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The Tyranny of the Endless Scroll

People are fond of talking about social media use as an "addiction," and even describe the process of weaning ourselves off using it as "withdrawal." Research does suggest that social media use can produce a dopamine release in the brain's reward centers, and that it is particularly appealing for people (a) who have a generally less organized approach to life [low "conscientiousness" personality trait], and/or (b) have higher than normal levels of narcissism. Extroverts and introverts can both be heavy social media users, although for different reasons: Extroverts do it to enhance their self-perception or their own reputation, while introverts do it to compensate for difficulty connecting with people in other ways. 

Excessive social media use does have some documented negative effects, particularly for adolescents in terms of sleep deprivation, impaired academic performance, and increased suicidal ideation or behavior. High levels of social media use have also been implicated in the development of eating disorders among adolescent girls. However, social media also has some demonstrated positive effects, including the creation or maintenance of social connections, provision of information (particularly about health), and development of a sense of community. Interestingly, adolescents sometimes identify social media as a clear risk factor for others, but not specifically for themselves or their friend groups! 

Other negative effects of social media use have to do with the substitution of online relationships for real ones. If you have a teenager in your household, you might be accustomed to saying their name multiple times before you get an acknowledgement; if you complain about this state of affairs, you are likely to hear the counter-argument "but I was on my phone!" Adults also have difficulty unplugging from work at the end of the day, because email, Slack or Teams messages, texts, and other inputs keep on coming via our smartphones or watch notifications. Once engaged with a social media platform, the small dopamine bursts keep you engaged, perhaps for longer than you originally intended. Social media apps are also specifically designed to pull you back in with mechanisms like notification alerts, or gamification strategies that increase your engagement and make using the apps feel rewarding. But when social media serve up bad news, increased time spent on these platforms translates to worse mental health overall. The combination of ongoing use with negative consequences is what makes the behavior seem "addictive" to many people. 

To counteract social media's negative effects, some experts have recommended going on a "dopamine detox" by cutting off your social media use for a certain period of time. The evidence unfortunately is not supportive of that approach. One problem is that removing social media from your life doesn't actually decrease dopamine levels in your brain, even though using social media can provide a brief dopamine burst. The second problem with the "detox" approach is that people often return to exactly the same pattern of "addictive" use once their pre-set time away from social media has ended.

A better strategy to mitigate the negative effects of social media is to re-evaluate your relationship with the apps and your method of using them. A simple fix if you notice that you are distracted by social media checking or fear of missing out (FOMO) is to turn off notifications for those apps in your phone's preferences section. If you notice that you spend more time on an app than you intended, you can set a timer that reminds you of when you intended to stop. You can also manage preferences to control which types of posts you see, from which people, to avoid content that upsets or annoys you. All of these steps take a certain level of initial effort and self-awareness, but they can save your limited attentional resources over the long term. Limited social media use appears to be a more effective strategy for improving mental health than binge-and-bust cycles with intermittent avoidance of social media use.

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