Current Issues: Escape – Lesson 2 – Alternate Fictional Reality

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.ESCAPE:  Lesson 2 of 4.Douglas Jacoby and Steve Brand have joined forces to teach a series called ESCAPE. Steve Brand is a professional counselor and expert on addictive behaviors. Here's the provisional plan:The psychology and neurochemistry of pain, escape, and addiction. Focus: marijuana, alcohol, pain medication.Alternate fictional reality. Focus: movies, novels, worlds of gaming, TV.Fantasy proxy relationships. Focus: pornography.Computer and internet behaviors. Focus: gambling, shopping, surfing, smartphones.The importance of not being conformed to the world (Romans 12:2), or falling prey to the many tempting avenues of "escape".A friend writes in with a pertinent quote:"Technology offers even more examples. Video-game players get into flow so frequently that Csikszentmihalyi’s ideas have become the most widely accepted theoretical framework for explaining the lure of the joystick. Studies have shown that the amount of flow generated by a video game directly correlates to everything from player engagement to overall product success. In fact, as Dr. Erik Gregory, the executive director of the Media Psychology Research Center, wrote in 2007: 'Placing players in flow is the key to video gaming’s universal appeal.'Meanwhile, for Internet surfers, researchers have found flow the secret ingredient to almost every aspect of online experience. Both website slipperiness (the ease with which we enter and exit an online experience) and website stickiness (how certain sites hold our attention) are influenced by the state. Researchers at Vanderbilt University have found that from the marketing side of this coin, online flow experiences attract customers, mitigate price sensitivity, and positively influence subsequent buying behaviors."- Kotler, Steven (2014-03-04). The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance (p. 98). New Harvest. Kindle Edition.