A Cisco study finds that college students would take a lesser salary instead of giving up their mobile device and access to social media.

Mobile smartphones are a gateway to information. Activity streams feed into smartphone through Facebook news feeds. Text messages keeps students looking into their laps during dinner. Information feeds us. The hope for more information releases dopamine, which motivates us to seek out sex and great food as much as ideas and concepts.

Social media reveals an aspect of the human mind and how it is wired.  Waiting for the next reply or text message builds anticipation. Ideas, actually, are so powerful that they give people the capability to suppress their own physical needs.  We would prefer more information. Food and water have a secondary importance when the mind is rewarded by ideas. Information, as a result, can arguably be more desirable for a man with an idea than his need for a glass of water.

The amount of information students process is wired into their behavior patterns. They learn through interaction. It gives them ideas, which they thrive upon. It can also lead to addictions and other problems but that’s another matter.

So why would they ever want to give up that mobile device and limit their access to social media? Students want the constant rewards that come with social media immersion.

Services Angle

We are becoming so wired into the data stream that we get a sense of deprivation when the information starts to trickle. Students don’t want to be deprived.  They want that information to flow. It’s like asking for people to give up sex. Our brain circuitry makes that kind of decision

Here is the infographic: