Dopamine Detox: Two Weeks of Smartphone and Dopamine Detox: A Self-Experiment

There are two places where I need social media the most: on the toilet and on public transport. There are two practical reasons for this: Toilet walls are often quite thin, and I can only relax when I watch Reels really loudly – ​​I've become so conditioned that going to the toilet without a phone is practically impossible, even in my own four walls. And on the train? Nothing stresses me out more than public transport in big cities: the smells, the noises, the body heat of people standing so tightly packed together... I like to beam myself into other spheres with thick headphones to make the journey more bearable.

Without a smartphone, without me

Two weeks without a smartphone, I think, would be a good test while I sit on the toilet bowl, staring at my mobile screen. I'd like to prove to myself that I'm not addicted (yet). Even though the first thing I do in the morning is scroll through my phone, and the last thing I do in the evening is scroll through my phone. Sometimes I get so caught up in the continuous loop of short videos that give me little dopamine hits that it's suddenly 2:00 a.m.

My screen time is around three hours—that's almost half a workday! Actually, I'm still fairly within the normal range. According to Statista , the average cell phone time for an adult in Germany is around 2.5 hours a day. For teenagers between 18 and 19, it's 4.5 hours. And I also use my smartphone for research purposes because of my job—at least that's how I try to justify it to myself.

Loyal companion or nasty time thief?

To prepare for my digital detox, I spent a day monitoring my consumption habits and every time I needed my smartphone (really needed it!), I made a note in the Notes app (how ironic).

My day starts with the alarm clock, which, logically, is my smartphone. After getting up, I go to WhatsApp, check if my coffee appointment for lunch is still on, and then check my public transport app. On the train, I confirm my seat in the office using an app, while the ticket inspector asks me for my ticket, which is, of course, stored on my smartphone. At the kiosk, I quickly grab a pretzel, which I pay for with Apple Pay, and zip to my seat via the elevator. I open my laptop and first have to verify myself with two-factor authentication, for which I need my smartphone—of course.

Seven times in just two hours? I'm rethinking my plan. Living completely without a smartphone would only be possible if I went on a two-week vacation to a deserted island where I wouldn't need online banking or Google Maps, or if I called in sick and didn't leave the house—but that's not the point. To be honest, it's not online banking or the alarm function that are driving up my screen time—I don't spend entire afternoons on Google Maps. It's social media, of course: Instagram, YouTube (I'm still successfully resisting TikTok), and the like, that are stealing my time.

Digital media addictions are becoming an increasingly common problem in psychotherapeutic practice, according to the German Medical Journal. Along with online role-playing games and sex portals, social networks are the areas of application with the highest potential for addiction. Research in this area hasn't progressed very far yet, but gambling and computer gaming disorders, as well as social networking disorder, have now been classified, along with substance use disorders, in the category "Substance Use Disorders or Behavioral Addictions" in the "International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems" ( ICD-11 ) by the World Health Organization (WHO). In other words: Social media addiction really exists; it was just unknown until recently.

Am I addicted to social media? "High screen time alone isn't enough; certain factors must be present to describe an addiction," states the German Medical Journal. Do you get nervous when you can't check your news, do you increasingly use social media to suppress negative feelings, or does it affect your sleep quality because you're stuck in front of the screen late into the night? Then caution is advised, according to a Forsa study commissioned by the health insurance company DAK in 2018.

In a fit of panic, I delete all apps with perceived addictive potential from my smartphone: Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, even WhatsApp. I set myself a goal of two weeks without them. We'll see how the digital detox affects my well-being and my screen time. I quickly let my friends know that I'll only be available via text and phone calls for the next 14 days.

The digital withdrawal

During the first few days of my withdrawal, I often found myself absentmindedly reaching for my phone, my thumb searching for the pink Instagram icon... It found nothing and, thanks to conditioning, landed on the weather app. It was a good escape, since there wasn't much to scroll through, so I quickly put my phone down in frustration. It wasn't until I was away from Instagram and the like that I realized how often I let myself get distracted by apps during the day and interrupt what I was doing. Before, I was constantly online for short bursts, which made me totally distracted and often unfocused.

I still miss scrolling, though. Most of all when I'm waiting somewhere or in the evening before going to bed, i.e., in situations where I'm alone. I read on a health blog that people use social media to regulate their emotions. So, when I frantically swipe through Instagram Reels on public transport, I find it a stress reliever. Lacking this simple coping strategy naturally makes me nervous. The inner restlessness that often plagued me in such situations during the first week has thankfully subsided in the second.

Surprisingly, I miss interacting via WhatsApp much less than I thought. Although I used to text with friends daily, I didn't like the feeling of being constantly available. I now feel less pressure to check the app and respond in seconds. And if I really want to meet up, I just call (I've never had much of a problem with that) or send a message using my phone's messenger function.

Dopamine fasting becomes a trend

According to the British Standards Institute, nearly 70 percent of people aged 16 to 21 feel worse when they spend time on social media, and almost half even say they would have preferred to have been young in a world without the internet. And I, too, am increasingly finding that I'm better off without social media.

So why don’t we collectively manage to be offline more?

"Social platforms are deliberately designed to activate the brain's reward center and trigger a constant search for validation and social belonging," explains Dr. Anni Richter, a neurobiology scientist at the Leibniz Institute, to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Dopamine signals both the expectation of a reward and its actual occurrence. "It is released when we have the prospect of something that is stored as a good feeling," says Richter. "For example, with positive interactions in the form of likes and comments."

"The algorithms of popular social media platforms are getting better and better at addressing the dopamine areas in our brain, creating a perfect mix of curiosity and things that appeal to us individually – and enticing us to scroll endlessly," says Richter. At some point, however, a tolerance sets in, so scrolling no longer releases dopamine. This often leads to frustration and makes us even more glued to the screen, which doesn't make us happier in the long run, the neurobiologist knows.

Is no smartphone the solution?

After two weeks of abstinence, I don't feel the need to download all my apps again; I want to maintain my independence a little longer. I notice that the addictive urge to constantly reach for my smartphone has significantly diminished, and I feel freer—and my ability to concentrate is much better than before. I feel like I've read more in these two weeks than I did in the entire last year.

Anni Richter confirms my observation: A study by Ruhr University Bochum found that just two weeks of abstinence in participants with computer game addiction can help reboot the reward center. I feel a sense of relief. If two weeks are enough to reset, then social media addiction can't be that bad. Nevertheless, experts warn, caution is advised, because the learned behaviors will quickly creep back in. So I'm planning to continue monitoring my screen time and only access social media via the browser for now, as this has significantly less addictive potential than the app.

Brigitte

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