How the pursuit of pleasure is rewiring our brains and shaping our world.
Photo by Ron Lach : https://www.pexels.com/photo/kids-sitting-back-to-back-using-smartphones-9785013/
We are living in an always-online world and we’re constantly bombarded with stimuli. From perpetual notifications to the endless stream of information, our brains are working overtime to process it all. This overstimulation has led to a society obsessed with instant gratification, immediate rewards, and easy pleasures.
It’s no wonder that dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, has taken center stage.
This article explores the dangers of dopamine addiction and how it’s affecting our lives.
While the time available in a day remains constant, the competition for our attention increases exponentially. Some companies are employing techniques to capture more attention and provide immediate gratification. From social media likes to limited-time offers, our lives are filled with activities designed to trigger dopamine release.
As reported by the Center for Humane Technology:
“Under immense pressure to prioritize engagement and growth, technology platforms have created a race for human attention that’s unleashed invisible harms to society.”
Here are some impressive data collected by the Center for Humane Technology:
Children who have been cyberbullied are 3x more likely to contemplate suicide compared to their peers (source).There is a 66% increase in the risk of suicide-related outcomes among teen girls who spend more than 5 hours a day (vs. 1 hour a day) on social media (source).High depressive symptoms among 13- to 18-year-old teen girls rose by 65% between 2010–2017 (source).Teens show a 2% increase in depressive symptoms for every additional hour spent using social media (source).30% of 18- to 44-year-olds feel anxious if they haven’t checked Facebook in the last 2 hours (source).
More facts can be found at: https://ledger.humanetech.com/
Dopamine addiction
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a crucial role in driving human behavior and influencing our desires, motivations, and emotions.
Daniel Z. Lieberman , a professor of psychiatry at George Washington University, and Michael E. Long, a lecturer at Georgetown University, defined dopamine as “the molecule of more” because it constantly drives us to seek novelty, stimulation, and surprises. In other words, the more our environment triggers the release of dopamine, the more we crave our dose of it.
Screenshot from https://moleculeofmore.com/
This is a self-reinforcing mechanism that works in many addictions, including those related to drugs, alcohol, and gambling. Some digital services, like social media, use algorithms to create a super-fast feedback loop that fosters addiction.
Anna Lembke, author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, explores the latest scientific discoveries to explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure often leads to pain. According to Lembke, we have transformed a world of scarcity into a world of abundance. The number of highly rewarding stimuli available is staggering: sugar, food, gaming, and pornography. All of them are easily accessible and can lead to serious addictions.
“Anna Lembke no Fronteiras do Pensamento 2024 em Porto Alegre” by fronteirasweb is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
However, dopamine is not only involved when we experience pleasure but also when we seek to achieve it, as it acts on desire.
Social media platforms, just like slot machines, use unpredictable and intermittent rewards (likes, comments, shares) to stimulate dopamine release, making them highly addictive. The correlation between random stimuli and gratification was demonstrated by Dr. B. F. Skimmer in an experiment where he conditioned animals to perform random activities in order to receive food. Skimmer discovered that animals would attempt to replicate their behavior to obtain food, even if their actions were casual.
When observing how people use social networks, it is easy to think that we are like animals who are seeking random gratification.
The cultural critic Ted Gioia has published several articles analyzing the correlation between culture and dopamine (link, link).
Screenshot from Hones Broker — https://www.honest-broker.com/p/the-state-of-the-culture-2024
According to Gioia, the cultural landscape has shifted from art to entertainment, but today, even entertainment companies are struggling:
Disney is in a state of crisis;Paramount just laid off 800 employees ;Universal Studios is releasing movies to streaming just 3 weeks after their theatrical release.
Gioia suggests that we are living in a post-entertainment culture. Today the fastest-growing sector of the economy is “distraction”, and the next step is “addiction”.
Dopamine detox
Fortunately, some players have started to provide good solutions. Android and iOS offer built-in features like App Limits and Night Shift to help users manage distractions, and many other apps offer additional services to reducing dopamine addiction.
iA Writer, a text editor by Information Architects, exemplifies how to enhance user attention and minimize cognitive overload. Its clean, minimalist interface and Markdown support streamline the writing process. The “Focus Mode” feature further enhances concentration by isolating the current sentence, reducing distractions and promoting a more focused writing experience.
Focus mode on Mac and iOS — Screenshot from https://ia.net/
Minimalist phone is an Android home-screen launcher app that simplifies the user interface by displaying apps as plain text instead of colorful icons.
A simple user interface helps users reduce screen time and minimize distractions by eliminating unnecessary visual stimuli and emphasizing functionality.
Screenshot from https://www.minimalistphone.com/
Roots app helps users manage their screen time. It tracks the quality of time spent on different apps (using a “digital dopamine” tracker) and offers features like app limits, digital downtime, daily intentions, and a balance score to promote healthier tech habits.
Screenshots fo Roots app from https://www.getroots.app/
Don’t choose the dopamine way
Thibaut Meurisse, author of Dopamine Detox: A Guide to Reclaiming Focus and Productivity, suggests some practical strategies for breaking free from distractions and enhancing focus and productivity. The author also reported that the term “dopamine detox” is scientifically inaccurate, because we do not release too much dopamine. If we are overstimulated, we need more stimuli to release the same amount of dopamine.
This is why It’s important to re-learn how to remove ourselves from the fast-feedback loop designed to capture our attention.
The concept of digital detox has evolved significantly since its inception over a decade ago, and its importance has only grown in our increasingly connected world.
Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinator, anticipated this scenario in 2010 in an article titled “The Acceleration of Addictiveness”. He said,
“But if I’m right about the acceleration of addictiveness, then this kind of lonely squirming to avoid it will increasingly be the fate of anyone who wants to get things done. We’ll increasingly be defined by what we say no to.”
After about 15 years, Graham’s suggestion is still effective today: saying no to the dopamine way is a key aspect of our success.
Individuals seeking a digital detox can employ strategies such as establishing tech-free zones, setting digital boundaries, and practicing mindfulness. However, as designers and tech leaders, we have a greater responsibility to foster a healthier digital environment. We can prioritize quality of work over constant online presence, implement “no-device” meeting policies to improve focus and collaboration, and promote productivity tools that minimize distractions during work hours.
By actively shaping the work environment, we can empower people around us to achieve a healthier and more balanced relationship with technology
References
Center for Humane Technology — https://www.humanetech.com/Gioia, T. (2024). The State of the Culture, 2024. https://www.honest-broker.com/p/the-state-of-the-culture-2024Gioia, T. (2024). How to Break Free from Dopamine Culture. https://www.honest-broker.com/p/how-to-break-free-from-dopamine-cultureGraham, P. (2010). The Acceleration of Addictiveness. https://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.htmlLembke, A. (2021). Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. United States: Penguin Publishing Group.Lieberman, D. Z., Long, M. E. (2018). The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race. United States: BenBella Books.Meurisse, T. (2021). Dopamine Detox: A Short Guide to Remove Distractions and Get Your Brain to Do Hard Things. United States: Amazon Digital Services LLC — Kdp.
Dopamine addiction: the obscure side of the seeking-reward loop was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
