Have you ever wondered what happens in your brain when you scroll on social media? Why do you gravitate towards a particular type of content? Why binge-watching 30-second videos seem so easy?

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Even if these questions haven’t occurred to you yet, you will find their answers quite intriguing. Your body is made up of thousands and thousands of cells. Imagine each cell to be a kingdom in its own right, fully functional and doing something important to sustain life. However, all of these cells must interact with each other and work in tandem. 

For that, they need to communicate. How? Well, they have trusted messengers called neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters transfer messages from one cell to another.

Naturally, these messengers are extremely important!

One of these messengers is- Dopamine. Dopamine has a lot of responsibilities as your body’s trusted messenger. The most important of those is- its ability to help you feel pleasure. You know the feeling of excitement and intrigue when your phone pings? 

Yeah, that is dopamine at work.

You see, dopamine is constantly working to make you feel better, to help you think and learn. It is like a reward, you do something good and your body rewards you with dopamine and you feel great.

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So, if dopamine is so good then we must keep doing things that secrete more dopamine. If only there were a way our phones could keep pinging, our brains constantly bombarded with content and eye-catching stuff. If only!

Oh! but there is a way. Social Media. Constant messages, notifications of likes, posts, stories, comments, constant and unending. An ocean of social interactions leading to dopamine release. 

But, like any other thing, excess dopamine is bad. You tend to get addicted to that release of dopamine, you crave more of it and end up spending more time doing the activity that leads to its release- stay on social media. It is a vicious cycle, difficult to break. Seconds turn into minutes turn to hours and you don’t know how that happened.

But, is it that bad?

Other than taking your time from you, social media does something that is harmful to you in the long run. Like mentioned earlier, dopamine release is tied to a reward system that your brain gives you after completing a task. Now, that task can be reading a book, completing your homework, or studying for an exam. However, all these tasks require effort, time, and hard work.

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Would you prefer to do them if you could get the feel-good substance just by a swipe of your finger?

Hold that thought and ask yourself the next time you unlock your phone and click on that familiar icon! Is this dopamine release really worth it?