Dopamine Addiction is a Myth -- Here's What the Science Says
Summary
TLDRThis video explores the concept of 'monk mode,' a lifestyle trend where individuals cut out distractions to focus on long-term goals, often attributed to dopamine regulation. It critically examines the scientific basis of monk mode, dopamine's role in addiction, and the idea of 'dopamine fasting.' The script challenges the notion of social media causing dopamine addiction, suggesting that predispositions to usage problems may be linked to mental health issues rather than social media itself. It concludes that while monk mode might help some, it's not universally beneficial and professional help should be sought for serious distress.
Takeaways
- 🧘 Monk mode is a lifestyle trend where individuals self-isolate to focus on long-term goals, cutting out distractions like social media and unhealthy habits.
- 📱 The concept suggests that social media is addictive due to its ability to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter linked to the brain's reward system.
- 🧠 Dopamine is a hormone crucial for survival, affecting movement, mood, and attention, and is associated with activities that promote survival like eating and social contact.
- 🚫 'Dopamine addiction' and 'dopamine fasting' are popular terms without strong scientific evidence, suggesting that some people may be predisposed to develop usage problems.
- 🔬 Neuroscientists view dopamine more as a signal for attention and effort rather than just a 'feel-good' hormone, released in anticipation of rewards.
- 💡 The idea of monk mode may be effective as a form of self-help or DIY behavioral therapy for those who feel a need to address their social media usage.
- 🤔 The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) does not classify social media use as an addiction, distinguishing instead between substance abuse and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
- 📉 Studies on the effects of social media have shown mixed results, with some suggesting a correlation between heavy usage and changes in brain activity or structure.
- 🔄 'Dopamine fasting' proposes eliminating pleasurable experiences to reset the brain's dopamine system, but its effectiveness is not scientifically proven.
- 🌐 Quitting social media can have both positive and negative effects, such as increased meaningful interactions but also a sense of disconnection from the world.
- 🛡️ The video also discusses the importance of online privacy and security, mentioning the use of VPN services like NordVPN to protect personal data.
Q & A
What is the 'monk mode' trend on social media?
-Monk mode is a lifestyle trend where individuals cut out distractions and self-isolate to become more productive, focusing on long-term goals and forgoing short-term rewards such as social media and unhealthy habits.
What is the connection between monk mode and dopamine levels?
-Monk mode is thought to be about managing dopamine levels by avoiding activities that trigger a quick dopamine release, like social media use, to promote focus and productivity towards long-term goals.
How does dopamine play a role in our brain's reward system?
-Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that aids the transfer of signals between neurons and is involved in motivation, learning, and the anticipation of rewards, which can influence habits and behaviors.
What is the scientific view on the relationship between social media use and dopamine addiction?
-There is no strong scientific evidence to support the idea of 'dopamine addiction' from social media use. Dopamine is more about signaling what to pay attention to rather than just a feel-good hormone.
What is dopamine fasting, and how does it relate to monk mode?
-Dopamine fasting is a practice where individuals eliminate pleasurable experiences to reset their brain's dopamine system. It is more extreme than monk mode, which encourages a moderate approach to pleasure management.
How does the DSM-5 classify mental health disorders, and is there a classification for social media addiction?
-The DSM-5 classifies mental health disorders into categories like substance abuse and obsessive-compulsive disorders but does not have a specific entry for social media addiction.
What are the potential benefits of quitting social media according to a 2020 study?
-The study found that users who quit social media reported increased meaningful interactions with friends and family, as well as higher levels of focus and happiness.
What are the potential drawbacks of quitting social media as reported by users?
-Some users reported a lack of networking opportunities and feeling disconnected or out of touch with the world as potential drawbacks of quitting social media.
How does the script suggest approaching social media use if one feels it is problematic?
-The script suggests that if someone feels they are spending too much time on social media, they might consider trying monk mode or 'dopamine fasting,' but if they are seriously distressed, they should seek professional help.
What is the role of cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating mental health disorders?
-Cognitive-behavioral therapy is used to treat disorders like OCD, depression, and anxiety by focusing on self-reflection and habit-building, which is similar to the principles behind monk mode.
What is the script's stance on the effectiveness of monk mode?
-The script suggests that monk mode might work as a DIY version of behavioral therapy for those who believe they have a problem with social media or distraction, but it is not necessarily beneficial for everyone.
Outlines
🧘 Introduction to Monk Mode
The video script introduces the concept of 'monk mode,' a lifestyle trend that involves self-isolation to increase productivity by cutting out distractions like social media. It's based on the idea of focusing on long-term goals and forgoing short-term rewards. The trend is popular among millennials and has been popularized by influencers like Jay Shetty, who lived as a monk and wrote 'Think Like A Monk.' The script questions the effectiveness of monk mode and its scientific basis, particularly in relation to dopamine levels and addiction.
