Desire, Dopamine, and the Internet

Welcome to the Convivial Society, a newsletter about technology and culture. In this installment, I’m considering a popular essay Ted Gioia published last month arguing for the rise of what he called “dopamine culture.” I’m uneasy with the argument and the framing. I’ll explain why here, while hopefully offering a wider-ranging set of perspectives on the variety of ways we relate to the internet and internet-enabled devices. Many of you reading will, I think, have found yourself in agreement with Gioia’s argument, so I’ll be curious to know what you make of my reservations. I’m expecting a fair amount of push back! As always, thank you for reading.

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In writing this essay, I’m committing one of the cardinal sins of the digital age. I am going to be commenting at some length on an essay that is now over a month old. You have been warned!

The essay in question is ’s “The State of the Culture, 2024.” There’s a very good chance that this essay came across your screen at some point in the last few weeks. I’m not sure what the most-viewed Substack post has been during the platform’s relatively brief history, but surely Gioia’s piece must be somewhere near the top. And I know that many of you appreciated the post and found it instructive.

I’ve causally followed Gioia’s work for a number of years, and I’ve read his brother Dana’s poetry even longer. Gioia is an accomplished cultural historian whose work has focused on the history of music, with an emphasis on jazz. He is also the author of a popular newsletter on this platform called . I commend it to you. Gioia is an insightful writer, and I’ve especially appreciated his advocacy for artists and his critical insights into workings of the digital culture industry.

In other words, I’m generally sympathetic to and appreciative of Gioia’s work and his perspective. That said, I’ve had some reservations about this particular, quite popular essay. If you have not read the essay, you should do so and, of course, make your own judgments. Gioia’s basic thesis is that we have moved from a culture dominated by entertainment, to one that is dominated by digitally mediated distraction, which in turn generates a culture of addiction, or, as Gioia memorably puts it, Dopamine Culture.

As Gioia himself ...