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The reality of trying a dopamine detox

Ella Gilbert
Image shows a woman and a man lying next to each other in bed on their mobile phones

Ella Gilbert

It’s no secret that social media is frazzling our dopamine receptors. Now internet users are armed with this knowledge, dopamine detoxes have become all the rage.

But are they really worth it? I undertook a two-week dopamine detox for Empoword Journalism to find out.

Why do a dopamine detox?

There are many reasons why social media is rotting our brains, but the leading reason I’d contemplated a detox was its impact on my attention span.

“There’s no shame in enjoying mindless scrolling, but when it starts to impede your day-to-day productivity is perhaps the time to re-evaluate”

I was the sort of child who could fixate on a book or a game for hours on end, and here I was getting frustrated when Instagram takes a few extra seconds to load. The breaking point was when I was watching my third ‘jar rolling down the stairs‘ video of the day.

On the whole, I take great pleasure in social media. As someone who lives far from home, it’s a brilliant tool to keep up to date with loved ones. I don’t think there’s necessarily any shame in enjoying mindless scrolling – but when it starts to impede your day-to-day productivity, it’s perhaps the time to re-evaluate.

Preparing for the dopamine detox

It felt counterintuitive to have to prepare for a dopamine detox. However, with social media so heavily intertwined with our daily lives, quitting it entirely did require a fair amount of planning.

I took a few days to analyse my phone usage and establish what kind of boundaries I needed to set. The apps I was turning to for mindless scrolling and dopamine hits were Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest – they had to go.

Setting up for the detox was frustrating. I knew I would have to log back into Facebook and Twitter anyway on my laptop for journalism communications, making a clean break near impossible.

My findings

“not really the relaxing detox I had in mind”

Initially, I was quite overwhelmed with all the free time I had now I wasn’t on social media. I caught up on a lot of missed sleep and finally ticked off all those little tasks I always bump down my to-do list.

Unintentionally, I went into a ‘hyper-productive’ five-day period. This was great (and probably much-needed) but not really the relaxing detox I had in mind. I was selling things on Vinted, recycling old devices, sorting through old-school stuff, and doing a ridiculous amount of cleaning. It ended up rather like a manic five-day Spring clean.

“Soon, I sought my ‘dopamine hits’ from other sources”

While I would love to be someone who could have a two-week productive frenzy, that would be very wishful thinking. I was watching more TV, but spent less time on my phone while watching so I actually gave it my full attention for once.

Soon, I sought my ‘dopamine hits’ from other sources. I returned to old hobbies like art or music. Activities that have always been enjoyable, but have significantly less instant gratification. Despite this, I was willing to put more time and effort into these activities and therefore probably enjoyed them more.

Impact on relationships

“I was getting FOMO over posts I couldn’t even know I was missing”

Social media can be a really lonely place. However, we’re so used to feeling like we connect with people through social media, even if we’re not actually talking to them.

I really missed seeing what people were doing and just being a bit nosy. Part of me thinks that we’ve just all been conditioned to validate each other through watching what we’re doing so feeling all alone is daunting. I was getting FOMO over posts I couldn’t even know I was missing.

When it came to in-person relationships, I noticed myself getting annoyed at people using their phones during conversations. Social media is all-consuming and feels inescapable, even when you’re deliberately trying to avoid it. I’m definitely going to focus on being more present in conversations post-detox.

Social Media and Boundaries

Overall, I’ve found the last two weeks to be incredibly peaceful. I slept better, I had more time for the hobbies I never make time for, and there was more time to process my own thoughts. Upon reflection, perhaps the reason it all felt so peaceful was the lack of social media.

Social media holds a strange presence in our lives. It often oversteps any kind of normal social boundary and infiltrates all aspects of our lives. I don’t often stay up until the early hours chatting to someone face-to-face but I’ll happy do it via Snapchat. I wouldn’t let someone in my life talk to me about sensitive subjects without my consent, but I’ll watch seven consecutive TikToks on something that upsets me.

Algorithms track our reactions and what makes us pause or draws us in. That can be great – please TikTok keep showing me how I can secure Eras Tour tickets – but it also hones in on our weaknesses and has the power to expose us to damaging content without us realising.

Was doing a dopamine detox worth it?

I did notice a positive difference in myself. I missed social media but I also found the thought of re-downloading all those apps quite overwhelming. Unfortunately, I imagine the effects of this dopamine detox will likely be short-lived.

“I feel refreshed and was allowed to just be Ella for a while without anyone else’s input”

Throughout the two-week period, I found myself opening my phone and random apps with no aim. When I reinstalled the apps, I did have a day of intense social media usage to ‘catch up’, but I am now constantly overthinking my social media habits.

It served its purpose in that I feel refreshed and was allowed to just be Ella for a while without anyone else’s input. I feel grounded in what I want and less susceptible to influencer culture.

“it wasn’t ground-breaking by any means”

My dopamine detox was certainly more of a fire break than a lifestyle change. I don’t feel as though my world was revolutionised. I’m glad I did it and I’ll probably do it again periodically, but it wasn’t ground-breaking by any means.

In some ways, I didn’t even feel like I was missing out. I got my dopamine hits elsewhere. I missed knowing what everyone was doing but I think I only really felt the need to return because I had set the deadline to begin with.

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Featured image courtesy of Ketut Subiyanto via Pixabay. No changes were made to this image. Image license can be found here.

Ella is History and Spanish student at the University of Sheffield. She is the social media manager for Empoword and a keen writer for various publications. When not writing or studying (which is far more often than she'd like to admit), you can find her exploring the outdoors, going out for drinks with friends, or in bed with Netflix and TikTok.

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