And if scrolling endlessly through the threads of Twitter and Co was more of a question for dissociation than an addiction.
For psychiatrists at the University of Washington, in the United States, the headlong rush in these threads that we read to the full has the effect of cutting us off from everything around us and making us lose track of time. Conversely, as soon as the smartphone is put down, we forget the messages browsed. Should this dissociation lead to consider scrolling as a meditative practice, the smartphone then becoming a kind of prayer mill? The study does not give a definitive answer, but invites us to change our perspective on this use of networks. Its authors also point out that, by refuting the addiction hypothesis, a form of control is restored to their followers.