🧠 Dopamine and the Monk Mode
This paragraph delves into the science behind monk mode, focusing on dopamine's role in the brain's reward system. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter linked to motivation, learning, and the formation of habits. The script discusses the idea of 'dopamine addiction' and 'dopamine fasting,' suggesting that by reducing pleasurable experiences, one can reset their brain to achieve greater focus later. However, the script also challenges these concepts, noting that the actual scientific understanding of dopamine is more complex than commonly portrayed, with dopamine being more about anticipation of rewards rather than the rewards themselves.
🔬 The Science of Dopamine and Social Media
The script critically examines the scientific evidence linking social media use to dopamine release and addiction. It discusses studies on animals and humans that suggest dopamine is released in anticipation of rewards, which could theoretically apply to social media engagement. However, the script points out that the evidence is not conclusive and that the effects of social media on the brain are not well understood. It also mentions that some individuals may be predisposed to develop problems with social media use, which could be linked to other mental health issues rather than the social media itself.
📚 DSM-5 and the Classification of Disorders
This paragraph addresses the classification of mental health disorders, specifically discussing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). It explains that the DSM-5 does not classify social media use as a disorder, distinguishing instead between substance abuse and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The script also touches on the potential benefits and drawbacks of monk mode, suggesting that while it may help some individuals with self-imposed problems, it is not a universally beneficial solution. The paragraph concludes with a discussion on the importance of professional help for those seriously distressed by their social media use.
🛡️ Online Privacy and Security
The final paragraph shifts focus to the importance of online privacy and security, promoting the use of NordVPN as a solution to protect personal data and maintain privacy while browsing the internet. It outlines the features of NordVPN, including creating a secure connection, threat protection, and the ability to access geo-restricted content. The script also mentions a special offer for viewers, providing a link and a coupon code for a discount.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Monk Mode
💡Dopamine
💡Addiction
💡Social Media
💡Self-help Guru
💡Neuroplasticity
💡Dopamine Fasting
💡Mental Health
💡Neurotransmitter
💡Behavioral Therapy
💡Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Highlights
Monk mode is a lifestyle trend that involves self-isolation to increase productivity by eliminating distractions.
Monk mode is based on the philosophy of Buddhist monks and focuses on personal development and self-reflection.
The trend is popular among millennials and has been popularized by influencers like Jay Shetty.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter linked to the brain's reward system and plays a role in habit formation.
Dopamine fasting is a concept where pleasurable experiences are eliminated to reset the brain's dopamine system.
Monk mode suggests a moderate approach to dopamine regulation, selecting pleasures that align with long-term goals.
Neuroscientists view dopamine as a signal for attention and effort rather than solely a feel-good hormone.
Dopamine is released in anticipation of rewards, encoding expectations about the future.
Studies on animals have shown dopamine activity in relation to expected rewards, not just received rewards.
The effect of social media on dopamine levels and the concept of dopamine addiction lack scientific evidence.
Some individuals may be predisposed to develop usage problems with social media, correlating with other mental health risks.
The DSM-5 does not classify social media use as a disorder, distinguishing between substance abuse and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
Monk mode can be seen as a DIY version of behavioral therapy, potentially beneficial for mental health if there's a perceived problem.
Quitting social media may lead to increased meaningful interactions and focus, but also potential drawbacks like disconnection.
Monk mode may work for some individuals, but it's not universally beneficial and should be approached with caution.
The video discusses the importance of mental health and the potential benefits and risks of social media use.
The video is sponsored by NordVPN, emphasizing the importance of online privacy and security.
Transcripts
I recently learned there’s a new trend on social media: monk mode. First time I heard of this,
I thought it means you pull a hood over your face and start brewing beer in the basement,
but not so. Monk mode, it turns out, means cutting out distractions and
going into self-isolation to become more productive. It’s supposedly
based on science and particularly concerned with avoiding social media,
because that’s addictive. And addictions are not good. But can social media really be addictive?
Does the monk mode work? And what’s the science behind it? That’s what we’ll talk about today.
First things first, what is monk mode? Monk mode is a lifestyle trend that aims to help adherents
to live a purposeful life by focusing on long-term goals. To achieve those goals,
the monk foregoes short-term rewards and distractions, such as unhealthy food,
social media, and other forms of entertainment, for example binge watching YouTube. Though I’d
argue that watching all my videos is a very worthy life goal, just take my word for it.
Monk mode is loosely based on the philosophy of Buddhist monks, hence the name, and seems
to be particularly popular among millennials. Monk mode encourages practitioners to focus on personal
development, self-reflection, and productivity, and to think about what they’re doing.
