Technology, Millennials and the Connection to Dopamine

“My head will explode if I continue with this escapism,” says Jess Scott, via her blog Eyeleash: A blog Novel. Now you might be wondering, “what the heck is Jess talking about?”

Technology has slowly but surely taken over the world. I still find myself lounging on the couch after a long day of class and work on my computer catching up with what I feel like I missed by being so busy that day. Millennials, through and through, have proven to be the bastion for technology use.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest study, millennials account for more than 80 million people of the United State’s population. With a huge number like that, it’s easy to figure out why companies like Apple, Microsoft, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, YouTube and more place so much emphasis on understanding the needs of millennials.

Is it wrong that technology is starting to take over young people’s lives? Society’s use of technology has expanded ten-fold along with its actual development, as Jacques Ellul puts it: “Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity.”

At this point, you are probably pondering the title a little bit. The words “technology” and “millennials” are often grouped together, as we have discussed in this article so far. But the word dopamine, which many people have heard of, from studying psychology in one way or another, precedes technology and millennials. The reason for that is simple: RECEIVING A MESSAGE TO A PHONE OR OTHER DEVICE RELEASES DOPAMINE IN THE BRAIN, TO AN EXTENT MIMICKING THE EFFECTS OF COCAINE.

BOOM! We have hit the nail on the head. Everyone knows that millennials are often times associated with being impatient, and having the feeling of wanting things now rather than waiting. If you pair that type of mindset, with technology companies deliberately targeting millennials, with the idea that a simple message elicits a cocaine-like response, it’s easy to see that millennials’ lives are being completely derailed by technology.

Before moving on, it’s important to understand how dopamine works in the brain. Originally, dopamine was thought to inhibit pleasure upon the person receiving a dopamine rush. This feeling of pleasure is defined in many ways, often times based on past experiences and current feeling and setting. This following reference might sound bad, but it makes sense when looked at with deep context. In a way, drug users are like millennials because they are always feeling like they need more. Suffice it to say, technology companies are effectively creating drugs for their abusers — millennials.

Dopamine is created in several parts of the brain. What makes dopamine so effective is that it is naturally occurring — our brains are meant to function with dopamine. Whether you realize it or not, your brain creates dopamine to help with many of life’s daily processes, like thinking, sleeping, attention and eating, just to name a few. Now, researchers have found that activities inhibit a dopamine response, but it’s still a very raw approach that needs more time for understanding. In thinking, the idea of dopamine no longer is something that provides pleasure, but rather something that people seek out.

Let’s focus a little more on the idea of receiving a text message.

We all love texting; there is no denying that. Certain people like short-form, where others take pride in their ability to type a Harry Potter-length text in just seconds. The original purpose behind text messaging was to give people a less formal, more intimate, and certainly very private way of communicating with anyone. Starting that conversation can be difficult, but ending it has proven to be even harder.

With a topic like this, a journalist like myself typically would enlist the help of an expert in the field of psychology or technology to help explain theories and such. What could end up healing this obsession, and downright reliance on technology, is for people to understand just how big of an impact it is having on their lives. As a 22 year old, I don’t need a psychologist to tell me the role that technology plays in my life. It’s as simple as going onto the Internet, and using the resources that we have (thanks to technology — IT’S SERIOSULY EVERYWHERE) and connecting dots that might not have been linear previously.

Dopamine makes you curious, and that to me is what I find to be so cool about it. As humans, we have a naturally occurring drug in our brains that makes us curious. The marketplace of ideas would be nothing without curiosity, academia would be nothing without curiosity, capitalism wouldn’t exist without curiosity, and technology would not continue to evolve if it weren’t for curiosity. As bad as this article has made technology look, especially in the eyes of millennials, dopamine is a microcosm of life. It makes us happy without us knowing that it is in use, it makes us sad without us knowing that it is in use, and it makes us seek more when we want more.

Since dopamine can be both good and bad, and because so many activities can actually spark a dopamine release, I’ve summed up the article in four short points. If you obtained nothing else from this article, let it be the following:

1. Look at your own use of technology, and cut away anything that is not needed. This isn’t directly related to dopamine, but simply cutting things that you aren’t using will only make you a more efficient person all around.

2. Don’t cave in to technology. To use a common bodybuilding analogy, supplements will only work if your training and diet are on point. They exist to help you maximize your own efforts. Technology can be viewed in the same way. There are ways of doing things now that have existed since long before technology ever became a factor. Not everything needs to revolve around technology.

3. If you have an interest in something, or want more information on a topic, do something about. Just as much as dopamine impacts your feelings of pleasure, it causes you to be curious, like we talked about earlier. Curiosity is fueled by the unknown; thusly, a dopamine release from uncovering answers to information that you might not have known before can be a great thing. And guess what, you can use your technology to help you with this one.

4. Be careful of what Susan Weinschenk calls “dopamine loops,” which refers to the many different external sources that can cause a dopamine release. It’s easy for you to text, and through reading this article, it should be pretty apparent that taking part in a texting conversation and receiving a message releases dopamine. But so does Facebook messenger, Twitter, Instagram, and even Google search, just to name a few. Just be aware.