angles, just like two real masters of socializing**.
But Augustine says that the two rats did not get any satisfaction from these **....He tried to make them look at the ** on the screen, but they didn't recognize themselves, just two crazy "camera machines".
Augustine's Grey Mouse).
It's okay to enjoy pleasure, but it's hard to get addicted....