Why the new technology feels good for only a short period of time

A friend recently sent me A video about getting Red Dead Redemption 2 running on an old crt TV On Youtuber, any Austin, which I watched, obviously, because I adore the Gimmicky Tech videos that involve outdated things. I was expecting to laugh at something that mixes retro and current technology, and that happened, but then the video wandered in human psychology.

I thought it would be ridiculous to play a modern game on such an old TV, especially because it is. But, after playing a little, he realized that once you got used to it, playing a modern game on a TV that has been outdated for decades only … it doesn’t feel so different. Of course, there were upset things – the safe things were cut off the screen – but for the most part, the game was as immersive and fun on an ancient TV as a contemporary one.

“The human brain is very good at practically normalizing anything that does not determine directly to die,” explains any Austin in the video. “Probably your new computer gives you about the same joy as your old computer. Your new job is probably feeling the same as your soul as your old job, provided you control yourself for other factors like money. ”

That … can’t be how the human brain works. Maybe? I decided to look at psychology. (Spoiler: It’s exactly how the human brain works.)

Hedonic running strips

The psychological phenomenon known as Hedonic gasoline It has been well documented since the 1970s. The concept refers to how people tend to return to a basic level of happiness after positive or negative changes in their lives. There may be a peak in happiness after a wedding, a promotion at work or buying a new TV, but this is temporary – people tend to return to their previous levels of happiness. The same is true of the negative changes of life.

An early study showing this, Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology In 1978, he examined the relative happiness of three groups: winners of the lottery, people who went through serious car accidents and a control group. The results of the Lottery winners were surprising:

The winners of the lottery and the controls were not significantly different in their evaluations about how happy they were now, how happy they were before winning (or, for controls, how happy they were 6 months ago) and how happy they expected to be in a few years.

Now, in the study there was a hue. The victims of car accidents did not adapt to the same extent, although the study observes that “the victims of the accident did not appear as unfortunate as they could have been waiting.” Even so, the hedonic running band has been replicated in study after the study over the years. Positive and negative changes alike tend to have a great impact on our short -term happiness levels, but over time, we return to our basic happiness levels.

What does this have to do with the game Deadly Dead Red Redemption on an ancient TV? The same psychological tendency is in the game. If you have bought your dream TV tomorrow, there may be a honeymoon period during which you feel it improves your video game and this could make you happier.

However, after that period, you will immediately reach the same level of satisfaction as before. Finally, you can hear about a better, better TV, which you now want to buy to get the same happiness impulse you have obtained from buying the last. Therefore, this is called the running band: you think the next purchase will permanently increase your happiness just to get to where you started.

How to get off the running lane

Knowing this, how can we get more satisfaction from our gadgets? The answer could spend more time thinking about how much you enjoy the things you already have. A 2011 work by Kennon M. Sheldon and Sonja Lyubomirsky Published in Personality and Social Psychology BulletinHe has shown that thinking regularly about the positive changes in your life – and think less about future hypothetical changes – can help maintain growth. From the conclusion:

In other words, due to the very adaptation processes examined in the current research, the call of the new car, house or bag that initially brought the pleasure begins to fade, so that people are soon tempted to buy a car, a house or a better bag, trying to regain the initial delight. However, in a world of expanding debt, decreasing resources and questionable durability, it seems imperative to arrest or minimize this process, so that people learn to be satisfied with less. Our study suggests that this is an achieveable, achievable goal when people make efforts to be grateful for what they have and to continue to interact with it in different, surprising and creative ways.

The specificity of appreciation of changes in creative ways are not presented, but I think that Austin’s video ends with a pretty good one: the occasional change of your current technology for something ancient, then returning to modern technology.

Listen to me about this: Here’s what you should do. Buy two TVs: one small 720p and then one larger than 1080p. Whenever you get the blow for something new, just pass back and forth between them. Going from the big one to the small, he will feel cute and unique and comfortable, and then he will move from the little to the big one, we feel like this huge immersive upgrade.

I am far from an expert in psychology and I think any Austin would admit the same. However, given the hedonistic update, this does not sound like the worst idea – it could, in theory, give yourself that little increase in happiness since trying something new. You fool you to appreciate what you already have instead of getting on as much life as better if you had something even better.

However, you don’t have to go to this extreme. You just know that research suggests that you will be happier with your technology if you spend more time appreciating what you have less time dreaming about what you could buy in return.

Hedonic running strips

How to get off the running lane

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