For all the joking and commentary surrounding addiction to social media, it’s a very real problem, particularly for the few among us who use social media sites as an escape from whatever anxiety or mental health issues that are troubling them. This is the extreme end of the scale but the problem persists in people with no discernible mental health issues and it’s all the fault of nature.
Any scientists reading this may want to look away now, as I mangle years of serious study into a couple of soundbites, as this is a highly complex concept I need to explain as simply as possible. Dopamine is a molecule you may have heard of. It has hundreds of uses in the body and without it, we probably wouldn’t exist in the form we know ourselves. The thing they are infamous for however, is reward stimulus. Eating, drinking wine or getting someone to have sex with you causes a release of dopamine in the brain, telling you that this is a pleasurable or desirable thing and that you should definitely do more of it. It’s the same with your smartphone, whether you’re checking to see if that comment you posted on Facebook has any likes, or when you reach level 127 in Candy Crush after a particularly tough time. The dopamine release ensures you feel good when you clear a level, get multiple likes or someone shares your recipe for chocolate brownies.
Such additive behaviour can be extremely difficult to extricate yourself from, so where should you begin? The best way to start is to be honest with yourself about where all your feeds, pops, pings and doinks come from. Many of us will have bought a smartphone pre-loaded with apps we don’t want or need. Not many of us get rid of them because the manufacturers make it tricky to delete or freeze them. Businesses pay for them to be installed so they can push ‘information’ to you. Find out what keeps pinging and uninstall it. Failing that, go into the app and disable all notifications – be warned, this is not always as easy as it seems. Next stop, your inbox. All those emails from the company you bought socks from in 2016? Unsubscribe. Unsubscribe from as much as you are comfortable with, you can always re-subscribe later.
Start reading on your way to work. No, not a Kindle or a Kobo – they are also tied to social media and exist to sell you things as much as to facilitate reading. Read the newspaper or, if you’re trying to avoid news as well, a book. Do a crossword or something else to fill your time until the train arrives at the station. Finally, the ultimate step – delete your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat andPinterest accounts. I know; scary, isn’t it? If any of this has moved you to give up social media, I’d love to hear about it. My Twitter handle is… lol, jk.
