Here’s how you can cut down on screen time and reel scrolling. Save both time and your eyesight!
Have you ever wondered why the average time normal people use their mobile is about 7 hours a day, sometimes scrolling reels, watching movies on Netflix and watching videos on YouTube?
If you spend like 7 hours a day it doesn’t only affect your life, but job, studies and your mental health. If you have ever tried taking a mobile out from anyone, they feel stressed and are desperate to take their mobile back as soon as possible. There’s no doubt at all that this thing has become an addiction.
Let's understand the science behind this addiction and most importantly what should be the solution for this.
You may not believe that the addiction to social media could be compared with that of drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol addiction. It sounds weird, cocaine and social media are different, but the addiction within the body could be compared most probably.
Your body follows a pattern with any addiction which is called dopamine pattern. First, understand what dopamine is, Dopamine is a neurotransmitter made in your brain.
Since so long ago scientists have believed that dopamine is a pleasure chemical, if we feel contented dopamine is the responsible chemical behind it, but it's not accurate.
According to the latest research, the happiness that we get is not from dopamine but from endorphins. The dopamine has to do with motivation and reward.
Your phone and social media are easy to access, you just have to unlock your phone there you are ready with social media apps like Instagram, and Facebook. And also, you are getting a speedy reward. This is how you are addicted to social media due to its easy access and speedy reward.
Compare this with other activities like reading books requiring patience to get rewards. If you have to go out to play sports you need to wear a T-shirt and shoes and have to walk out which requires effort and less ease of access.
These social media companies meticulously designed their apps, conducting detailed studies on the psychology of addiction, analyzing what compels users to spend more time on screen, and intentionally manipulating these findings.
Social media addiction could be dangerous for you for so many reasons which include waste of time, rise of radicalization, insecurity and depression.
It’s not that you should completely avoid social media, as you are reading this blog post on a social media platform itself. But the answer to how to use social media lies in these two factors, ease of access and speedy reward.
If you want to reduce addiction to anything, you must decrease its ease of access and the immediacy of its rewards.
Today, it’s incredibly easy to open your phone and click on Instagram or Facebook applications. Imagine if these apps weren’t immediately visible as soon as you unlocked your phone, you wouldn’t have done it.
A solution for this addiction would be, to delete your social media applications, I’m not insisting you delete your account. You can log in to those social media accounts through the web browser, which reduces your ease of access.
If you think it won’t work out, make sure at least to turn off the notification of those apps which keeps on popping every minute every hour. There your brain will not expect a reward and you will open apps only when you need it.
However, the solution depends on your addiction, if your addiction is moderate, you can just turn off your notifications, and if you believe it's problematic to some extent then delete the apps.
The same logic can be applied to combat various addictions; for instance, if there are no cigarette shops nearby, it reduces the ease of access.
