A Generation of Dopamine Addicts

As the days roll by and my quest of personal development continues, I notice quite a lot. And that’s good because all the shit I see in the people around me, motivates me to do better and be better. One of the biggest motivators for me is laziness. I see it everywhere. My friends complain about why they can’t just get up and do shit. They make countless excuses to convince themselves that it’s justified. Everyone has been a slave to this thinking before. We don’t hold ourselves accountable for our actions, and that’s part of the problem, we need someone or something to blame, and we don’t want it to be ourselves.

Laziness is a big thing now. There are a lot of reasons for it. Technology making everything convenient and easy, terrible diets, flashing tv screens that steal our attention displaying a fake reality conjured up by Hollywood, the list goes on and on. But there’s an even bigger factor at play here. Something that has hypnotised an entire generation and is beginning to catch hold of the others. Its blue, its new (relatively) and its addictive. I’m talking about Facebook. Take a step back and ask yourself, how did Zuckershmuck manage to take over the world in something like fourteen fucking years?

It’s all about dopamine. An innocent neurotransmitter produced in the brain to make us feel good. It’s essential for survival and plays a huge role in evolution. But today its abused more than any drug.

If you tell someone under the age of 25 that you don’t have a facebook account (and you are also under the age of 25) they look at you like you’re some kind of loony psych ward escape. As if you’re disillusioned, even though they’re the ones who are addicted. Addicted to the instant validation that promises a dopamine fix. To get more you have to interact more. Post more photos, more comments, more likes, more friend requests. You’d swear Facebook designed the platform to take advantage of modern psychology…..but that’s exactly what the fuck they did.

As soon as the user signs up for Facebook they’re hooked. From that point onwards it’s dopamine fix after dopamine fix after dopamine fix. Which eventually leads to desensitisation, which means that the users are left craving more dopamine so they spend even more time on the platform, or they go to another platform…like Instagram, which is owned by Facebook and is designed, just like Facebook, to take advantage of the fragile human brain. Now you’re probably thinking that Zuckerschmuck is a fucking genius, which he probably is, and it’s a great business model, but I think it’s becoming a major problem.

I think its a major problem because now everyone is getting so much dopamine from gratifying media platforms, that the dopamine they receive from doing shit in the real world isn’t enough. People lose motivation to do things, like go to the gym or study for an exam, and so then they get depressed. And when they’re depressed they seek refuge in social media, so they can feel good again. And the cycle just keeps on rolling.

What makes it even worse is that this shit is legal. It’s not like this is a drug you can buy in the streets. This is a fucked up psychological war that no one is prepared for, and no one even knows is happening. Facebook has more control over the world than any ‘government’ ever could. And it’s no wonder why people talk shit about millennials being lazy and unfocused, the instant fix makes them lose interest in long-term pursuits, if something doesn’t show them results right away they’re not interested. And not just motivation, it’s effects are seen in mental illnesses. The percentage of the population that is affected by depression and anxiety has increased immensely since the introduction of ‘social media’.

And it’s not just social media, it’s sugar, nicotine, drugs, sex, everything that is abused in the world has some link to dopamine release. But Facebook has quickly become the biggest proverbial ‘dealer’ of this drug. And unfortunately, I can’t really imagine a scenario where facebook’s power diminishes, at least not harmoniously.

Cormac