💡 Chasing that Dopamine (Issue 135)
Substitute good thrills for the bad
Tech companies learned how to spike your dopamine. They created addictive experiences and apps to keep you on your phone and staring at that tiny screen for hours and hours every day.
Are there any exciting new photos on Instagram?
What new videos are in my feeds on TikTok and YouTube?
Are people liking my most recent post?
Did someone else comment on what I shared?
What was that buzz, ding, beep??
Which app wants my attention now?!?!
Time Spent on Social Media (source):
People spend an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes daily on social media.
Americans spend 147 minutes daily on social media.
On average, Americans check their mobile devices 159 times a day.
US teens spend an average of 4.8 hours daily on social media.
Facebook users spend about 35 minutes daily on the platform.
The average daily time spent on YouTube is 19 minutes and 39 seconds.
Many of us work and play on our digital devices daily, and some tools can help us track how much time we spend on them. iOS's “Screen Time” and Android’s “Digital Wellbeing” provide valuable time and app usage reports on your mobile devices. You can see the daily average, plus a history of your daily and weekly trends. You’ll also see the worst time sinks (i.e., the apps you can’t stop using).
For example, I remember seeing how much time I was wasting on Instagram and Facebook, despite those platforms not doing much for my business at all. I couldn’t even say that using those apps made me very happy! Instead, I often ended up feeling stressed, disappointed, and depressed by the news and horrible things people say.
Quitting all the Meta apps, Twitter, and TikTok immediately improved my life. Instead, I channel my time and energy into healthier alternatives that enhance my personal life (e.g., exercise, hiking) and boost my business ROI (e.g., writing, networking).
Humans love dopamine
We can’t help it. We love to get our dopamine boost. But there are healthier ways to chase that high that yield benefits instead of wasted time, stress, and feeling insecure. For example:
Exercise
Gaming
Nature
Thrills
Love
Sex
Big Tech doesn’t really deserve your love and attention. Their apps and services will rarely provide the value back to you that warrants the time and energy you spend with them. Yes, some of it is unavoidable. People need to use LinkedIn to network and search for jobs. Business owners need to leverage social media for marketing. We all need to communicate with friends and loved ones.
However, you can control the impact apps and devices have on you. For example, you can turn off most notifications, turn off unnecessary sounds and vibrations, set App Limits in Screen Time, and use the focus features so your phone doesn’t interrupt you when you’re busy with more important tasks.
And, more importantly, schedule your precious time to do healthier things with it (e.g., exercise, time in nature, reading, time with friends in the real world). Get your dopamine the old-fashioned way with the thrills, fun, and pleasures we used to enjoy long before smartphones came into our lives. Remember those days?
Your body and mind will thank you!
I’m Larry Cornett, a Freedom Coach who works with ambitious professionals to help them reclaim their power, become invincible, and create new opportunities for their work and lives. Do more of what you love and less of what you hate!
📕 Check out my Invincible Daily Journals. I have one specifically for Spring!
