Think it’s making you happy? Think again.
Social media tricks your brain into chasing likes, not joy. Instead of genuine happiness, you’re stuck in a loop of scrolling, comparing, and craving more.
Dopamine isn’t the villain — misuse is. Real dopamine comes from progress, movement, connection, and purpose — not just pixels and filters.
Real dopamine?
It comes from:
Crushing your goals
Creating something from scratch
Deep, honest conversations
Moving your body, not just your thumb
Social media doesn’t reward your soul.
It hacks your brain.
It gives you crumbs of validation and keeps you hungry. Start feeding your mind what it really craves: purpose, peace, presence.
Not pixels.
What I feel like is yes it might be hijacking our minds but we are on a platform which we are using because of screen either laptop or phones or any other , so it depends upon a person to person either he is using it in correct way or not
The hormone “Dopamine” is all about rewards, feeling rewarded, and the feeling we get through this. In today’s time, this hormone is mostly getting formed through the social media usage and the likes, comments and shares obtained. Dopamine hit has a strong connection with addiction, as we all love rewards. Now, if we make ourselves dependent mostly on this source of dopamine that’s coming from social media validation, then every time we will crave to be fed with dopamine through this mostly and when this doesn’t happen, we get into a low zone. So, the solution for this is, we can try to get this dopamine hit by doing something that can give rewards instantly and keep giving it every time throughout the journey like chasing a big goal/dream and getting small rewards in between, learning a new skill, language, or pursuing a new hobby, cooking, farming and growing crops, building a work-out routine and doing developments in it gradually. This way, dopamine surge remains, without the person feeling any void inside and the best part is, for this, one doesn’t need to depend on anybody as these are all self-created. Besides, social media can be used for staying updated with the discoveries around, knowing about the upgraded technologies, staying in touch with friends and family, for productive networking, and other significant learnings in life. We should use it for our benefits without getting consumed by it.
Using social media trigger the dopamine release in the brain it gives the feeling of pleasure and reward.but the real dopamine release with the genuine connection
I find it interesting to learn that dopamine is mainly utilised for motivation instead of pleasure. It’s nature’s approach to encouraging us to push ourselves towards achieving our goals instead of simply pressing ‘refresh’ for another like.
This is so true, social media can make us feel good for a moment but leaves us wanting more.
Real happiness comes from doing things that matter, not just chasing likes or views.
Social media can feel like a constant dopamine hit, but it’s more like a quick illusion likes and notifications trigger a false reward, not the meaningful motivation our brain craves. As a pharmacy student, I’ve noticed how this makes studying harder and leaves me feeling more drained than satisfied. Real dopamine comes from small achievements finishing a tough topic, a good night’s sleep, or an actual conversation. Small wins, not screen swipes, genuinely lift us.