Operant conditioning (once again) rears it's ugly head

I was standing in the shower this morning trying to hurriedly rinse the conditioner from my hair so that I could propel myself back in front of my computer in order to check my email. Embarrassing. Fucking embarrassing. How did it get to this point? How did I become 'addicted' to electronic communication? I'm a fairly well rounded individual, I have friends, a good family, a healthy social life...but for some reason I can't seem to last for more than a brief period of time before logging in and checking my various emails, social networking sites, and instant messages. How did this happen to me? I realized as I was dripping across my living room that I have been conditioned. 

Behaviour modification is a beautiful thing...we don't have a clue that it is happening and then BOOM, suddenly we are jumping through hoops in a pool of salt water at sea world looking for our fishy reward. 

How does it get to this point?

B.F. Skinner said it the best when he said 

"The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount."

This intermittent schedule of reinforcement (the mother of all schedules) is a tough habit to break. The problem is that sometimes when one checks his or her email there is a new message flashing in the inbox. And sometimes it's not just Dr. Lovebone asking you if you want to increase the size of your member, sometimes it's not your boss wanting more out of you, and sometimes it's not your needy [insert friend, wife, husband, co-worker, sibling etc. here]. Sometimes it's a good one, from someone who makes you feel good inside, who makes you feel as though they couldn't have gone another minute in the day without sending this email to let you know they were thinking of you. Of you, and you alone. That feeling you get, that good, feeling that causes the corners of your lips to curl ever so slightly, that causes your pupils to dilate, that causes your chest to swell with excitement. That email...even if it only comes once in a blue moon...it is that email, the randomness of it and the unpredictability of it, and the satisfaction of it that perpetuates the behaviour resulting in the compulsion to log in and check every account we have. 

So, we have established the strength of operant conditioning lies in the type and schedule of reinforcement. Now what? Do we need to change out behaviour? Maybe this is all a part of our nature? This reinforcement is the same reinforcement that used to cause people to sit by the phone, waiting for it to ring. The same reinforcement  that used to have us sitting by the window waiting for the mailman to arrive. We didn't judge those behaviours as bad...so why do we judge the constant email checking as bad? Why do we feel bad admitting that we do it and why do we feel the need to hide this behaviour like a junkie on smack cowering in the corner of a dirty and dark alley way.

Perhaps what we need to re-evaluate is our attitude. Perhaps we need to see this behaviour in a positive light, a good thing to do. Maybe the reward is absolutely worth the time that the mind spends consumed with wanting to log in and check our accounts. Perhaps it is adaptive...maybe the checking gives the mind a 'break' from it's usual tedious work, possibly providing the mind a focus which satisfies a small part that lies within everyone of us, some compulsion to categorize and organize. We know that these are adaptive techniques...although equal rights proponents would have us think otherwise...categorization is most definitely one of the traits that helped us evolve.

Operant conditioning although many do not wish to admit it shapes our entire lives. Be it good or bad, we are born with very few innate qualities...many of the things we think are innate are in reality shaped through behaviourist principles. Language for example, yes we are born with the innate ability to produce and comprehend language, but in order to take advantage of that innate ability we must be taught the rules for our particular native tongue. Decisions we make, are influenced by all the decisions of our past and what we have learned through those decisions. Perhaps Skinner had it right when he said that we have no free will...we are simply guided by what we have previously experienced. 

So...easily conditioned we are, just like all the other animals. Is this innate ability to learn adaptive...I would say so. Without learning we could not have evolved to the point we are at now. So...is it bad that all I want to do is get the hell out of this blog and check my email...hell no. I am evolved.

False Grace