This blogpost could have been very well renamed as "Step away from the Coffee, Chinmaya". Why did you have to get so personal, lol!
On a serious note, thanks for sharing your insights on dopamine and the book reference. While I was reading this, I started wondering about the two points. Let me know what you think about this.
1. I work with a lot of Gen-Z people and they often tell me that they scroll through social media not to get any immediate pleasure (dopamine hit as you explained), but it helps them disconnect from their real life problems or reality in general. Do you think this wanting to disconnect from reality is also a type of getting a dopamine hit or could there be some other explanation there?
2. I wonder what would be a dopamine hit for some one who is a social media manager. In their case, they are needed to keep checking social media for 8-10 hrs a day, and I am guessing, it will get unpleasant for them at some point, leading to loss of dopamine from this activity? Or is that, the more they scroll, the higher the dopamine hit?
1. Wanting to disconnect from reality itself is a way of chasing cheap dopamine. It tends to become a habit of avoiding real life scenarios which we need to face and using scrolling as a method to avoid them.
Covered this in detail in my piece on boredom.
People also genuinely use it for post scrolling after a long day of working and socialising but in a way that's also an escape and can get addictive.
2. I presume the job of a social media manager would be to somehow navigate this social media scrolling.
Whether good or bad content, the point is the habit of scrolling which can get addictive.
Mindfulness becomes a tricky slope in this situation.
Loved this article and thanks for adding a new book to my list now! I feel pleased to share that I also used to be a morning tea person first thing in the morning but I have overcome that over the years to the point of not needing even a cup of tea/coffee for days!
This blogpost could have been very well renamed as "Step away from the Coffee, Chinmaya". Why did you have to get so personal, lol!
On a serious note, thanks for sharing your insights on dopamine and the book reference. While I was reading this, I started wondering about the two points. Let me know what you think about this.
1. I work with a lot of Gen-Z people and they often tell me that they scroll through social media not to get any immediate pleasure (dopamine hit as you explained), but it helps them disconnect from their real life problems or reality in general. Do you think this wanting to disconnect from reality is also a type of getting a dopamine hit or could there be some other explanation there?
2. I wonder what would be a dopamine hit for some one who is a social media manager. In their case, they are needed to keep checking social media for 8-10 hrs a day, and I am guessing, it will get unpleasant for them at some point, leading to loss of dopamine from this activity? Or is that, the more they scroll, the higher the dopamine hit?
1. Wanting to disconnect from reality itself is a way of chasing cheap dopamine. It tends to become a habit of avoiding real life scenarios which we need to face and using scrolling as a method to avoid them.
Covered this in detail in my piece on boredom.
People also genuinely use it for post scrolling after a long day of working and socialising but in a way that's also an escape and can get addictive.
2. I presume the job of a social media manager would be to somehow navigate this social media scrolling.
Whether good or bad content, the point is the habit of scrolling which can get addictive.
Mindfulness becomes a tricky slope in this situation.
Loved this article and thanks for adding a new book to my list now! I feel pleased to share that I also used to be a morning tea person first thing in the morning but I have overcome that over the years to the point of not needing even a cup of tea/coffee for days!
Thank you Subhro! Yes it's a dopamine detox