Nature vs. Nurture vs. Numerics
There’s a hidden third factor that is changing how we attend, attune, and attach in modern times— numerics. Modern technology is influencing our development and disrupting our natural order.
In the fields of human biology and developmental psychology, there exists a debate you’ve likely heard about before. For decades, researchers and educators have been looking at the ways our human nature (our biology, genes, and epigenetics) interact with the way we were nurtured (our upbringing, family experience, and social environment). This is the classic nature vs. nurture debate.
Through deep inquiry and scientific study, the debate has been settled. We are not just the product of nature or nurture, it is both our nature and our nurture that make us who we are. In other words, we now know it is not a matter of nature versus nurture, it is a matter of nature and nurture.
When I was studying to become a therapist, I learned about these developmental dynamics. Who we are is a product of the genes that get passed down and expressed inside of us and the environmental conditions within which we live. In therapy, I help people sort through layers of their experience in order to clarify and make sense of their experience in the world so they can live a life that doesn’t feel so heavy and overwhelming. An important part of my work is helping people name and address the ways their upbringing and family context has shaped their wellbeing. In addition, I help people grapple with the realities of our environmental context as an important factor that shapes who we are. We are not born with a life trajectory. Our life trajectory is shaped by environment and experience.
Just as pathogens and allergens in our environment affect how we feel inside, our upbringing and social relationships similarly impact how we think, how we feel, and how we understand ourselves. For a few years now, I’ve come to notice a third factor influencing our development and wellbeing; one that can be easily mistaken for a simple change in culture. The rise in numerically-driven engineering and technology, comprised of data, models, and algorithms, has created a third factor that influences how we think, feel, learn, grow, attend, attune, and attach— numerics.
The plot thickens
Numerics is the field, study, and application of numerically-driven engineering and modern technologies. To put it in plain terms, numerics as a field has contributed to advances in modern computing and intelligence, which we all benefit from today. Numerics includes anything from the sets of ones and zeroes that make up a computer coding system to the personal data that is collected about us to the algorithms that drive our social media behaviour. If you’re an internet, smartphone, or computer user, you interact with numerics every time you use your screens.
It should be noted that the fields of computing and intelligence are incredibly complex. Our lives have been completely reshaped by modern technology over the past few decades. It has revolutionized the way we live and has unquestionably aided global progress. Every new generation has a different and ever-evolving relationship with screens, devices, and technology. It is still a new conversation for us in the fields of psychology, therapy, and mental health to be thinking about the impact of technology on our wellbeing too. It turns out, this is a difficult balance to get right.
For me, I’ve been wondering if our development is no longer just a function of nature and nurture, but instead being heavily (and dreadfully) influenced by this important third factor of numerics. There is a growing body of research beginning to explore how modern technology and the quest for money and power is changing our attention spans, our memory, our language and social communication, our emotional processing, and our ability to connect with others.
The impact of numerics
The negative impacts of heavy screen and technology use are hard to ignore, which is why I think it’s time for us to get serious about how technology is not just shifting our culture, but it is changing and reshaping the context within which we are growing and evolving. We are no longer just a product of our nature and our nurture. We are becoming a product of the interaction-effects between our nature, our nurture, and our relationship to the negative byproducts of numerically-driven engineering and technology.
In many ways, the tactics of technology companies can be described as “a race to the bottom of the brainstem.” Their main goal, aside from their quest to make money (another numerically-driven pursuit), is to keep eye balls glued to their apps, their devices, or their products. This, of course, translates to more ad revenue which then translates to more dollar signs. In order to do that successfully, they have to find a way to take the prefrontal cortex (thinking brain) offline and hack into the brain’s reward, pleasure, and motivational systems.
Unfortunately for us, this activates the survival parts of our brain which takes our thinking and social engagement systems offline. Thus, the more we are hooked by our devices, the less internal resources we have for attention, connection, empathizing, and socializing. In other words, an algorithm removes our ability to consciously choose our behaviour, be present, and connect with people around us. The result? An increase in lonely, worried, angry, depressed, exhausted, busy, and addicted people.
K, so what?
When algorithms and ad-supported content are the only things that determine what we think, how we feel, and what we respond to, we’re in trouble. One of the sticking points in this conversation for me is that the majority of us are brand new to these concepts. Algorithms, large language models, computing, and intelligence are terms that have permeated beyond their respective industries. It is important for us to learn these terms just as we’ve come to learn the language of attachment, parenting styles, childhood development, and intergenerational trauma. They are impacting us greatly too.
To be clear, I don’t have much to conclude beyond the presence of this third factor. Like you, I am still learning the language and grappling with the ways that technology is impacting my wellbeing, my friendships, my relationships, and my lifestyle. I know there are many benefits to advances in technology, especially if it allows us to connect more fully and help us build the world we want to live in. Like many of you, I worry that the interests of powerful people are taking precedence over the world’s wellbeing. Numerically-driven technologies that exploit the human condition literally turn a numerical profit.
We are all breathing the same air when it comes to modern technology. Let’s just hope the air doesn’t become so polluted that we forget where we started: that we are a product of both our nature and our nurture. Though we can adapt to any changes that come our way, I question the extent to which we need a technology that alters the core of who we are and how we came to be.
As always, I appreciate your reflections and comments via email or in the comment section below.
I’m doing it with you,
Jake
Things I’m noticing this week:
This beautiful piece written by my pal Zach Gottlieb in The New York Times about being fatherless on Father’s Day: He Lives in the Double Helix of My Cells, but I Do Not Know Him.
I’m also remembering this essay I wrote that was featured in Huff Post back in 2017 about the grief I tend to experience during Pride Month: A Letter From A Gay Son To His Late Father.
I’ve also been taking time away from social media to spend time with friends and family and work on other consulting and speaking projects. I’ll be sure to share more soon!
I also got new bamboo bedsheets from Cozy Earth— the coziest, comfiest, and most amazing bed sheets! They really elevate the sleep experience and have made the past few sleeps super cozy. I liked them so much that I secured a 40% discount code for y’all to try them for yourself! Click here to claim your discount or use code MSWJAKE40 at checkout.