In another new book, Digital Madness, the psychologist Nicholas Kardaras explains that the people behind Facebook and Instagram not only designed their platforms to be wildly addictive but have kept them that way even amid mounting evidence that social media overuse has a horrible effect on people’s mental and physical well-being. But they become one when social media platforms pair them with positive affirmation-those likes, follows, updates from friends, and photographs of family, pets, food, and beautiful scenery. To place one more bet, binge on alcohol-or spend hours on apps even when they make you unhappy.”įisher says that the notifications themselves aren’t the problem. My Facebook addiction wasn’t my fault.Īs the New York Times reporter Max Fisher explains in his new book, The Chaos Machine, “Dopamine creates a positive association with whatever behaviors prompted its release, training you to repeat them….When that dopamine reward system gets hijacked, it can compel you to repeat self-destructive behaviors. But I later learned that social media platforms are addictive by design: The notifications they’re built around trigger a dopamine release in our brains, just as recreational drugs and gambling do. I blamed myself, thinking, This is how I’ve chosen to spend my time. I knew that I should have been reading a book-or pursuing some enriching hobby-instead. Most notifications I got were surface-level comments or passive “likes” that didn’t really mean anything, yet it was so hard to stop checking them. I’ll have more notifications since I’ve been away. I remember how, during a weeklong trip I took with my family that summer, we had no computer access (this was before smartphones), and I kept thinking, I can’t wait to get home to check Facebook. It got so bad that I had to temporarily deactivate my profile ahead of my final exams to eliminate temptation.īut after they ended I was back at it. Each day I spent hours scrolling through its pages. When trying to finish school assignments, I’d check Facebook repeatedly.
But I soon noticed that my attention span and mental capacity were suffering. I got to know people that I wouldn’t talk to face-to-face-and I often used the platform to vent about my classes. In the digital world, I was more open and candid. I created a profile that showcased my favorite quotes from classic movies and the music I had on repeat. This was in the mid-2000s, when the platform had a “wall” for public conversations, and you’d often post an uncurated album of 75 photos from a day out with your friends.Īs an introverted, socially awkward teenager whose in-person interactions never seemed to go right, I liked the way Facebook allowed me to portray myself as I wanted. I was in high school when Facebook took off.
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