Get *RID* of your PHONE Addiction using Neuroscience.
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Dr. Shovel from Clarity for UPSC addresses the issue of phone addiction, explaining its neuroscience basis and the role of dopamine in seeking pleasure and rewards. He uses the analogy of a rat pressing a pleasure button to illustrate the brain's craving for dopamine, leading to addiction. Dr. Shovel offers a four-step solution to break free from phone addiction, including identifying triggers, changing the environment, finding alternatives to social media, and engaging in difficult tasks to reset the brain's dopamine levels. The video encourages viewers to take control of their phone usage and not become servants to technology.
Takeaways
- đ The video encourages viewers to recognize and overcome the habit of mindlessly scrolling on their phones, suggesting that most people will not watch the entire video.
- đ€ It poses the question of whether viewers are addicted to their phones by defining addiction as the unnecessary and habitual use of the phone.
- đ§ The script explains that addiction is driven by the brain's craving for reward and pleasure, stimulated by the release of dopamine.
- đ It uses the example of rats pressing a 'pleasure button' to illustrate how much our brains crave reward, even in the face of pain.
- đ The video highlights that social media companies employ strategies to keep users engaged, which can lead to increased phone usage and addiction.
- đ It provides statistics from YouTube analytics to show that many viewers do not watch videos to the end, indicating a lack of attention span.
- đ The script discusses the concept of neuroplasticity, explaining how our brains can adapt and crave more dopamine over time, leading to increased addiction.
- đ It recommends the book 'Dopamine Nation' by Dr. Anna Lembke for further understanding of the relationship between pleasure, pain, and dopamine.
- đ ïž The video offers a four-step solution to phone addiction: identifying when one gets addicted, changing the environment, finding an alternate activity, and doing something difficult to counteract the dopamine crash.
- đ It concludes by emphasizing the importance of viewing the phone as a tool, not a master, and encourages viewers to use their time for more meaningful activities.
Q & A
What is the main issue discussed in the video?
-The main issue discussed in the video is the problem of phone addiction and how it affects people's lives, particularly in terms of mindlessly scrolling through social media and wasting time.
What is the first step to solving the problem of phone addiction according to the video?
-The first step to solving the problem of phone addiction is to accept that you have a problem and identify when you start feeling the urge to use your phone excessively.
What is the role of dopamine in phone addiction?
-Dopamine is a chemical in the brain that is released when you feel pleasure. It is responsible for the addictive behavior seen in phone addiction, as it gives a sense of reward and happiness, leading to a craving for more.
How does the video illustrate the concept of dopamine and addiction using a rat experiment?
-The video uses a rat experiment where rats are given the option to press a pleasure button or seek food. The rat that presses the pleasure button works much harder and ultimately dies from the increasing electric shocks, showing how our brains crave reward and pleasure.
What is the impact of social media companies on phone addiction?
-Social media companies employ strategies to keep users on their platforms longer, which contributes to phone addiction. They collect data about user behavior and preferences to show targeted advertisements, further enticing users to spend more time on their platforms.
How does the video suggest changing the environment to combat phone addiction?
-The video suggests changing the environment by reordering the home screen, deleting social media apps, turning off notifications, and finding alternatives to social media apps like using a browser instead of an app.
What is the concept of neuroplasticity and how does it relate to addiction?
-Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to reorganize itself based on what it experiences. In the context of addiction, it means that the brain gets used to a certain level of dopamine and craves more over time, leading to increased tolerance and addiction.
What is the significance of the 'dopamine time curve' mentioned in the video?
-The 'dopamine time curve' refers to the pattern of dopamine release and its subsequent decrease. It explains how initial stimulation (like using a phone) leads to a spike in dopamine, followed by a crash, which then requires more stimulation to feel the same level of pleasure.
What is the solution proposed in the video to overcome phone addiction?
-The solution proposed includes identifying when you are most likely to use your phone excessively, changing the environment to make it harder to access addictive apps, finding alternate activities that provide a sense of achievement, and doing something difficult to counteract the pleasure-seeking behavior.
How does the video use the concept of dopamine to keep viewers engaged?
