Hey everyone, and welcome to TopThink. Today, we will learn about how to stop endlessly
scrolling on your phone. Now, let’s begin.
Technology is always at our fingertips. Between smartphones, tablets, laptops,
and other devices, we spend hours and hours every day staring at screens, scrolling through pages,
responding to messages, and engaging with virtual communities. Much of the time, our
devices do make our lives easier. We have access to more information at faster speeds than ever
before. We can use finely-tuned applications and lightning-quick programs to significantly increase
our productivity. Thus, in the workplace and in our social lives, technology can be profoundly
beneficial – so much so that many people couldn’t survive without it – but in our personal lives,
our devices aren’t always so advantageous. Just as technology can amplify our productivity,
it can also be a tremendous distraction. Our devices use colorful and rapid stimulants to
mesmerize us into wasting hours of our time. Think about the evenings you’ve spent scrolling through
page after page of funny comments and videos. Think about the hours you’ve lost to video games,
social media, and other forms of digital entertainment. The worst part is... you probably
aren’t aware of how quickly time is passing you by. When you finally pull yourself away from your
screen, you may discover that you have wasted the entire night. Somehow, the hours slipped through
your fingers, and all you have to show for it is a faint memory of mindless, digital stimulation.
Modern media is dangerous and distracting because it is endless by design.
Every page you scroll through blends seamlessly into the next. Every video you watch launches you
into another without hesitation. You scroll and you scroll, in search of a natural stopping point,
but you never reach the end… and the scrolling never stops. People who create entertaining media
want to encourage this very phenomenon. They create platforms that are smooth and silky,
eye-grabbing, and immersive; they’re easy to learn and easier to access, naturally
pulling us into the little world they’ve created. But how and why does this structure essentially
hypnotize us into endless scrolling, thereby consuming hours of our time? The brain is
naturally drawn to activities that provide rapid stimulation and rewards. Each time you
encounter a funny video, your brain is flooded with a pleasure-seeking hormone called dopamine.
This hormone creates a burst of happiness and excitement, but that rush of emotion
doesn’t last very long. After a brief high, your mood rapidly decreases. The
initial excitement fades away, and you find yourself craving another burst of pleasure.
So, what do you do? You scroll to the next page. You watch the next video. You keep
searching for one burst of stimulation after the next. With every rush of stimulation, you
tell yourself that you will be satisfied, but that satisfaction never comes. Instead, these highs and
lows feed into themselves, creating a vicious, time-wasting cycle known as a Dopamine Loop.
This is why you scroll endlessly on your phone. With every minute you spend scrolling,
you’re falling deeper into a dopamine loop that becomes more and more engrossing, even
when you’ve passed the point of entertainment. The media itself may have lost its luster,
yet you keep scrolling in search of the next rush. Obviously, this is a problematic cycle,
which affects millions of people every day, but breaking free from this cycle is not an easy task.
The problem is… your brain doesn’t have a natural stop button. Your brain naturally seeks rewards,
novelty, and stimulation, even if those stimulants are destructive or unhealthy. As long as you allow
your brain to follow these natural urges, you will keep sinking into unproductive patterns.
So, how do you escape? How do you stop yourself from chasing digital stimulation? What strategies
can you use to break this cycle and finally reclaim your time, freedom, and self-control?
The answer to this question is a little different for everyone, but it always begins with a simple
question. Does scrolling through your phone bring value into your life? Oftentimes,
we don’t stop to consider whether we’re investing our time into something meaningful,
or if we’re simply turning off our brains. For example, scrolling through your phone may be
valuable to your life in some way. You may use it to keep in touch with your community,
gather inspiration, or gain advantages in your career. If this sounds familiar,
there may not be anything wrong with the time you spend using technology. But for all the people who
wish they could change their habits, reclaim their time, or set themselves free from technology, your
scrolling isn’t adding anything to your life. So, it may be time to radically change your behavior.
Before you can stop scrolling, you need to make a commitment to yourself.
If you want to change your habits, that change will require you to take action, embrace
discomfort, and resist your instincts. Otherwise, you will fall back into the dopamine loop sooner
than you think. So, right now, promise yourself that you are willing to change. No matter how
uncomfortable things get, remember that promise and try as hard as you can to keep your word.
