Wrestling with the 'entry drugs' in our phones

A 'signal' about gambling (and other passions, as well)

“Entry drug” is one of those strange terms in modern culture that, when you do an online search for a definition, it’s hard to find anything specific. The words tend to speak for themselves.

I’ve been thinking about the “entry drug” concept for several weeks now, while doing start-up research for this Rational Sheep newsletter at Substack. I was introduced to the whole “technology shapes content” concept (think “the medium is the message”) during my graduate work at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. This sobering truth has haunted me ever since.

If you are looking for the dominant technology of our age it would have to be the smartphone, the hub for the world of “screens culture” that helps shape the lives of millions and millions of young people around the world (and, let’s face it, adults).

How many “entry drugs” enter daily life through smartphones? At this point, let’s focus on a topic other than the terrifying statistics about online pornography in the hands of children and young people (background from the National Library of Medicine). Consider this a short meditation on a different “entry drug.”

What caught my attention was this recent Time magazine headline: “Gambling Addiction Among College Students.” Down in the body of the story I hit this crucial statement:

The common denominator among all these forms of betting are mobile phones. Gambling on a phone can combine the compulsive behavior created by social media — the constant pursuit of dopamine hits — with the addictive qualities of gambling.

With that in mind, let’s look at the overture for this story:

When Evan Ozmat, a Ph.D. student in psychology at the University at Albany, first began counseling undergraduates about HIV and substance abuse, he expected to hear about their health issues. Instead, he heard about problem gambling.

“Since the beginning of the project three years ago, students have brought up, unprompted, gambling,” Ozmat says. “We started asking about it in every appointment and everyone has something to say. It’s everywhere.”

The majority of the gambling takes place on mobile phones, Ozmat says, largely — although not exclusively — on sports betting apps. Served up to students through ubiquitous ads that offer promises of “free” bets and easy wins, the apps sink their hooks deep into students, leading them to spend their financial aid money, lie to their parents, and ignore their studies so they can keep playing, he says. Students from low-income families are particularly vulnerable, as they lack the financial safety net to bounce back from losses.

”It almost feels like binge drinking or methamphetamines, where they are going on benders,” he says. “They’ll make bets and bets and bets and bets and then wonder, ‘how the hell did I get here?’”

Now, consider those three questions that are at the heart of the Rational Sheep take on “discipleship” in the modern world. Here is a byte from the opening essay that is now the “About” page for this newsletter.

I improvised this “definition” long ago (think 1991) during one of my Denver Seminary classes about apologetics and ministry in a culture dominated by mass media:

How do you spend your time? How do you spend your money? How do you make your decisions? If pastors can answer these questions today in America without colliding with the power of mass media, then they have a promising future in ministry to the Amish.

That encounter took place three years before the release of the early computer browsers that offered ordinary people a door into the World Wide Web. That was another world.

Now, back to the Time feature. In terms of smartphone-driven behavior, how big is the sports-betting phenomenon among young people?

One out of 10 college students is a pathological gambler, according to one meta-analysis conducted by professors at the University of Buffalo, far higher than the 2-5% of the U.S. general population estimated to have a gambling problem. Other studies place the number of student gambling addicts lower, but still higher than the overall population of pathological gamblers. …

Another survey of 3,527 Americans between ages 18 and 22 — mostly college students — released in April by the National College Athletic Association, shows how sports betting has become commonplace. Nearly 60% have bet on sports, and 4% do so daily. Almost 6% reported losing more than $500 in a single day.

That’s quite a few young Americans. However, I would argue that — thinking about this in terms of pastoral care, preaching, Christian education, etc. — these are small numbers when compared to behaviors linked to our growing cultural tsunami of anxiety, depression, gender confusion and other mental-health woes.

“Screens culture” issues will — obviously — be a major topic of discussion at Rational Sheep. Also, anyone who cares about the care of minds, hearts and souls needs know that we are a few weeks away from the release of Jonathan Haidt’s long awaited book “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.” Here is a quick look at what is coming, with a link to X, through a short Haidt presentation on video.

The gambling issue is important, of course. But the larger issue is “screens culture” and social media.

Now, I’ll end with this question for members of churches and other faith communities: How often have you heard clergy address — in sermons or other settings, such as classes or retreats — how smartphone culture is affecting modern life? Rarely? Never?

Once again: How do you spend your time? How do you spend your money? How do you make your decisions?

FIRST ART: Uncredited art with sports betting feature at MobileVillage.com