Why can you get addicted to video games or social media in general?
In: Technology
Social media and video games are designed to make the consumer feel like they achieved something.
A like on a post or a new item in a game tell the consumer “you’re doing something good” and the brain processes that information and releases hormones like dopamine.
When your brain releases dopamine, you get that proud, achieved feeling and you learn “likes on my tweet make me feel good” and you learn to make more tweets to satisfy the need to feel good.
This goes for basically everything you do and like. There’s a reward for clicking on a YouTube video. There’s one for picking up and reading your favorite book.
And to address your comment asking about how to break addictions, breaking an addiction is typically done through minimizing exposure to the thing in question or by learning to associate it with something unpleasant.
Try to reward yourself for not participating in the activity to which you are addicted. Your brain will learn that not doing X is satisfying, and thus you will experience less of an impulse to do X.
Or you could try to find a reason not to do x. Try to remind yourself that you don’t want to do X because Y. Your brain will learn that X is associated with Y and, since you don’t like Y, you won’t like X.
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