-The video uses the concept of dopamine by providing rewards and milestones (like being better than 50% of viewers who watched till a certain point) to keep viewers engaged and motivated to continue watching.
Outlines
đ± Overcoming Phone Addiction
The speaker, Dr. Shovel, introduces the issue of phone addiction, comparing it to substance abuse and challenging viewers to watch the entire video. He explains the neuroscience behind addiction, focusing on the role of dopamine in the brain. The speaker uses an analogy of a rat pressing a pleasure button despite pain, illustrating how our brains crave rewards. The purpose of the video is to help viewers understand the reasons behind their phone addiction and to provide strategies to overcome it.
đ§ The Impact of Social Media on Dopamine Levels
This paragraph delves into the effects of social media on our dopamine levels, highlighting how companies employ 'addiction engineers' to keep users engaged. The speaker provides an example of his own YouTube analytics to demonstrate the poor attention spans of viewers and the prevalence of late-night phone usage. He explains that every like, notification, and message acts as a dopamine spike, reinforcing the addictive behavior. The concept of neuroplasticity is introduced, suggesting that our brains adapt to constant stimulation, increasing the need for more dopamine to achieve the same level of pleasure.
đ Dopamine Crash and the Need for Balance
The speaker discusses the consequences of excessive dopamine stimulation, such as feelings of emptiness and wasted days. He describes the 'dopamine time curve,' which illustrates the highs and lows of dopamine levels throughout the day. The video encourages viewers to recognize the times when they are most likely to use their phones and suggests that by doing something difficult, such as hard work, the brain can compensate by providing pleasure, thus balancing the dopamine levels.
đ ïž Implementing Strategies to Combat Phone Addiction
The speaker outlines a four-step solution to combat phone addiction. The first step is identifying the times and patterns of phone usage. The second step involves changing the environment, such as reordering the home screen and deleting social media apps, to create barriers to mindless phone use. The third step is finding alternatives to social media, like hobbies that provide a sense of accomplishment. The speaker emphasizes the importance of implementing these strategies to break free from the cycle of addiction.
đ Embracing Challenges and the Power of Implementation
In the final paragraph, the speaker challenges viewers to take action by not using YouTube or other social media platforms for the rest of the day after watching the video. He reflects on how the video itself uses dopamine mechanisms to keep viewers engaged and encourages them to use this understanding to their advantage by doing difficult tasks and rewarding themselves with genuine achievements. The speaker concludes by reminding viewers that the phone is a tool and should not control their lives, urging them to pursue greater things beyond social media.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄAddiction
đĄDopamine
đĄNeuroscience
đĄMindless Scrolling
đĄSocial Media
đĄNeuroplasticity
đĄDopamine Crash
đĄImplementation
đĄReward System
đĄHobbies
Highlights
The video addresses the issue of phone addiction and its impact on daily life, urging viewers to pay attention to the time they spend mindlessly scrolling.
Phone addiction is likened to substance abuse, with the brain's reward system being stimulated by the pleasure derived from using the phone.
The video explains the neuroscience behind addiction, focusing on the role of dopamine in creating a cycle of craving and pleasure.
An experiment with rats pressing a 'pleasure button' illustrates the extreme lengths the brain will go to seek dopamine, even in the face of pain.
The video challenges viewers to recognize their own phone addiction by reflecting on their usage patterns and the times they use their phone without a clear purpose.
The concept of neuroplasticity is introduced, explaining how the brain adapts to increased levels of dopamine and seeks more stimulation over time.
Social media companies are described as employing 'addiction engineers' to keep users engaged on their platforms for longer periods.
The video uses analytics to show that viewers who make it past certain timestamps are part of a select group, using this as a motivational tool to encourage continued viewing.
The speaker shares personal experiences with phone addiction and the steps taken to overcome it, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the problem.
A four-step solution is presented to combat phone addiction, starting with identifying the times when one is most likely to use the phone excessively.
Changing the environment, such as reordering the home screen and deleting social media apps, is suggested as a way to create barriers to phone usage.
The video recommends turning off notifications and using apps like Forest to help manage phone usage and focus on more productive activities.