To me this sounds basically like growing up, and in my day we did it without becoming monks. Or
nuns, as it were. But in the past years, monk mode has attracted interest as a way of science-based
stress management. And since its particular appeal seems to be the
claim that it’s backed up by science, I thought it’d be worth looking at.
Monk mode has been popularized by some influencers like Jay Shetty. Shetty is
a 35-year-old British guy who spent three years literally living as a monk in India.
After his return he wrote a book called “Think Like A Monk” that appeared with perfect timing
at the height of the COVID pandemic. By now he’s amassed a few million followers
on YouTube where he’s handing out advice on everything from long-distance relationships
to mental health. The guy’s basically a living cliché of a self-help guru.
Then there’s Imah Ghadzi is also a British guy, but a decade younger. He seems to have
tried various ways of making money online until hitting gold with NFTs a few years ago. Ghadzi
is less self-help guru and more personified self-attribution bias, that’s the tendency of
wealthy people to attribute their success to their own talents and efforts rather
than to external circumstance or luck. Ghadzi in particular attributes his success to monk mode.
In his videos he explains that he sometimes completely cuts himself off from social media,
television, alcohol, junk food, turns off the color on his phone for months at a time,
and generally sounds like a lot of fun to be with. He believes that this level
of discipline has helped him achieve an incredible amount of focus and claims
it works because he is training his brain’s dopamine system, which brings us to the science.
Living life in monk mode is supposedly all about paying attention to your dopamine levels.
Dopamine is a hormone produced in the brain that plays a major role in what’s called the
“reward system”. It’s a neurotransmitter, which means it aids the transfer of certain signals
between neurons. The story goes that dopamine makes you feel good after certain activities,
which encourages you to repeat them. This slowly rewires your brain and builds habits. Dopamine
affects everything from your desire to move, to your mood, to the ability to pay attention.
Dopamine is incredibly important when it comes to survival. Studies have found, for example,
that genetically modified mice who could not produce dopamine appeared normal at birth,
but failed to learn food-seeking behavior, and would later have died if they had not been fed.
Most of you watching this video probably aren’t mice, but dopamine plays a similar
role for humans. Dopamine levels have been found to rise with many activities that could
reasonably be said to be linked to survival: eating, sex, exercise, and social contact,
though individual differences are large. Low dopamine levels are linked to mental health
disorders, such as major depression, and other illnesses, for example Parkinson’s disease.
Some of the most addictive drugs we know, such as heroine, work by artificially
increasing dopamine way beyond its natural level. But even if you’re not doing drugs,
it seems plausible that dopamine regulation might become a problem in modern times. Pursuing
dopamine kicks might have been a good strategy in the stone age, but life is good now. You can
get a lot of dopamine quickly and easily, and that can interfere with your long-term goals.
This is where the idea of a “dopamine-addiction” comes from. Using social media supposedly releases
dopamine, and that makes you feel good, so you keep on doing it. You become addicted.
“Dopamine-fasting,” has its root in this idea too. Dopamine fasting became popular in 2019,
especially among tech workers and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. If you dopamine-fast,
you eliminate pleasurable experiences, to achieve a kind of “reset” of the brain,
presumably to get higher kicks afterwards. Monk mode is more moderate, in that you’re
not supposed to cut out all pleasures, just pick those that contribute to your long-term goals.
This all sounds quite plausible, but the plausible idea are the
ones you should be most careful with. So let’s look at what the science says.
You won’t be surprised to hear that the true story
is vastly more complicated than the influencer-types want you to believe.
Neuroscientists believe that dopamine is less a feel-good hormone,
and more a signal that tells us what to pay attention to or what to make an effort with.
While it’s correct that dopamine plays a major role both in motivation and in learning,
it turns out that dopamine is usually released in anticipation of a reward,
not when the reward is received. Dopamine encodes our expectation about the future.
This was first established in a series of studies on macaque monkeys in the
1990s who showed dopamine activity when they had learned to expect that a reward
was coming. Another extremely influential study in 2003 found that rats who could
get heroine by pressing down a lever had a sharp spike in dopamine, before pressing it.
Studies on monkey also found that when a reward is uncertain, that releases more dopamine. This
is how neurologists think gambling addictions come about: Dopamine is released in anticipation of an
uncertain reward. Most people learn quickly that the reward rarely comes and stop playing. A small
fraction gets hooked on the possibility of a rare reward, and those are the ones who get a problem.
It makes sense to think that some types of social media engagement also trigger this
reward anticipation. And that indeed might cause a problem for some people. But how strong the effect
is, differs from one person to the next, and what it does to the brain is rather unclear.
