Social media is destroying our attention spans and overloading our dopamine intake.

Caption: A free image from Free Vector Graphics illustrates the dangers of social media on an individual level. [photo provided by FreeVectorGraphics.com]

by Nathanael Agcaoili

Social media is a tool that many of us use on a daily basis. It allows us to connect with people we know and share content with them, as well as to participate in social activities. I, personally, use social media everyday to talk with my friends and keep up with what is happening in the world.

As social media became popular in the early 2000s, millions of people started using Facebook and Youtube. Then short-form content was popularized by Tiktok in 2017, taking the world by storm.

In my recent research on this topic, I found something strange happened when short-form content started taking over. According to “The Guardian,” social media caused those who were always on social media to become dopamine addicts. Basically, short-form content gives our brain instant gratification, as it overloads our brains with dopamine. In turn, this began motivating us to what will bring us pleasure, such as scrolling mindlessly on social media.

Research also shows that social media not only caused dopamine addiction, but also resulted in shorter attention spans. As new information is presented to the audience after every scroll on social media, our brains are recalibrated to desire quick dopamine hits.

Because short-form content increased in popularity, many content creators shifted from making long-form content to short-form content as it appealed more to the audiences. In my opinion, I don’t think many people realized the effects that this would have on societies around the world. I think this would only worsen the case of our generation’s addiction.

With very few content creators sticking to long-form content, I believe that it is especially difficult to keep track of what is happening in the world, without slowly destroying our attention spans. Therefore, I think content creators need to start making long-form content again and decrease, or maybe even completely stop, production of short-form content.

However, I don’t just think that it is the content creators who need to take action. Our dopamine intake must be regulated in order to prevent or recover from addiction. There are many ways we can try to do this, but all of them can be summarized into: avoid things that give large bursts of dopamine. One method of dopamine regulation is known as “dopamine detox”.

In my experience, I had trouble with controlling my screen time on social media. There were times where I would spend hours scrolling through social media instead of doing anything productive. My addiction to social media also hindered my relationship with God, and I stopped spending time with Him. But when I finally restricted my social media consumption and turned my eyes to God, I was able to rebuild my relationship with Him.

In conclusion, social media, especially short-form content, has been harming our attention spans and dopamine receptors. I have observed that short-form content is so mainstream, many people consume it everyday, not knowing the long-term effects of dopamine addiction.

So, here are my two suggestions to the readers out there. First of all, content creators should switch back to long-form content. Secondly, we, as viewers, must regulate our social media consumption so we can enjoy more of life away from our screens.