You’ve spent two hours, or maybe three, in an impossible position looking at your phone in the middle of a kind of trance. A notification made you unlock the screen and, after jumping from one application to another, you fell into the black hole of the scroll infinite. You could hardly tell what you have seen. What perverse mechanism has hijacked your attention?
Technology has “hacked” our psychology based on experiments with laboratory rats that psychologist BF Skinner conducted in the 1940s. Just as rodents became obsessed with a lever that sometimes gave them food and sometimes not, we are victims of intermittent booster. We slide our finger across the screen looking for an unpredictable reward (a likea funny video or an outrageous news story), which generates a highly addictive spike.
It is no coincidence that addiction expert Dr. Anna Lembke describes smartphones as “modern-day hypodermic needles“. The problem of living on this digital merry-go-round lays it out clearly psychiatrist Evita Singh: short, frequent bursts of dopamine end up overstimulating us. As the months go by, brain pathways lose sensitivity and what previously gave us gratification stops doing so, opening the door to depression, anxiety and lack of concentration.
The great myth of dopamine fasting
To solve this short circuit, Silicon Valley popularized the concept of “dopamine fasting,” created by psychiatrist Cameron Sepah. However, this term has generated enormous confusion.
Dr. Peter Grinspoon warns in a publication for Harvard that the name should not be taken literally. Biologically speaking, it is impossible to “fast” from a natural brain chemical. In fact, Dr. Singh clarifies that the goal of reducing screen time is not to rid the body of dopamine, but reset the sensitivity of our nerve cells so that they react to normal stimuli again.
Faced with the frenzy of scrollthere is a trend that has appeared strongly: slow dopamine (slow dopamine). It is an approach that advocates pleasures stretched over time, almost meditative, where intensity gives way to nuance. In practice, it is retraining the brain in delayed gratification: accepting that the reward requires patience and prior effort, as occurs when preparing a meal from scratch, reading a book for hours, or tending a garden. This is in stark contrast to fast dopamine, which offers an instantaneous spike followed by a sharp drop (the scrollsugar, shopping on-line).
The science of speed
The difference between something addictive and something constructive often lies, purely and simply, in speed. A study published in the scientific journal Neuropsychopharmacology showed that the rewarding effects of stimulants in the brain depend crucially on how quickly they raise dopamine.
Through brain scans, researchers observed that rapid increases in dopamine activate neural networks linked specifically to the subjective experience of the “high” or intense reward. In contrast, slow increases generate radically different and opposite patterns of global connectivity in the brain.
Furthermore, it is vital to understand that we have trivialized this molecule. Dopamine is not only the “pleasure hormone”, but it is a fundamental neurotransmitter that acts on our movement, memory, attention and sleep. Its imbalance not only generates addictions, but is linked to diseases such as Parkinson’s, schizophrenia or ADHD. Breaking this circuit is not solved in a weekend, restoring these brain pathways and forming new habits can take up to 90 days.
From addiction to isolation
Misunderstanding neuroscience can be dangerous. Journalist Kirsty Grant, of the BBCunderwent a radical 24-hour dopamine fast: no screens, no music, no interaction, and barely any water. His conclusion was revealing: Instead of achieving enlightenment and concentration, he experienced a level of overwhelming boredom, intense hunger, and felt like he was punishing his body.
Dr. Grinspoon in harvard criticizes precisely these extreme drifts, where people deprive themselves of speaking or interacting socially based on bad science. The medical literature supports this concern: an investigation published in the magazine Cureus concludes that intense dopamine fasts, which include extreme isolation or crash diets, can harm both physical and mental health. These types of radical practices cause feelings of loneliness, anxiety and malnutrition.
Instead, the studies propose exploring a comprehensive approach that includes mindfulness. Practices such as meditation or yoga offer real and positive effects on the regulation of dopamine, allowing us to disconnect from digital distractions in a healthy way.
The antidote to doomscrolling and mental exhaustion does not involve locking ourselves in a cave without stimulation. Science and psychology point towards gentle re-education. It is re-teaching our mind that sustained effort is also a reward.
“Slow dopamine” invites us to regain control of our time and attention, transforming pleasure into something deeper and less volatile. Ultimately, it is about ensuring that technology once again becomes a useful tool at our service, and stops being a slot machine permanently installed in our pocket.
Image | Photo by Borna Hržina on Unsplash
Xataka | The science of “doomscrolling”: how technology hacked psychology so we can’t let go of our phones
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