By – Michael Pursey
It has become almost cliché to note how important people’s phones are to them. We use them to find where we’re going, listen to music, watch videos, connect with others, and so many other things that they can’t all be listed here. Smartphone use has become so ubiquitous that those who grew up with them often have difficulty imagining life without their own personal screen, and even those of us who remember what came before are loathe to give them up.
But, while we all enjoy the convenience of our smartphones, a lot of us have begun to ask ourselves what they’re doing to us. Why can it be so hard to put them down? Why do so many of us feel fidgety when we don’t have them? And if they’re not good for those of us who got them later in life, what are they doing to our kids?
It’s important when talking about this to note what we’re really talking about. It isn’t smartphones per se that keep our attention, it’s the social media platforms that they allow us to connect to. Nobody (or at least very few people) have difficulty putting their phones down because they want to check the weather over and over again. People have trouble leaving their phones at home because they want to be able to access their social media of choice, whether that be TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, or whatever other platforms people may be using.
And these platforms have huge teams of software engineers who (often with the help of psychologists) create algorithms which promote maximum ‘engagement’. This just means that they keep you on there as long as possible, since that’s how their money is made. The algorithm will show you whatever keeps you around, and as time goes on it will get better and better at it.
But how does this process work? And can it result in something that can genuinely be called addiction? To understand that, we need to understand how addiction works.
Our brains naturally produce a chemical called dopamine, which functions to provide us a brief burst of pleasure in order to encourage us to do things again. When you eat a tasty food, your brain releases some dopamine. When you do something fun or meaningful, your brain releases dopamine. Morning coffee? Dopamine.
But when people take a substance like cocaine, it creates a flood of dopamine that’s unlike anything we will get naturally. If one continues to do that over and over, their brain will become habituated to the extremely high levels of dopamine, which means that they need to take more and more to get the same effect (Yale Medicine, 2022). Also, it means that the regular levels someone would get from day to day life are miniscule in comparison, which creates a need for the substance.
So what does this have to do with social media and smartphones? Well, when someone sits down and starts scrolling through TikTok videos, every time they find a video that they really like they get a little jolt of dopamine. Of course, it’s nothing like the huge burst that someone taking cocaine would get, but it is still noticeable. This can create a pattern of over-use.
This is made worse by the psychological tricks that are employed by social media companies, particularly one called variable ratio reward (Weinschenk, 2013). Psychologists in the 1950’s found out that the best way to train an animal to do a behavior over and over again is not to reward the behavior every time. Rather, the best way is to reward the behavior in an unpredictable way. If you want a mouse to pull a lever for a reward, giving the reward every time results in less lever pulling than rewarding it 30% of the time. This creates a behavior that persists even when the reward stops.
This can help to explain why people will scroll social media even when they’re not enjoying it. Most of the things they see aren’t great, but every now and then they find a genuinely enjoyable video or post. This means that the same principles at play in training rats to pull a lever more are also working on you (and your kids!) when you’re scrolling social media.
So, taken altogether, what do we now know? Social media influences the brains dopamine system, similar (though not as strongly) to how a drug might. Also, it uses a type of reinforcement (variable ratio reward) that creates behaviors that are difficult to stop, even when the person is no longer enjoying it. Sounds a little like addiction. And while it differs in many ways from the things we know people can get addicted to, I believe the label can still fit for people who have great difficulty not using their phones.
It’s important to note that smartphones don’t inherently cause problems. They are a tool like any other, and it’s how we use them that determines the effect they have on us. Someone who uses their phone to listen to music while they work, communicate with friends, and keeps social media scrolling to a minimum is unlikely to experience any negative effects from their smartphone, while simultaneously reaping the benefits they can bring. But it IS important to be aware of how we’re using technology, and how our pattern of use changes over time. If you find yourself spending more time on your phone than you intend to, or if you see that pattern in your child, then it may be time to step back and think about how to better incorporate it into your life.
So what can you do if you find yourself staring at your phone too much? One good suggestion would be to try to be intentional about how you use it. Decide when, where, and in what situations you want to use your phone, and set aside times and places where you don’t touch it. On the bus to work? Probably a totally fine time to watch a video or two. Hanging out with your family in the evening? Maybe not so much. This may also involve setting time limits on daily use. And for us parents, this may involve discussions and setting limits with our children as well, which can be hard, but it can be just as important for them as it is for us, if not more so.
Secondly, be mindful about how your time on your phone makes you feel. Pay attention to what’s going on in your body while you’re using it. If you notice any unpleasant feelings coming up, use that as a cue to put the phone down. So often people will get stuck in that cycle of endlessly scrolling, often unaware that it is making them more depressed or anxious. Work on becoming more aware of this so that you can begin to create healthy boundaries around technology use.
And if you know someone who is having a problem like this, therapy can help! Reach out to us at Balance Psychology Clinic to learn more.
References
Yale Medicine. (2022, May 25) How an Addicted Brain Works. https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/how-an-addicted-brain-works
Weinschenk, S. (2013, November 13) Use Unpredictable Rewards to Keep Behavior Going. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/brain-wise/201311/use-unpredictable-rewards-to-keep-behavior-going