Now that you’ve made your commitment, you may be tempted to fight brain chemistry
with brain chemistry. Many people think, if you want to escape the dopamine loop,
you need to remove all sources of dopamine in your life. What we’re talking about is sometimes known
as a dopamine detox. The goal of a dopamine detox is to reduce the power of reward-seeking behaviors
by fasting from all sources of dopamine in your life. That includes every activity that brings
you rapid, temporary pleasure, whether it’s scrolling through your phone, spending money,
or simply enjoying a sugary treat. All of these things release dopamine in your brain,
so, by avoiding these rapid stimulants, you can hypothetically change your habits.
We have plenty of anecdotal evidence that dopamine detoxes help people change their lifestyles.
What we don’t have is scientific proof that detoxes effectively manage bad habits or in
any way alter your hormones. The first problem is this: avoiding all sources of dopamine is nearly
impossible. If you don’t get it from scrolling or sugary foods, you’ll get a rush of dopamine
while talking to a friend, going for a jog, or engaging in any other feel-good behaviors.
Unless you lock yourself in a dark, empty room for days on end,
it’s simply impractical for anyone to achieve a true dopamine detox.
The second problem is that dopamine detoxes are incredibly taxing. Any sudden change in
your behavior can cause negative side effects, like a significant decline in mood and motivation
or a radical increase in stress. These side effects may stimulate unhealthy choices and
other destructive, reward-seeking behaviors, like overeating or spending too much money.
Though a dopamine detox may not be an efficient method to change your behavior,
we can use the principles of dopamine detoxing to design less stressful or taxing strategies, which
can help you manage reward-seeking behaviors. Right now, scrolling through your phone may be
a go-to source of stimulation in your life. Every time you’re bored or unmotivated, you pick up your
phone and automatically begin cycling through page after page. Because your brain doesn’t know when
to stop, you keep going, until one mindless decision ends up wasting hours of your time.
This is certainly a problem, but, no matter how desperate you are to find a solution,
you don’t need to 100% eliminate technology from your life. Instead, you need to find a balance,
allowing you to use your devices in a way that is healthy and productive. The key to controlling any
bad habit isn’t fasting but moderation and portion control. In other words, you don’t need to starve
yourself of dopamine; you just need reliable strategies to control and moderate your behavior.
Luckily, there are many available tricks to help you find a healthy and balanced relationship with
technology. For example, you may control your daily social media usage with a designated
“scrolling timer.” For 15 or 30 minutes each day, you can sit down and scroll freely without
worrying about how much time you’re wasting. Setting a scrolling timer gives your brain a
much-needed stopping point, prompting you to set down your phone and change your behavior.
Scrolling timers also make you more conscious of the time you spend on your devices.
When you see how much time has passed, that visualization motivates you to put your phone
away and do something more productive. Over time, you’ll start to value those 15 or 30 minutes far
more than the hours you would have spent scrolling in the past. By setting aside dedicated scrolling
time, you can genuinely appreciate and be conscious of the media you consume.
This is just one of many strategies you can use to stop endlessly scrolling through your
phone without noticing. If you find that timers aren’t enough, you can always add
more radical strategies to moderate your media use. For instance, you might step back from your
social world by temporarily deleting your biggest time-wasters. Some people download and delete
their apps every single week. You might allow yourself to use a few of your favorite apps on
weekends while deleting those same apps during the week. This strategy teaches you to better
prioritize your time, setting aside weekends for fun and weekdays for productivity. You’ll
be surprised how freeing it feels to get rid of your biggest time-wasters, even for a few days.
Whichever strategies you use, remember that change doesn’t happen all at once.
It’s a gradual process that relies on steady, incremental progress. If you practice moderation,
you will slowly become more conscious of your scrolling and may eventually stop altogether.
Until then, don’t expect yourself to change overnight. Little by little,
make good choices. Be conscious of your time. Because every step forward brings you closer
to a life of balance and moderation. Thank you for watching TopThink and
be sure to subscribe because more incredible content is on the way.