ISocial media is purposely developed to give digital device users the experience of longer engagement than they had thought, creating habit loops driven by dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical in the brain, correlated with the feelings of pleasure and reward, that subconsciously drives our actions on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. This understanding of how the cycle of social media and Dopamine loop works, allows us to examine how we mindfully navigate digital spaces.

Cycle of Social Media and Dopamine Loop:

1. How dopaminergic responses affect social media use

Dopamine is sometimes referred to as the “feel good chemical,” due to the fact that it is responsible for creating feelings of pleasure and motivation. Every time you receive a acknowledgment (like), comment (influence), or notification (validation), your brain receives a shot of dopamine and encourages you to check your phone repeatedly.

2. The cycle of social media addiction

Social media platforms leverage these dopamine, ‘ii’-like responses as the key to engaging their consumer. The following summarizes how the cycle works:
-Trigger: A notification, or experience of boredom, leads you to an app.
-Action: You scroll, or respond engaging with or responding to posts, seeking validation for relationships, entertainment, or tangible business.
-Reward: A post receives likes, shares, or entertaining content, and your brain releases dopamine.
-Repetition: In this instant gratification schema, the brain continues to crave the dopamine experience and begin the loop of engagement habitually.

In this manner, instant gratification provides little to no opportunity to stop and decreases time spent outside of the digital space concurrently diminishing your real-world interactions.

3. How Algorithms Increase the Dopamine Loop

Social media algorithms optimize for the content that creates emotional response, whether it is happiness, thrill, or anger. These feeds are curated to continually provide dopamine releasing stimulus and keep users engaged. These factors contribute to why short form content addiction, think of TikTok videos or Instagram reels, is so deeply integrated into our lives.

4. The Downsides of the Dopamine Loop

There are useful aspects of social media; connection, entertainment, etc. However, there are substantial downsides to excessive use:

It is A reduced ability to engage my attention, because everything is pleasurable stimulation.

A reduced satisfaction in everyday life or moments, because of amplified comparative motivation.

It leads to reduced ability to sleep, because my scrolling never seems to tire out.

A reduced ability to be productive, because my motivation is dictated by evidence of my last Dopamine fix.

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5. Getting Out: How to Manage Social Media

There are thoughtful strategies for avoiding the dopamine loops lifecycle, like:

Setting limits for tight controls on app use and scrolling.

Turning off unregulated notifications that lead to dopamine triggers.

Taking some offline hobbies that provide long lasting or sustained rewards.

Practicing digital detox’s for the sake of your brains reward system to reset.

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