Finding an alternate activity to replace time spent on social media is suggested, such as taking up a hobby or engaging in physical exercise.
The video emphasizes the importance of doing something difficult and rewarding oneself with the satisfaction of accomplishment rather than the fleeting pleasure of phone usage.
The final challenge issued to viewers is to abstain from using social media and watching YouTube for the rest of the day after watching the video.
The video concludes by reminding viewers that the phone is a tool and should not control one's life, encouraging them to pursue greater things beyond social media.
Transcripts
congratulations just by clicking on this
video you have shown that you are better
than most because you are willing to
improve give me the next 20 minutes of
your life and let me solve the Perpetual
problem of mindlessly scrolling your
phone
ninety percent of the people who see
this video will choose not to watch it
ninety percent of those who watch it
will not watch it till the end
ninety percent of those who watch it
till the end will not implement it but
if you can pass this barrier I promise
you you will see a change in your life
hello and welcome to Clarity for upsc I
am Dr shovel
let's understand the Neuroscience behind
phone addiction why are you addicted to
your phone and what can you do to change
that
let me ask you are you an addict
we think of someone who is maybe sitting
on a footpath drinking alcohol smoking
weed injecting themselves with Heroin
foreign
ask yourself when was the last time you
just randomly opened your phone and
checked it is
and just started checking it even though
there was no apparent work with the
phone
when was the last time you continuously
wasted time on your phone looking at
shots looking at reels looking at
Instagram Etc even though you knew okay
there is something better to do
when was the last time
you were able to say that okay today I
will not use my phone and able to do it
if all these three things are true you
are an addict I have been a phone addict
and the first step to solve this problem
is to accept that you have a problem
why do you have this problem
that why do we get addicted scientists
as soon as a button was pressed a
message would go to the brain and that
would simulate pleasure in the rad spray
foreign
on one side they put a pleasure button
but the but to press the pleasure button
the rat had to cross this barrier now
this barrier was electrified and Harvard
is
to cross this barrier that kept
increasing so the rat had to face a
certain amount of pain to go and press
this button then the rat had to come
back then again it would go it would
feel a certain amount of pain press the
button go back
this rat was hungry and on this side
there was food
out of the two Rats the rat that was
pressing the button for pleasure worked
much much harder than the rat that
wanted food
ultimately this rat that was getting
pleasure is
just by pressing the button dies because
the electricity in these wires keeps
increasing over time
it does not stop even though it keeps
facing excruciating pain it would go and
press the button over and over again and
ultimately die because of this
electrification
this is how much our brains crave reward
and pleasure
why why do We crave so much reward and
pleasure the chemical in the brain
responsible for this is called dopamine
this is its chemical structure
dopamine when it is released in the
brain it gives you the feeling of
pleasure the feeling of feeling good the
feeling of happiness
when dopamine is released you will feel
pleasure as a reward then you will have
more craving for it then the rat will
press the liver again it will endure the
pain because this pleasure is so
addictive that it would want dopamine
over and over again
this is how prediction happens but it is
not just happening to alcohol to
cigarettes to weed to heroin it can also
happen to your phone let me show you why
congratulations if you have reached here
this is your first reward you are better
than 50 of the people who are watching
this video and this figure is not
randomly generated I have analyzed my
YouTube analytics and I can tell you
with certainty that if you are still
watching at five minutes you are better
than 50 of the people that's how bad our
attention spans actually are
let me show you an example of us on our
phones
this is my telegram Channel
at 5 36 in the morning I checked
what did I check
at 103 last night I have posted a
message this is your message this
message is your reminder to turn off
your phone and sleep at 103 am at 5 36
5.5
000 people had seen it that means
between 1 am and 5 AM 5 000 people who
are upsc aspirants who are studying for
the world's most difficult comparative
exam had opened telegram on their phones
that's how bad the situation is
why why is it this bad it is bad because
every social media company employs
addiction Engineers this is not what
they are called but addiction Engineers
to keep you on your phone longer the
more time you spend on your phone the
more time you spend on YouTube on
Instagram on Facebook
Etc
the more
you are going to waste your time
you are procrastinating you are wasting
your time you should not be looking at
