I feel like this is a dumb question, but I’m really struggling with my phone addiction and I want to know why this happens. I’m also generally curious about the brain and how it works, especially in addiction cases. Is our brain evolution just not caught up with the new technology?
I’m already aware that our brains release dopamine when we use our phones, but why?
Yesterday I read that our brains release dopamine when we fulfill a survival need- the article used eating and sex as examples. Obviously we’ll die without eating, and our species will die without sex (reproduction), so it makes sense for our brains to reward us for these things.
But scrolling on a smartphone isn’t a survival need. It’s fun, but we won’t die without it. So why does my brain release dopamine when I use my phone, so much that I’ve become addicted to it (specifically scrolling)?
In: Biology
It’s actually a misconception that dopamine is a “reward”. It partly acts like that too, but mainly is what drives your decisions. Feeling driven, motivated, or urging is you feeling your dopamine. Anticipation, capturing your attention is also dopamine. It’s not something you get afterwards and look forward to, the looking forward is IT.
That’s why gambling is so addictive, anticipation of reward in gambling stimulates your brain to release a lot of dopamine, forcing/urging you to keep going.
Scrolling on your phone is the same. You are constantly anticipating something interesting to pop up. That makes you release dopamine and keep you scrolling.
Without dopamine you would have trouble making any decisions whatsoever. Nothing would feel right. You could be lying in bed and contemplating getting up, but you wouldn’t be able to, or with severe difficulty, decide to get up because it would just feel wrong.
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