We all do it.
We all scroll through our phone, either through social media, our web browser, or even dating apps.
Most of us do this at some point everyday, and some of us do this for hours on end.
But now that smartphones and social media have been around for over a decade, it's time for us to analyze how exactly our brains are being affected by constant scrolling, swiping, and searching.
This is especially true considering the rise in depression, anxiety, and loneliness in our world today.
In this article, we will go in-depth on the effect that swiping, scrolling, and searching on our phones has on the dopamine levels in our brains, and how our platform compares to traditional sites that look to capitalize on these effects, with little regard for the health of their users.
What is Dopamine?
In an article published on Psychology Today, by Dr. Susan Weinschenk, she defines dopamine as the brain chemical associated with seeking behavior:
"Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out, and search. It increases your general level of arousal and goal-directed behavior."
Apparently, for years doctors thought that dopamine was directly related to pleasure.
It turns out, while it does have something to do with pleasure, it is even more evident in things like pursuit and journey.
Dopamine levels are often highest during the pursuit of something, rather than at the time we attain it.
It's all about the Journey, man!
Dr. Weinschenk talks about something called the "dopamine loop". This is essentially the reward system that keeps us pursuing a reward, over and over again (hence, "loop"):
"The dopamine system is especially sensitive to "cues" that a reward is coming... It's not the reward itself that keeps the dopamine loop going, it's the anticipation of the reward."
She goes on to say that when there is a sound, or a visual cue that a notification has arrived, that the cue is what enhances the addictive effect.
But can we get out of this loop?
According to the doctor, it's not so easy, which makes sense considering that it's so hard for us to put our phones down! She says that the actual swiping or scrolling with our thumbs makes it even harder to get out of the loop:
"The combination of dopamine release in the brain plus a conditioned response with motor movement (the swipe with finger or thumb), makes this dopamine loop hard to stop.... Chances are what makes you stop is that someone interrupts you."
So maybe we should be grateful when someone interrupts us on our phone: "Hey, thanks for stopping this dopamine loop for me!"
Algorithms Designed for Dopamine
We have established how dopamine works, and how our phones can entrench us in an addictive dopamine loop that is hard to break, but how about the exact role of social media in all this?
Apparently, the algorithms these sites use are designed to only reinforce this loop.
In the popular podcast, Modern Wisdom, with Chris Williamson, he had Dr. Andrew Huberman on to discuss the role that social media plays in our phone-dopamine addiction, and how this behavior of scrolling and swiping is the same as gambling. Here's what Dr. Huberman had to say:
"The algorithms for social media are very clever... They function on the most powerful way to keep people doing a behavior... Which is random intermittent reward, that you don't know when you're gonna hit the jackpot."
With this being said, we can compare the mindless scrolling and swiping we do to a gambler at a slot machine, who gets small random monetary rewards which keeps them pressing the "spin" button.
Our reward is that one exciting news post, or video of someone skydiving, instead of money.
Dating Apps and Dopamine
With the dopamine loop being taken advantage of by social media companies, where does that leave traditional dating apps?
Remember, the dopamine loop is powerfully reinforced by "random intermittent rewards", so what are these rewards on a dating app?
How does the dopamine loop function on these apps?
You guessed it: Swiping to Match
On mainstream dating apps, we physically swipe left or right with our thumbs to find a match. This is the "conditioned response with a motor movement" that Dr. Weinschenk described in her article.
We don't know when we will get a match. This is the "random intermittent reward" that Dr. Huberman talks about.
So all together this makes for a powerful, addictive dopamine loop which keeps our brains in an addictive state, disrupts our natural dopamine pathways, and most importantly for the dating companies, keeps us mindlessly participating on the app.
How FrostyWave is Different
At FrostyWave, we don't make our users swipe left or right. In fact, there's no swiping at all!
Our AI analyzes your personality and preferences to match you with women you're most likely to build a meaningful relationship with.
Our goal is to help you find your life partner by leveraging technology. Remember, our system operates on vast amounts of data—far more than users of traditional apps can access.
This not only saves you time by doing the work for you but also ensures more effective matches.
So give your brain a break, and get out of that mindless dopamine loop with FrostyWave.
To check out our site and join, click here!
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