Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Photos
Topics: Technology, Social Media, TV and Film, Phones
Anish Vij
Topics: Technology, Social Media, TV and Film, Phones
I can't be the only one struggling to get through an entire film without a few random scrolls on social media.
And I'm being kind to myself by only mentioning 'a few' there.
Depending on your self-awareness, you know doom scrolling isn't good for you, but you do it anyway.
However, research suggests it's even worse for you than you think.
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One 2019 study titled 'Do You Enjoy TV, while Tweeting?' took a look at the 'effects of multitasking' with regards to viewing habits.
The findings from a between-subjects experiment concluded that going on social media while watching TV 'impairs emotional responses' and 'decreases people's experience of transportation' - with a lack of transportation referring to a lack of attention.
But what's even worse is how multitasking with tech can affect your brain.
Scientists who partnered with marketing agency HeyHuman claim that every time people switch between gadgets, they release the chemical L-dopa, which produces the hormone dopamine.
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They say it's 'worse than being stoned', adding that this use of technology in our lives is 'rewiring our brain' and 'lowering our IQ as a result'.
Adding: "Our brains could, thanks to our reliance and overuse of technology, be heading for the scrap heap."
What's interesting is the debate on excessive screen time. How long is too long on your phone?
Michael Rich, a Center on Media and Child Health director at Boston Children's Hospital, says it doesn't necessarily matter 'how long we're using screens' - more so how our brain interacts with it.
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“Virtually all games and social media work on what’s called a variable reward system, which is exactly what you get when you go to Mohegan Sun and pull a lever on a slot machine." he explained to Harvard Medical School.
"It balances the hope that you’re going to make it big with a little bit of frustration, and unlike the slot machine, a sense of skill needed to improve.”
He added that while we can 'evolve with the technology', what really matters is how we choose to use it.
"We don't want to be in a moral panic because kids are staring at smartphones." Rich said.
"We need to be asking, what’s happening when they’re staring at their smartphone in terms of their cognitive, social, and emotional development?
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"As with most things, it will probably be a mix of positive and negative.
"Going forward with our eyes open, how can we enhance the positive and mitigate the negative?"