By Caroline Kotterer

In today’s generation, social media has become a primary means of communication.

It makes keeping in contact with friends and family convenient and entertaining. If used correctly, there are many positive aspects regarding the use of social media. By no means am I saying there is a right and wrong way to use the internet, but if it starts to take a toll on your mental health, it might be time to reflect. 

At the start of COVID-19 in March, colleges around the country sent kids home leaving us to finish the semester through virtual learning. TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook. I slowly began to rotate through all of these apps continuously for hours on end just wasting my day away to fight the boredom of being away from college. As time passed, I started to feel a sense of dread each time I opened an app. Then I began to take a moment to self-reflect on what was making me feel this way. It boiled down to the mental toll that social media began to take on me. According to editors Lawrence Robinson and Melinda Smith, although useful, social media can lead to increased anxiety and depression with excessive use.

Taking a break from social media sounds like a simple task until you realize just how addicted you are to your phone. Many of us are, whether you’d like to admit it or not. This dependence is partially due to the business model that many app developers use to increase their presence in society. The Social Dilemma, a new Netflix documentary, which is told through the eyes of many tech executives from companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.,  illustrates how our society revolves around technology and what to expect in the future. It is an eye-opening watch worth sparing an hour and a half out of your day. 

Dopamine.

Our brains are wired for pleasure and the applications we use everyday on our phones utilize this to exploit consumer behavior. There are four major Dopamine reward pathways that are responsible for behaviors related to learning, habit formation, and addiction. When you receive a positive stimulus such as a “like” on your recent Instagram post or a notification from a friend, dopamine gets released. Over time, this positive social stimulus increases the intensity of this feel-good reward. We have an unlimited supply of social stimuli, whether it be positive or negative, at our fingertips. With each notification giving you the possibility of a dopamine influx, you are slowly training your brain to become addicted without even noticing. 

Since technology doesn’t seem to be disappearing anytime in the near future, it may be a good time to observe your own habits and see how we can restore our Dopamine reward circuitry to normal. Being mindful of the power our phones have can help to reduce the amount of time spent on our smartphones. A useful tool I have implemented is turning off my notifications, which has boosted my productivity. Deleting toxic apps, tracking screen time, using a media bias chart are all helpful tips to create a healthier relationship between you and your smartphone. While it may seem like life is out of our control right now, take this time to make a change you can control.

Resources

Robinson, L. and Smith, M., 2020. Social Media And Mental Health - Helpguide.Org. [online] Helpguide.org.