Reel Addiction: The Dopamine Trap Causing Brain Rot

Yes, you heard it right! If you are someone who can’t stop scrolling reels once you open any social media platform, you might get caught in the extremely harmful dopamine trap. This mindless scrolling is not just destroying your productivity, but also causes several side effects that need immediate attention. First, we will share the side effects of unstoppable reel scrolling and the key reason behind this trap. Later, we will share some tips to help you fight this modern-day crisis, which is leading to rising concerns about mental health issues:

• Dopamine hit: Constant virtual stimulation makes your brain crave quick highs, making it hard to enjoy slower and meaningful activities like reading.

• Decreased attention span: The concept of reel is based on grabbing your attention and keeping you hooked. Reel scrolling trains our brain to seek instant gratification, reducing our focus.

• Increased feeling of a void inside: mindless scrolling reduces a person’s creative potential, which leads to a feeling of emptiness.

• Cluttered brain: Decision fatigue is for real in this age of unconscious reel scrollings. This leads to a feeling of a cluttered brain, even with no physical activities.

• Disrupted sleep patterns: Many studies have already proved that blue light emitted from our electronic devices is quite harmful to us, especially for our sleep cycle. Disrupted sleep patterns lead to decreased mental efficiency, exposing you to several mental illnesses.

• Desensitizing of emotional health: Reel scrolling has become one of the key reasons for the brain to not be able to process emotions properly. This leads to detachment and emotional numbness due to bombarded emotions.

Now, when you know the demerits of the unconscious reel scrollings, you should know how to fight this addiction with small but effective steps:

Identify your triggers:

1. Try to find out what provokes you to go towards reel scrolling.

2. Just like any other addiction, there is always an unacknowledged trigger behind such acts.

Accept the emotional triggers:

1. Make sure that you become mentally aware and try to keep a distance from your cellphone when you are sad, disappointed, demotivated, stressed, or overwhelmed.

Set daily limits/ alarms for reminders:

• There are many apps that can help you set a daily limit of screen time.

• Gradually decrease your screen time by setting gentle reminders.

Replacing the habits:

• Your brain needs dopamine to feel good. All you need to ensure that you don’t feed this need with some bad and titillating content.

• Rely on good and productive sources like reading an interesting book, breath work, reminding yourself about your purpose, and self-talk with motivation!

Practicing sheer mindfulness:

• Gradually, try to be mindful of the fact that reel addiction hinders your productivity and is damaging your body in the long run.

• Some gentle reminders will help you increase your awareness of this issue, and you will find a way out!

Remember, consistency matters. Start with decreasing the screentime by an hour, or even half an hour would do. Try to share this with your friends and talk it out, which helps in finding a better solution through collective discussions. Ask your loved ones to help you fight this scenario.