Think Fast: Are Our Dopamine Receptors Malfunctioning?

We all know social media is addictive–but is it as addictive as your typical drug?

I can pinpoint the moment I realized my attention span was degrading. I was in the tenth grade when the pandemic had engulfed everyone’s lives, so most of us turned to social media to connect. Social media has been around for a while, relative to our generation, so it wasn’t a new concept to turn to a digital vice just because. However, what was new was our unlimited screen-time, thanks to our newfound limited responsibility. Personally, I was still in the early years of high school, so I had even less responsibility than an average teenager. I confess to having watched an average of two shows a week, on top of a few movies here and there. What I’ve never admitted was the absurd amount of TikTok I watched, and I’m talking the same number of hours as someone working a full-time job. Obviously, I don’t have the luxury to spend the better part of my week scrolling, but I still allocate an hour or so before bed to wind-down, but I digress.

It’s quite apparent that the collective attention span of our age demographic has declined significantly, and I think we can all say that the pandemic has exacerbated the dependency on digital vices. I can’t sit in lecture without the urge to pick up my phone, analogous to a compulsive tic. The reason is simple: we’ve become dopamine addicts.

Dr. Anna Lembke, Stanford psychiatrist and renowned author of Dopamine Nation, spoke with NPR host Terry Gross on addiction in 2021. Most people have an implicit association of addiction to food, sex, or often drugs. Dopamine is the integral neurotransmitter responsible for the effects of addictive substances, or in this case, addictive tendencies.

“Different drugs work on different endogenous systems. There’s the opioid system. There’s the cannabinoid system. There’s the adrenal system. But the final common pathway to all of those rewarding substances and experiences is dopamine,” Dr. Lembke says. The human body releases a baseline of all neurotransmitters, and differing stimuli can deviate said baseline by increasing or decreasing the rate of release and how much is released.

Dr. Lembke remarks that “chocolate increases dopamine above baseline about 50%. Sex is about 100%. Nicotine is about 150%.”^[1] This phenomenon can be extended to all rewarding behaviours that induce a surge in dopamine. So, if we think about partaking in large doses of dopamine-inducing behaviours as opposed to sole substances, the action itself can become a legitimate addiction. Contrary to popular belief, we can deduce that uncontrolled media use isn’t because of mere laziness (although sometimes it can be), it has the same chemical response as drug addiction.

Can addiction to our phones explain the rising cases of attention deficit adolescents? Dr. Lembke explains that for all addicts, the process of becoming an addict is the same. It begins with indulging recreationally, then using the drug as a vice to cope with issues in their lives. With repeated exposure, their tolerance to the drug begins to increase, thus more is needed to feel fulfilled. When they don’t use, they are dopamine deficient and suffer cravings to use.1 Note that I’m using the term ‘drug’ as an umbrella term for all substances and actions that are associated with addictive responses. This is precisely why certain demographics are targets for addiction, especially those with social upheaval and poverty.^[2] We need to pick up our phone every so often to fulfill our compulsions dictated by a dopamine ‘shortage’, even though this amount is more than biologically needed. We need to consume differing media concerningly often to feel satisfied, and that is exactly what apps like TikTok provide: a method to switch content, music, and taste with a mere scroll.

Humans are evolutionarily equipped to opt for pleasure and avoid pain. So yes, social media has blatantly caused a natural response to exceed normal measures. But the media isn’t the sole blame. It’s important to note that in the developed country we live in, humans don’t have to worry about scarcity regarding food, shelter, and clothing. Everything’s provided for us (although prices are making it increasingly difficult), and “our brains aren’t wired for that,” says Dr. Lembke.^[1] So, we live in a world where consuming too much of a substance due to compulsions makes us worse off. Consuming too much of anything is bad for you, as per the cliché.

Horrifically, despite knowing that I hate the lethargy and mental strain of excessive media consumption, I keep going. I hate the tight feeling in my chest and the persistent cough after smoking for many years, yet I keep smoking.  Dr. Lembke touches on how we live a very distress-free life in retrospect to evolution, so we are losing our capacity to delay gratification and deal with pain in its different forms.

In all seriousness, our issue isn’t that young people are addicted to artificial dopamine surges; it’s that most people are not able to satisfy their emotional and physical needs in an objectively healthy way. I opt for caffeine simply because regulating my sleep schedule and diet in a healthy way is a much more daunting task requiring immense amounts of discipline. I started smoking because I wanted a vice when everything felt so heavy, instead of facing issues head on. I rely on social media to become immersed in a world that’s not my own for as long as I need. Caffeine and nicotine are huge money losses for me, but the worst part is that TikTok feeds are indefatigable: the next video automatically loads to your screen.

 We can all agree that after studying for weeks for an exam, the feeling of seeing your desired grade is one of the most rewarding things in the world. It’s easy to forget the satisfaction of earned ‘highs’, but substituting vices for painful pursuits makes that infamous dopamine surge just that much better.

References:

[1] “In ‘Dopamine Nation,’ Overabundance Keeps Us Craving More.” NPR, August 25, 2021. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1030930259. 

[2] Grinspoon, Peter. “Poverty, Homelessness, and Social Stigma Make Addiction More Deadly.” Harvard Health Medical School, September 28, 2021. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/poverty-homelessness-and-social-stigma-make-addiction-more-deadly-202109282602. 

• addiction
• doomscrolling
• dopamine
• health
• life
• social media
• tiktok