Aha- the REASON we BLOG.......

Ok, so Sometimes I get odd email links. I wouldn't think genealogy research would be like that, but there's alot involved and if you're into genealogy, you're just flat out an info seeker (check, acknowledged that when I was young). So wa=la, you get lots of weird stuff...

SO, I'm sharing with you my dear readers, as a public service announcement... LOL

Google Search=Dopamine High?

According to new scientific studies out, our brains are hard-wired to love Twitter, Facebook, email AND blogging! We all KNEW there was more to it than just liking to yack and talk!

In today's age, we all seem to be on a treadmill seeking new information, an internal curiosity that can't seem to be quenched. Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp started really looking into WHY we do this and discovered that SEEKING is a base emotional state in all humans. It's the reason we do stuff, even as basic as going to the store or to going to the fridge to forage for food!

When we go hunting and find what we are looking for, our minds automatically keep looking for other things. We have a high from the neurotransmitter dophamine, and after it wears off, we're on to the next search! It's the reason why you eat the cookie and realize that it wasn't what you wanted, and you go hunting in the fridge again.

Dophamine also controls our sense of time. Combine it with the sense of seeking and its why you say 'I'll just check my email' and end up on the computer for 2 hours. Your brain is on a hunt for the next 'fix' of finding info and can't be bothered to keep track of time. Nicholas Carr said in Atlantic magazine that he thinks this constant need for more info is causing us to loose our ability to stay with long pieces of writing-books, articles, newspapers. With all the large newspapers folding, you have to wonder if the constant reading of Yahoo newsbites is proof of Carr's theory.

Neuroscientist Brian Knutson uses this same concept to theorizes why we feel the need to play the lottery, to go to the casino, to even date the wrong guys- "the possibility of a payoff is much more stimulating than actually getting one to our brains". The hunt/experience is a high to us. The getting what we want, not so much.

Panksepp says this explains why one email can set us off on 18 tangents before we realize how long we've been sitting at the computer. We think that what we found is ok, but there could be a better site/answer out there, and we keep searching. So see, you can tell your hubby that staying on the computer for all hours is just your ancestral chemical brain activity and be right!

So now we know that AOL had hidden motives when they designed that "you have mail"announcement- they were setting the hook and dragging us in and onward! We had NO choice but to comply- our brains made us do it!