Have you ever sat to watch some TkTok for a little while and then found yourself three hours later doing the very same thing, your work, house chores, or school responsibilities abandoned? This is a very likely scenario for most smartphone users as social media platforms have gained vast popularity. In 2023, there have already been 5 billion social media users all around the world, and that number is constantly growing. Most interpersonal communication has turned into online social networking, and it gets harder and harder to get back into the habit of face-to-face meetings.

Social media addiction is tightly linked with dopamine release. But how exactly does that work?

Dopamine + Social Media Link

As we know, dopamine levels go up when you anticipate performing some pleasant activity. It motivates you to seek what you want and reach for the needed result, tickling your brain reward system. Through the years, it has been a mechanism that forces us to survive, but now, as social media usage and influence increase, it has more and more negative impacts on our overall well being. And as our brain finds scrolling through an endless feed of posts a pleasant thing, we start to crave more of it—it causes a dopamine hit! So, we get addicted both chemically and psychologically, and not just because we are weak-willed. In fact, dependence is a complicated issue caused by numerous social and behavioral factors, that's why it is not so easy to get rid of.

But, the more dopamine social media makes our brain release, the more addictive it gets for us. That's how it is all connected, and that's why it is so hard to give up on it.

Why are social media so attractive to us?

The truth is, they have been designed this way. Social media were meant to be addictive from the start because the main currency online is users' attention. So, to get the most out of it, social network creators have done it all to keep you online for as long as they could. Almost every app sends you notifications or reminders if you don't open it for too long. Or you may have paid attention to the fact that YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok offer you a new video immediately after you have watched one, turning it on automatically so you don't even have to press any buttons.

There are many choices made for you, and this ease of usage makes you stay.

How Social Media Triggers Dopamine

We have already figured out how social media affects dopamine release, but what exactly puts that mechanism on?

You have likely noticed how likes make you feel seen and wanted. Say, you post a selfie on Instagram, and then—boom!—a dozen of likes few seconds later! The response is almost immediate because most of the people we know are online almost 24/7. Dopamine is released when we receive likes, contributing to that feeling of satisfaction and reward.

What about notifications? As long as their algorithm stays unclear to a user, there is always a pleasant surprise when you see that little window on your screen. The desire to know what an app has to offer you is what makes our dopamine levels pop again.

And, as the last element of this positive reinforcement game is gratification. Your interest gets satisfied instantly when you can open the notification and see what's in there—it takes seconds. Likes and comments work like that, too: you just open your social media app, and there they are. That mechanism of constant satisfaction is a major factor in forming your addiction.

This positive response gets our dopamine higher, activating our brain's reward system and making us come for more.

The Addictive Loop

Technically, problematic social media use begins when short-term dopamine-driven feedback comes in loops, making you want to reach for it again and again. For that habit to establish well, social media marketers and creators have come up with a list of tricks to prolong user sessions.

Crafting personal feed

Social media algorithms offer you different types of content, carefully analyzing what you prefer to watch and like. As time goes by, you may notice that what you see becomes more or less alike—that happens because you are primarily given what your first requirement and interest was. This method makes users subconsciously loyal to the app, knowing that they will always find something funny or amusing there, which makes users come back for more. There is no need to search for anything; just look at what is given, and that is exactly what we crave—the simplest way to get entertainment.

Social reward

Likes and 'thumbs up!' often play a role of substitute to the praise we don't get enough in real life relationships. On social media, positive feedback is right on our fingertips, and, again, it requires so little effort! No matter what we post—be it a selfie or a picture of our lunch—at least a few likes are guaranteed immediately.

Social pressure

With reward comes the necessity to follow an unspoken rule of online interaction. If your friend posts a picture, you have to show your affection and put a like on it. If you get a message, there usually are grey ticks that turn colorful when you open the message—and, hence, the sender knows that you have read it. That's how pressure gets real. Of course, you can say there is no need to do so, but modern social protocol has changed a lot because the communication speed has gone up drastically. We wait for our opponent to respond to our messages right away if online (and even if offline, too), and it makes conversations totally different from the real ones.

Endless feed

Continuous scrolling is the most obvious and probably the most effective way of keeping people addicted to social media. Autoplay on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram Reels shows you one video after another, soaking you in. It is like a slot machine, actually: you don't know what to expect from the app. What are you going to see next? What does it have to offer? Social network users claim they know something new from the apps when, in fact, they are giving up to their addiction, spending much more time on senseless scrolling and harming both their mental and physical health.

