| That seems to make sense and seems to be happening to a lot of us. I think the dopamine-being-reward hypothesis has been proven to be an oversimplification[1]: "Dopamine was originally thought of as critical in the pleasure" systems of the brain. It was thought that dopamine makes you feel enjoyment and pleasure, thereby motivating you to seek out certain behaviors, such as food, sex, and drugs. But then research began to show that dopamine is also critical in causing seeking behavior. Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out, and search. It increases your general level of arousal and your goal-directed behavior. Dopamine makes you curious about ideas and fuels your searching for information." I've also noticed that if I try listening to music and my brain is being very picky with my playlist, then I know that the day will probably be filled with apathy and anhedonia.[2] How much do you think the instant gratification society that we're living in plays a role in this behavior? The internet has made food, sex, goods, etc so easy to get, which may cause issues with dopamine management that our ancestors didn't have. [1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-wise/201802/th... https://www.wired.com/2011/07/sapolsky-on-dopamine-not-about... [2]https://www.pnas.org/content/116/9/3793 |
Yea, my theory is that for some people (like myself), the instant-gratification society has been terrible for mental health. I have effectively retrained my brain to be stimulated by only exciting + novel things. Things that illicit huge dopamine releases due to their nature being inherently novel/new.
Take YouTube as an example. Pull down on the page, and it's like a slot machine. Page loads a whole new grid of fresh - potentially click worthy - videos!
The eyes/brain scan the page looking for a hit. BINGO you see a video that catches your interest. Click. Ahh, satisfying transition instantly to the video. Boring? Click back at the home page, and start the slot machine again. Rinse, repeat.
That cycle of chance (load the grid) --> seek (search the grid visually) --> instant reward (click the video) is what's so dangerous. Takes almost no mental, or physical effort, to carry out this cycle.
IMO, it's exploiting a very primitive system:
chance (randomness) --> stimulates effort --> get reward.
You will naturally tend toward systems that minimize effort, and maximize reward. Everything else will feel like a giant burden, or will lack a stimulating effect entirely.
You can see this same cycle in things like Facebook, Instagram, Google News, or any video game. Minimal effort required, to capture your attention (effectively blasting dopamine).