This is the age of smartphones.
Why do we spend so much time on Mobiles?
Mobile phones and tablets are much more interactive compared to traditional TV watching.
Can Interactive make us get glued?
Yes, Interactive apps digitally facilitate interaction between people and allow the user to create content for manipulation. Traditional forms of media do not require any active participation. This makes the user to constantly check his/her phone.
Let’s get into some science
Dopamine, as you all must have heard of, is a neurotransmitter. It is a chemical released by the neurons to send signals to other nerve cells. Dopamine plays a major role in the motivational component of our lives.
Dopamine boosts the anticipation of pleasure
Dopamine increases memory and learning
Dopamine increases your drive.
So we understand that Dopamine controls the pleasure systems of the brain. But recent research tells us that instead of dopamine causing you to experience pleasure, dopamine causes seeking behaviour. Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out and search. It increases your general level of arousal and your goal-directed behaviour.
Dopamine seeking systems keep you motivated to move through your world. So there is the Opioid system that makes us feel pleasure.
Let’s not get too technical with the names now! Now we have established that ‘wanting’ is dopamine and ‘feeling pleasurable’ in Opioid. These 2 go hand in hand. The ‘wanting’ system propels you and the ‘feeling pleasurable’ system makes you feel satisfied.
If your wanting system isn’t gratified, you start going on an endless loop trying to look for sources which could possibly give you pleasure!
These constant interactive loops are called Dopamine loops.
Social Media and Dopamine loops
Internet and Social media are a source instant gratification for the desire you seek. Starting from looking up for something to getting appreciated for something you have done.
From my previous blog post, you know what micro-moments are and how Social media platforms are trying to address these ideas, not against it but for it.
Few examples:
- Just saw someone wearing awesome shoes? Go to google lens and find details about the shoe!
- You want to know what your colleagues are doing ? Go to LinkedIn!
- You were gazing at your friend’s post on Instagram and you want to go to the same place?
Check the geotags →
Then other pictures that were taken there →
Then you find your other friends who had also been there →
Then you found that there was a cute girl/boy in one of the pictures →
you try to find out who that person is →
You see that the person has a private account →
You log off from the platform and try a different platform, say Fb now →
By the time you opened facebook, you forgot why you got there and you start looking at other posts →
Loop continues →
It becomes harder and harder to stop looking at messages, posts, stories, etc. once you get into your dopamine loop.
A brain scan showed that when a person was anticipating some information the activity was more when compared to actually getting one.
Dopamine system in the brain is never content. It is very much possible for the dopamine system to keep seeking more and more. Searching for something on google and you found it and yet after half an hour you are still online looking for more information.
140 Characters is the sinful villain
The dopamine system is more powerful when the information consumed is in small quantity. Now you know why that news app that delivers news in less than 100 words is so addictive! A tweet is ideally meant to rage your dopamine system.
7 ways to get out of a Dopamine loop
- The most important step is to identify if you are in a dopamine loop.
2. Don’t take your mobile phone to the toilet.
3. Digital Detoxes don’t work, they only hamper with your productivity.
4. Spend some time to consciously adjust settings on your phone so that you don’t receive automatic notifications which could eventually put you in a dopamine loop.
5. Have distinct notification for each app, so that you know which app is alerting you and of course prioritize beforehand on the apps that need immediate attention and the ones that don’t.
6. Make use of a screen time monitor and challenge yourself to have lesser screentime on the Social Category.
7. iOS claims to help you reduce screen time, as their privacy, notifications management, simplistic GUI design, etc makes you stay focused on your tasks.
8. If you are not the iOS person and you prefer android mobiles, I'd suggest you use the OnePlus's Zen mode feature quite often.
I know that these might just go over your head. But at least you got to know the science behind your increased screen time.
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Shane Barker Justin Lee Mark McCallum Surabhi Washishth Reece Robertson Justin Lee Digital Marketing ツ Niklas Göke