Mere-exposure effect

The more time you spend on a platform, the more used you get to it, and the harder it is for you to leave it. This rule works for merely everything, even the things you feel neutral about. The more active you are on social media, the harder it is for you to limit its usage. If you have zero pictures on your Instagram, you will probably have little desire to engage in exchanging posts and showing your life. But if you have already filled your account with some details of your daily life, it will be harder for you to delete the app and stop telling the world what you are up to.

Zeigarnik effect/Ovsiankina effect

There have been two psychological researches regarding finishing tasks and memory work. Zeigarnik has found that people remember the interrupted tasks better than those they succeeded in finishing. Based on this work, Ovsiankina has conducted her own research about motivation to completion, figuring out that we tend to continue the interrupted task if we have not reached the result. This pattern works incredibly well for social networking sites: we feed our social media addiction by getting back on the apps because we feel the urge to finish something. But the trick is: the feed is endless, and there is no final result you can reach. So, our brain gets caught up, and we experience the desire to come back and scroll again without a particular goal.

Social media apps have a hardly negative effect on our mental health. Besides, it shortens our attention span, which is already short enough (only 8.25 seconds long). Fast and constant swiping disables our focus function.

Also, there is a trend for ignoring real life relationships that is growing around the globe. As people have their social media so easily accessible, there is less and less interest for real conversations: why make an effort when you can just go online and see the pictures? No healthy relationship can be established if the participants avoid simple face-to-face talks.

Psychological Impact of Dopamine Release from Social Media

The reward pathways of dopamine make us seek more. Hence, when we are in constant search for dopamine, we develop psychological dependency.

What's worse, it has a negative impact on our mental state. For instance, when dopamine hits, our brain signals: 'Pay attention! We are about to experience something new'. Constant vigilance can feel exhausting and lead to anxiety and a fear of missing out (FOMO). In a state of anxiety, it gets critically hard to focus and make well-thought-out decisions. This way, cognitive abilities can suffer from social media addiction, too.

After a dopamine hit, the brain responds by dropping dopamine levels, but they don't get back to normal. Unfortunately, there is a tendency for dopamine to fall even lower, and that is when you can sometimes experience fatigue, apathy, and even depression. In the long run, there is a high risk these mental conditions will be the result of your addictive behavior.

Strategies to Break Free from the Social Media Loop

To break an addictive relationship with social media, you can start with a sort of digital detox. Sure, it will only concern social media, but still, there will be a list of rules to follow to feel better in a short period of time.

1. Limit screen time. Decide a certain amount of hours or minutes you are allowed to spend on your phone daily. First, it will show you how strong your addiction really is. Second, it will let you control yourself better, or at least feel guilty for pressing 'ignore' on the message about the met limits.
2. Manage your notifications. Pop-ups are a very strong distraction, so reducing their number is a great practice for establishing a calm state of mind. Leave only those that truly matter and draw a line between work and personal communication. For example, put everyone except your closest ones on mute. Set yourself free from constantly checking your smartphone and fight your phantom vibration syndrome.
3. Turn your phone into black-and-white mode. This way, it will be less attractive to you all in all, and so, the tempation to go and check social media will drop, too.
4. Take a walk outside. Switching your consciousness and having a nice walk, breathing fresh air, and letting your thoughts flow without limits is a refreshing experience we all lack in the modern tech world.
5. Give meditation a try. Eliminating the racing thoughts and taking a chance to do and think nothing is a really precious chance not everybody gets today. Try different kinds of meditation to see which one suits you best.
6. Try mindfulness. Learn the art of being present in the moment and not worrying about the future or regretting the past. When you are fully concentrating on what you are going through, you basically have no time for chatting online or checking on the latest updates of some random people on Instagram.
7. Delete social media apps from your smart phone. This way, you will only have an option of looking through your friends' updates via desktop versions of social media, which are, to say the least, not as attractive (and often have less functionality than the app).

Anna Lembke, an author of the book 'Dopamine Nation', recommends doing so for at least one day, but a month is a preferable period of time to implement this advice  in your life. These simple actions will significantly relieve undesirable moods and you will certainly feel that there is a life beyond social networks.

Conclusion: Building Healthy Social Media Habits

Social media are more dangerous than it may seem, developing dopamine dependency. Social media addiction is a real thing that everyone is at risk of falling for, so it is a good idea to stick to the simple rules of digital hygiene. There is no need to make a total digital detox for a month; just mind your social media usage and regulate the actions that might release dopamine in larger amounts.

Avoid addictive use of social networks, remember to practice your social skills offline, take short daily walks on a daily basis, and always choose real life over online activity.