At this point you may be wondering why I talk about rats and monkeys when we’re interested
in dopamine levels in the human brain. It’s because they measure those dopamine levels
by implanting electrodes into the brains of those rats and monkeys, and ethics committees
had issues with facebook’s proposal to do the same on humans. The best thing that
scientists can do in humans is measure activity in certain brain regions that release dopamine.
One of those studies is from 2014 and used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging on 20
participants. They found that heavy social media users had more activity in a brain region that
is also associated with other addictions. Then again, not all the areas typically associated
with addiction lit up. And fMRIs don’t exactly have a reputation for being very accurate.
Another 2017 study used MRI scans on 50 high school students and found that
excessive social media users had less grey matter in some brain areas. Loosely speaking,
grey brain matter is to process information, while white brain
matter is to connect different parts of the brain. Grey matter is, among other things,
important for planning and impulse control, so having less grey matter is kind of not good.
In case that sounds like social media is really bad for your brain,
remember that correlation is not causation. Maybe the
study participants used social media more because their brains worked differently?
The best study to date on the link between social media and dopamine used positron
emission tomography on 37 volunteers who also reported their smartphone usage patterns. The
found that a higher proportion of social app interactions correlated with a lower
capacity to produce dopamine. Yes, that’s right, a lower capacity. The authors suggest
that a lower capacity to produce dopamine makes people prone to develop social media problems.
Basically, while all this talk about social media leading to a “dopamine
addiction” sounds superficially plausible, I have found no scientific evidence that backs
it up. Rather it seems that some people are predisposed to develop usage problems,
and this predisposition is also correlated with a risk for other mental health disorders.
And then there is the question what we mean by
addition anyway. Can one really get addicted to social media?
The go-to reference for mental disorders is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders, DSM for short. It assigns numbers to mental health problems.
295 point 90 for example is “Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders”.
If you see a psychiatrist, first thing they’ll do is diagnose you with a bunch
of DSM numbers. I have a lot of those in my record, but I won’t tell you which,
because I don’t want to discourage you from projecting your own problems on me.
The most recent version of the DSM came out in 2013 and
is called DSM-5. It doesn’t have any entries for addiction. The DSM instead
distinguishes between “substance abuse” and “obsessive-compulsive disorders”.
Substance abuse is basically taking drugs and ruining your life with it. Substance
is hard to find on social media, unless possibly you like chewing on your phone,
so I’d argue social media doesn’t lend itself to substance abuse.
An obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD for short, is any kind of behavior that
negatively affects your life, but that you can’t stop. OCDs include for example eating
disorders, gambling addiction, hair-pulling, hoarding, cleaning, and arranging objects.
Especially the last three are incredibly common behaviors, and I’ve seen a lot of people jokingly
refer to them as their OCD, but really it’s only called a “disorder” if it negatively affects
your life. I’m fond of making jokes, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, but when everyone refers to normal
behaviors as disorders, I fear that the people who suffer from them won’t be taken seriously.
The DSM does not currently have an entry referring to social media use or online
behavior. A group of German researchers has proposed what they call a “Social Media Use
Disorder Scale for Adolescents” based on DSM-5 classifications. It’s a mix of
depression, anxiety, ADHD, and OCD. But this classification has not been widely adopted.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, depression, and anxiety are often treated by cognitive-behavioral
therapy, sometimes accompanied by medication. Behavioral therapy is
one of the few psychotherapies that has proved beneficial in
random control trials. It basically works by self-reflection and habit-building.
Monk mode looks to me like a DIY version of behavioral therapy which makes me
think that it quite possibly actually works for improving your mental health,
if you think there’s a problem to be fixed in the first place.
But social media use isn’t necessarily problematic, and discontinuing it has both
pros and cons. A 2020 study found that users who quit social media reported an increase in
meaningful interactions with friends and family and higher levels of focus and happiness. However,
many of them also reported drawbacks, primarily a lack of networking opportunities,
and some felt disconnected or out of touch with the world around them.
This is to say, just because some people say they benefit from monk mode doesn’t mean it’s
generally beneficial. It more likely means they had a problem that needed fixing in the first
place. Though if you’re watching videos about it, there’s probably a reason for that, so.
In summary. There’s no evidence that social media use has any particular impact on your
dopamine levels, and neither “dopamine addiction” nor “dopamine fasting” has any
scientific backup. If you feel like you’re spending too much time on social media,
then maybe it’s worth giving it a try. But if you’re seriously distressed, please don’t lock
yourself up in a room, get professional help. DIY is all well and fine, but it has its limit.
Many thanks to Joshua Berke and Michael Treadway for helping with this video. Any
remaining blunders are exclusively mine. The biggest problem I have with social media are
particle physicists, and they’d miss me if I wasn’t around I’m sure,
so I don’t think I’m going to try it. How about you? Let me know in the comments.
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