Your Phone As IV Dopamine

At twenty years old, I’ve been told: “get off your phone” for approximately my entire life. My generation is known as “those darn kids that can’t look up from their screens.” And while I usually meet that statement with a not-so-subtle eye roll, I figure it’s about time to dig into it.

I got my first cell phone around sixth grade — one of the florescent purple devices with a sliding keyboard and glossy exterior. From the get-go, my communication with friends became a constant stream. Always texting, never calling. It was also never the source of any substantial conversation, mostly just the mindless —

“what’s up”

“nm. you?”

Those two lines pretty much sum up the beginning of the cell phone era with regard to teens. Almost in parallel, the adults of the world were starting to rely on BlackBerrys for their professional (and personal) needs, so they weren’t exactly immune to the convenience of at-your-fingertips communication either.

I don’t think anyone predicted the way cell phone use has accelerated exponentially over time. Each advance in technology resulted in increased screentime. Admit it, you used your phone significantly less when its only two functions were Tetris or pay-per-use texting and calling.

So the technology has improved and our little handheld devices are more powerful than ever. But what drives our overwhelming desire to constantly consume what our phones provide?

A study published by Deloitte found that the average person checks their phone 47 times per day. Unsurprisingly, this number is even greater for users aged 18–24: 86 times per day.

Many people would simply chalk this up to a lack of self-control. Ever been told, “you’re addicted to your phone?” Well, there may be a significant biological basis behind that suggestion.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is active in the reward pathways of the brain. It’s released when partaking in pleasurable activities such as sex or eating a food you’ve been craving. Dopamine transmission plays into mood, motivation, and attention. Pretty powerful stuff.

According to a study by Harvard, cell phones are capable of triggering reward pathways also utilized by cocaine and gambling. I’m going to make myself vulnerable here by including the stats for my screen time last week. The purpose of including it isn’t so that you can mock me for using TikTok, but to see that my usage screams addiction. Quick side note: this was during finals week in college.

Cell phones and social media have integrated seamlessly into our daily lives without any real alarm sounded on behalf of the neurochemical effects that mimic serious addiction.

While you can’t overdose on Instagram like cocaine or go bankrupt from Snapchat like gambling, addiction to your phone can have serious impacts on your productivity and social relationships. The end result is a short-circuit of your brain’s reward circuitry.

When I entered a classroom in middle school or high school, I had to put my phone into a shoe cubby by the door which had designated pockets for each student. I used to be totally off-put by the rule, but now I can understand that the teacher had no other option when the students were literally getting mini dopamine hits every time they refreshed Twitter.

Cell phones are only continuing to advance. If the current trend continues, we will become increasingly reliant on them to boost our mood, drive our actions, and captivate our attention. Apple has implemented a screen time feature that offers downtime and app limits, but placing these restrictions on yourself is voluntary. And after all, why would you voluntarily restrict that oh- so-pleasant dopamine drip?