Doomscrolling and Dopamine: Understanding Why Our Phones Are So Addictive

Late at night before going to bed, you may typically open social media and tell yourself “I’ll only watch a couple videos.” Before you know it, two videos turn into ten and it becomes late at night and you still find yourself scrolling. Even though you have no intentions of being up this late, why is it that you just could not stop being on your phone?

This experience is described as “doomscrolling.” Oftentimes, we start to blame ourselves because we do not have discipline, we create bad habits, or we do not have boundaries for ourselves when it comes to this. However, doomscrolling is not just about the self-control we have, but it has a lot to do with how our brain works and how social media is designed. Social media triggers and activates the brain reward system which research shows how using certain platforms engage dopamine-related circuits which deal with habit-formation and motivation. Dopamine is called the “feel-good hormone” since it craves anticipation and starts to increase when we predict something rewarding may happen. Hence why scrolling creates anticipation, because every swipe creates suspense and uncertainty. Some videos can be rewarding and lead you to wanting to keep going because of the unpredictability behind it.

Your brain primarily does not focus on this one factor, there has to be balance. The limbic system gravitates us towards seeking immediate reward while on the other hand, the prefrontal cortex balances us by self-control and decision making. By constantly being on social media, we tend to associate it with weaker executive control and this is primarily noticeable during night time where doomscrolling has the ability to regulate our behavior. Doomscrolling also affects us emotionally. By looking at studies, there has been increased depressive symptoms that have to deal with a long amount of screen time and they mostly occur in young adults in adolescents. The link between these two are very complex, but the more scrolling that is done may lead to negative or intense content which increases stress and anxiety.

Becoming aware of this dopamine loop there are many ways in which there is room for growth and improvement. By looking at these changes and understanding how to fix them, it creates a new perspective on how we view doomscrolling. This does not suggest we ban technology or we abandon it but truly emphasizes how we should use it with intentions, create boundaries for ourselves and set limits allowing pauses in our daily lives to focus on the important things. Scrolling can feel “automatic” but understanding the loop and cycle behind it, we learn how to control it.

Works Cited:

Montag, C., Lachmann, B., Herrlich, M., & Zweig, K. (2019). Addictive Features of Social Media/Messenger Platforms and Freemium Games against the Background of Psychological and Economic Theories. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(14), 2612. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16142612.

Turel, O., He, Q., Brevers, D. et al. Delay discounting mediates the association between posterior insular cortex volume and social media addiction symptoms. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 18, 694–704 (2018). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-018-0597-1

Twenge, J. M., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L., & Martin, G. N. (2017). Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen Time. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376 (Original work published 2018)