your phone but trust me be with me till
the end and this will help you
these phone companies or these social
media companies rather will collect data
about you I have so much YouTube
analytics data that I can tell you that
24 year old people or 24 year old women
from Lucknow watch my videos for how
long time
by age by gender by geography I can tell
you distribution
they have data about how much you scroll
how much time you spend on scrolling
what are your preferences what you don't
want what you want and then they can
show you targeted advertising foreign
is that every like every notification
every call every text is a spike of
dopamine
foreign
is what is addicting you this is not
different than the rat pressing the
liver
because you want another Spike of
dopamine
why is it not enough
because our addictions get worse our
brains are plastic this is a phenomena
called neuroplasticity
what does neuroplasticity mean that our
brains can reorganize ourselves on the
basis of what we feel
if you've watched pornography you would
understand that if you keep watching it
daily you would eventually need more and
more extreme forms to feel the same
pleasure that you felt before this is
nothing but neuroplasticity if somebody
drinks alcohol on the first day they
will be okay with one or two drinks but
after a month after a year they would
need five drinks six drinks this is
nothing but neuroplasticity this happens
even with hard work if you are working
hard
on the first day you might be only able
to study 30 minutes but eventually you
will reach 3 hours and then you might
even reach 10 hours because our brains
are plastic our brains are like a muscle
that can be trained so our brain gets
used to a certain amount of dopamine
once you get used to that certain amount
of dopamine you want even more pleasure
you want to press the lever again and
again and again just to feel the same
amount of good or just to feel the same
amount of happiness
I strongly recommend that you read this
book called dopamine Nation
but when you have time by Anne Lambert
MD she is a doctor and she has written
this book dopamine nation in this book
she says that Pleasure and Pain in the
body get processed in the same area
the brain will over compensate and give
you pain what do I mean
this is one place where Pleasure and
Pain are getting processed if you keep
giving pleasure to your brain
the skills get tipped on this side then
it has to come back to normal to come
back to normal you will feel pain
here does not mean physical pain it
means a feeling of emptiness
if you give yourself too much dopamine
you feel empty for the rest of the day
and let me tell you when you have
experienced it if you waste your entire
morning on the phone
without studying in the morning you
started using your phone
you would have realized that your entire
day gets wasted
and I don't have a bad academic record
but still I have faced this over and
over again every week I have faced a day
like this so it is normal don't feel bad
you get up in the morning
but for the rest of the day you will not
be able to study because
right this is how the dopamine time
curve Works once you stimulate pleasure
and it goes this High the brain will
then have a fall or crash of dopamine
then again you will need a very high
stimulation just to get there
stimulation
so over time
same stimulation say the dopamine level
starts reducing
is just to feel normal because otherwise
you will have a dopamine emptiness a
dopamine crash a lack of pleasure so job
dopamine reduce
this is what all of us are facing
congratulations you have reached till 13
minutes or 12 minutes you are now better
than 70 percent
if you will keep watching you will reach
the first barrier of 90 percent
and then you just have to implement it
now
let's understand the solution
dopamine nationally
Pleasure and Pain get processed in the
same place so if you give yourself Pain
by pain I mean you do something
difficult
and you don't look at your phone you
just do hard work in the end the brain
was tilted towards pain it will again
compensate compensate
this is exactly what happens when you do
something very very difficult the entire
day you feel pleasure at the end of the
day
remember the last time you studied very
very hard I'm sure
after studying right the end of the day
you must have felt good this is the
solution to the problem
now I'm going to give you a four step
solution to solve this problem trust me
70 of people have stopped watching if
you are still here you are better than
all of them
the first step you need to identify when
you get addicted to your phone what time
you start using your phone
I had take done the same thing but
problems
I started watching YouTube and Netflix
on my iPad
the voic permanent solution in here and
I have tried it that's why I'm telling
you that's a good solution but not a
permanent one this is a permanent
solution first you identify when you
start feeling these problems there are
certain times when you are likely to use
the phone
if you are studying for the upcoming
upsc prelims at late night after you
have worked hard when you are about to
sleep there are chances okay
or there are chances that early morning
when you know the days upcoming days
