How does the Brain respond to Social Media!

The year 2020 has proven itself to be drastic in various aspects, whether it be the Pandemic, Natural disasters, Economic Crisis, or the Lockdown!

Lockdown compelled us to stay at our homes, no social gatherings, nothing, and to stay in touch with our family, friends, and loved ones we are taking the help of Social media.

Social Media!

Didn’t you just envision a hazy picture of Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, or possibly Instagram logo?

Yes, of course, you did!

How can one not know about social media, right?

On average, Indian users before lockdown used to spend around 2.4 hours on social media i.e. 10% of a day but now it has jumped by 87% (TOI article, published on 30th March 2020).

Do you have any idea that what happens to our brains when we use social media platforms?

If your answer is ‘No’ and you are interested in knowing about it then this article is surely for you. And if not, then this will increase your knowledge. (Hey you know what? At the end of this article you will find a Bonus knowledge chunk too)

So, let’s begin!

What Scientific Researches have to say?

According to a study conducted by Harvard University Professor Trevor Haynes, whenever you get a notification your brain sends a chemical messenger called dopamine.

Hey, but what is Dopamine?!

• Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter which is produced in various parts of the brain. Our nervous system uses it to send messages between two nerve cells.
• Dopamine is released when your brain is expecting a reward. It makes you feel good.
• Dopamine is associated with food, exercise, love, sex, gambling, drugs, and social media too!

So what does Dopamine has to do with social media?

Well, below is an example given which tells you what excess dopamine can do.

Drugs, for example, cocaine increases the dopamine level rapidly. Which in turn satisfies your natural reward system in a big way. But repeated drug use also raises the threshold of pleasure. This implies you must take more drugs to get a similar high.

Meanwhile, drugs make your body less able to produce dopamine naturally. This leads to emotional lows when you are sober.

Now try to relate it with Social media.

So as I was saying, according to the researchers when we get a notification, dopamine is released in our body and we feel a rush, we start to feel excited and motivated.

Unless and until we get to check that notification, we are distracted to the core. After we do that, we feel the urge to respond to it and again we are distracted until we do that.

We feel good for some time and then the dopamine level decreases and we start to feel low again. To feel that pleasure again, we post something and wait for others to give a positive response. It keeps on going and this results in ‘The Dopamine Reward Loop’. This is what addiction is, a non-ending loop.

Social Media platforms are of great importance whether you want to keep in touch with your loved ones or learn something new! But do make sure that you limit your time so that you do not fall into ‘The Dopamine Reward Loop’.

The Bonus Knowledge Chunk!

The University of Pennsylvania conducted a study on how social media impacts people mentally and emotionally. For this they divided people into two groups;

Group 1: people were instructed to spend only 30 minutes a day on their social media accounts.

Group 2: people were asked to use social media platforms as much as they want.

Surveys based on mental and emotional health were conducted as well. At the end of this survey, researchers concluded that people who used social media for 30 minutes were less depressed and less lonely than that of their counterparts.

Less Social Media time = Less Depression + Less Loneliness!

Thanks for reading!