We’re about two months away from the release of Scrolling Ourselves to Death, a new TGC-Crossway book I had the pleasure of co-editing with my colleague Ivan Mesa. When Ivan and I first started thinking about potential contributors to the book—which builds on Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death in efforts to help Christians think wisely about contemporary culture—one name on our “wishlist” was Patrick Miller. Both of us had worked with Patrick on articles and videos over the years, and we knew him to be one of the brightest young thinkers at the intersection of digital technology and faith.

Thankfully Patrick said yes to our invitation. The chapter he contributed is characteristically stellar. It’s called “From Amusement to Addiction: Introducing Dopamine Media,” and it kicks off the book by discussing one of the biggest things that’s changed in media since Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves 40 years ago. Patrick calls it “dopamine media,” and it’s the idea that algorithmic technology has morphed media into something closer to an addictive casino slot machine than mere entertainment or information. Built on intermittent variable rewards (“Sometimes you win two likes, sometimes you win two hundred.”), today’s dopamine media keeps our fingers anxiously scrolling and swiping in a manner not unlike a jittery addict’s impulse to keep pulling the slot machine lever.

In an excerpt from his chapter published this week at TGC, Patrick goes so far as to say: “Dopamine media is the most powerful, pervasive, and engineered form of communication technology in human history.” I think he convincingly makes his case. Check out his article below and be sure to pick up a copy of the full book when it releases in April.