'Dopamine fracking,' the process of stimulating dopamine secretion through online content.
The internet is flooded with short-sighted information and emotionally offensive content that aims only to generate temporary pleasure. A blog post proposing a new term, 'dopamine fracking,' to describe such acts that forcibly try to extract only the pleasure-inducing sensations of dopamine from people, has been gaining attention on social media.
Dopamine Fracking | beware, the german!
'Dopamine Fracking' is a term proposed by information security engineer iGerman00 in a blog post, and is described as 'the act of investing vast and disproportionate resources, such as money, crowdsourced mathematical analysis, analytics, optimization, minimax analysis, and aggregation of majority opinions, into activities that were originally casual or complex and multi-layered, in an attempt to extract and maximize only the pleasure derived from dopamine.'
It's a bit difficult to understand, but simply put, it refers to 'actions that are solely aimed at releasing dopamine.' It satirizes a culture of overconsumption and addiction where simple elements that attract people are emphasized, such as satisfying videos, videos in the style of 'Mr. Beast,' overly cheesy music, and movies that are all Marvel-esque, and a large number of related contents are produced, leading to a constant search for the next big hit, the next dopamine rush.
The inventor uses strawberries as an example to explain dopamine fracking.
Strawberries are delicious and possess a remarkably complex flavor. Hundreds, even thousands, of varieties exist, and each individual strawberry contains thousands of compounds that shape its taste. Some are tart, some sweet, some slightly bitter, some fragrant, some juicy, some firm, some soft, and the experience of eating a single strawberry is irreplaceable.
But what if we could break down strawberries, extract the compounds that give them the most characteristic strawberry scent, devise a method to artificially synthesize them, and make that commercially viable? That would eliminate the need to gather high-quality strawberries or require complex taste buds, allowing us to add those components to any food. Manufacturing costs would drop significantly, and we could achieve a highly concentrated 'strawberry' flavor. Most people wouldn't even notice the difference, and might even find it delicious.
In fact, this is happening in the food industry. Compounds that create the flavor of strawberries are extracted and used in everything from cheap candies to high-end desserts. But in doing so, everything else that was part of the strawberry-eating experience disappears. The texture, the juice, the complex flavors, the joy of finding that one particularly delicious strawberry—all are lost and condensed into a single, pure sensation: 'strawberry flavor.' Eventually, you might forget what a real strawberry tastes like and start to prefer the chemical version. Even worse, because the artificial version is cheaper and more convenient, no one may grow real strawberries anymore, and the strawberry itself may become extinct.
The inventor applied the above analogy to content on the internet, explaining, 'Dopamine fracking is when you concentrate only a part of the content—the elements that stimulate dopamine secretion—and pour them everywhere, erasing the complexity, subtlety, and beauty that made the original content special.'
Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) is a method used to extract oil and natural gas. While it allows for easy resource acquisition in the short term, it is considered harmful in the long term due to its impact on the surrounding environment.
The creator stated, 'I feel that the term 'dopamine fracking' evokes a more vivid and unpleasant image, like having an oil rig built inside your brain, or inside something you love and cherish. The long-term consequences of the act are ignored. This isn't malicious; it's because it's addictive, just like commercialized drugs, and people are simply craving the next dose. Recognizing this concept has made it much easier to deal with the world, and it's become easier to stop playback and close the tab the moment I feel like a video is just trying to give me a dopamine rush.'
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in Note, Posted by log1p_kr