Scrolling Through the Abyss: Exploring the Cognitive Effects of Your Scrolling Addiction
Imagine this: You’ve had a long day at work and you finally lay down in your bed. You open your phone to alleviate some stress and start to scroll through TikTok. You are drawn in by new trends and short funny videos. Before you know it, you look at the clock on the top corner of your screen and realize time has passed by. The hours that passed by felt like minutes.
You then decided to close the TikTok app and go on Instagram to take a break. A few minutes later, you are back at it and scrolling again through TikTok. That is the thing about TikTok and other social media apps with scrolling features, you can’t resist its addictive features. Why is this habit so hard to change? If we know how time-consuming and damaging it is, why do us as consumers keep coming back for more?
First of all, what even is a habit? A habit generally is a behavior that becomes a routine and is performed regularly to the point where it becomes automatic. This habit is usually followed by a reward, which is what makes this behavior a habit. Driving, for example, becomes a habit because it is something you do repetitively. Once you become familiar with driving, your body goes on auto-pilot mode and stops paying attention. This is a potential risk because you are less cautious on the road and zone out while driving. In the situation of scrolling mindlessly on TikTok, it begins as a voluntary activity. However, as you begin to engage in this activity every night because of the instant reward, it is possible that this voluntary activity becomes involuntary behavior that is coded as a habit (1). Just like driving, it becomes a habit and sometimes occurs automatically without even being aware that you picked up your phone to go on social media apps.
What happens in the brain when engaging in this habit?
These habits are related to the dopamine it produces. Dopamine is a “feel-good neurotransmitter [that is] involved in reinforcement…and part of the brain’s reward system” (2). The area in our brain associated with dopamine is the ventral tegmental area, otherwise known as VTA (1). In the process, it projects throught the forebrain, associated with the decision making, and then goes down to the basil ganglia, which is associated with the actual movement (1). Why does this cycle have to do with you scrolling on TikTok? Well, “every habit has a reward in there because the VTA is projecting to it” (1). When your forebrain makes the decision of wanting to scroll, your basil ganglia does the action and you feel rewarded since your dopamine lets your body know that it feels good.
Why is this dangerous?
The repetitive habit of scrolling paves a path to addiction. With addiction, you “need to do more and more of the activity over time to feel the effects…”, it becomes the top priority in your life, and you rely on it to improve your mood (3). The outcome to being so dependent on this addiction is that your body becomes so normalized to the constant dopamine and reward that when you don’t have it, you experience withdrawal (4). Whenever you become aware of your addiction, you get a desire to cut down on your screen time, but could possibly begin to feel agitated and open up the app again.
With Tiktok’s “For You Page,” I’ve noticed their algorithm is tailored to my preferences as they track my likes, comments, and views for each video. The consumers then begin to feel like the product since ads become targeted for users, which brings up concerns about our privacy on apps. This powerful ability is what makes it addicting for consumers. To add on, Tiktok content is known for their short duration videos and this gives us “more information that we can handle” and if it is information we are interested in, “ we are conditioned to crave more, while never feeling fully satisfied” because of the instant gratification every swipe gives us (5).
Tiktok scrolling exemplifies how voluntary behaviors could become involuntary and habitual because of the interplay of dopamine and the ventral tegmental area. The transition from voluntary to unconscious, uncontrollable behavior happens before you even know it and spend hours scrolling and scrolling endlessly. As new apps and new addictive features continue to surface, consumers need to become aware of the potential risks of addiction and begin to find ways to balance screen time.
References
[1] Boyle, Mary ET. “Habits.” Cogs 2, 10 October 2022, UCSD, La Jolla. Presentation slides from lecture.
[2] Watson, Stephanie. “Dopamine: The Pathway to Pleasure.” Harvard Health , 20 July 2021. Accessed 18 Feb. 2024.
[3] Griffiths, Dr Mark. “Why Anything Can Be Addictive.” BBC News, BBC, 25 November 2011, Accessed 18 Feb. 2024.
[4] Boyle, Mary ET. “Hijacking with Dopamine.” Cogs 2, 18 January 2024, UCSD, La Jolla. Presentation slides from lecture.
[5] Acosta, Bremer. “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.” Medium, Digital Diplomacy, 3 April 2021, Accessed 18 Feb 2024.