both of these are very dangerous so you
identify these times you identify the
patterns
you change something
but first step is identification the
second step is changing the environment
it is creating barriers
just reorder your home screen
of clicking
um the new locations you will keep let's
say you put clock in place of YouTube
you will open your clock at least 15
times in the next two days
and you will understand the extent of
your addiction the second thing
delete the apps of social media social
media more important because
use the browser
instagram.com
but on the browser it will be a
conscious decision
right there is a thing to stop you from
getting there Instagram
foreign
right this is one extra barrier delete
social media apps third turn off
notifications
you might have noticed many asked
like subscribe press the Bell icon
because what this does to you
stop using notifications
the notifications
we had to hunt smaller animals but we
had bigger animals like lions like
chimpanzees like orangutans who we have
to be scared of
our ancestors were scared because they
used to look at this thing moving and
thinking
this is what happens with notifications
you will see it let's say there is a
lizard there you will see it because
your Evolution your Evolution you are
your evolution is such that you are
hardwired to feel this last you can use
apps like Forest what is Forest
is already made a video and the link is
in the description
if you can do the second step changing
the environment it will be a huge
difference
if you live with your family
at late night or as soon as let's say
you're done with your studying or let's
say at nine PM give your phone to your
family take it back in the morning
this is how I dealt with it
third step find an alternate
Instagram Facebook YouTube
when you do this and you look at the
dopamine time curve these are easy
things there is no gain here there is no
pain there is only pleasure so as soon
as you start using you get a dopamine
Spike then the dopamine Falls but if you
replace these things with a hobby like
cycling jogging Etc
what will happen
over time after dopamine Spike icons
you will not have fun in it you will not
enjoy it but again
but once you get really really good at
it you know you spend time you've
learned the ins and out
and the best thing is it gives you again
purely selfish terms
you can't write I spent two hours a day
on YouTube on your daf
YouTube
as soon as this video is done go to your
subscriptions
[Music]
your field will become better
Channel
but that doesn't matter the issue is
much bigger here
last do something difficult
Pleasure and Pain get processed in the
same place if you give yourself pain if
you do something difficult you will get
a reward and this is the difficult thing
for today
the first difficult thing you have
already done right up this video okay
almost in the cargo you have reached 20
minutes
the most difficult thing that I am going
to tell you to do today is this after
this video you will shut YouTube and not
open it for the rest of the day you will
not open any other social media app also
what's up what's up
but no Facebook no Instagram no YouTube
no Snapchat no anything else till the
end of today
and then come back tomorrow here and
tell me how good it felt
congratulations you've crossed 20 minute
barrier and you've crossed the last
barrier that you could on this video you
clicked on the
and you are better than 90 because
you've reached almost the end of this
video now the last barrier is
implementation
if you do the difficult task today of
not watching anything on your YouTube
and come back tomorrow here and tell me
or even if you don't tell me even if you
don't comments
that you're able to do this that would
be amazing
the video was not over I just paused for
five seconds just to tell you how small
our attention spans are time
now let me blow your mind
videos
why because I used the dopamine
um the mechanism of dopamine in your
brain to make you watch this video
you've watched till here you're better
than 50 you've washed till here you're
better than 70 you are still here you're
better than ninety percent none of this
was a lie all of it brought some
analytics but many YouTube videos
and now on telegram on my channel I will
show you how this video has better
attention span than other videos when
your BSF record care but I'm confident
of the results because this is how
hungry we are for dopamine rewards just
by a random person telling you on
YouTube that you are better than this
congratulations you are watching it
makes you want to see the video more
when you understand yourself use it to
your advantage you are hungry for a
reward right use it how
use it by doing difficult things and
give yourself Rewards
today when you close this video no more
YouTube come back tomorrow and tell me
about it
this is the last line
this is the last slide of this video
your phone is an essential tool
important but it is merely a tool don't
become its servant don't become an
addict you were born for greater things
than looking at Instagram Facebook
social media and mindlessly texting
liking and commenting
thank you for your time I hope this has
helped you see you next time
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