How often do you use your phone in a week?
According to a 2024 study by the American Optometric Association (AOA), the average person spends just over seven hours a day looking at a digital screen. For the purpose of the AOA study, excessive screen time was defined as over seven hours, which means about half of the U.S. population exceeds that.
Once upon a time, parents often told their kids to turn off the TV and run outside. Now all age groups appear equally guilty of excessive screen time. Were our parents right to ask us to limit our screen use?
The AOA study found that the cost of our excessive screen time is costing the U.S. around $73 billion a year, in vision and other related symptoms. These include blurred and double vision, eye pain, headache, migraine, back pain, and neck pain. They impact both direct medical costs and, more importantly, lost productivity and well-being.
Beyond physical symptoms, according to Cleveland Clinic, excessive screen time is stressing many out, and a digital detox may help to provide relief.
Dr. Kia-Rai Prewitt of Cleveland Clinic explains, “Social media connects us with others in many beneficial ways. But at the same time, it can also have an unhealthy effect on people.” Anxiety and depression can accompany negative social media experiences, and it affects self-esteem.
Dopamine is triggered by our brain’s search and explore functions. We are wired to release dopamine when we make human connections. Stanford psychiatrist Dr. Ann Lembke explains in her book, “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence,” how social media apps can cause the release of large amounts of dopamine to our brain’s reward pathways. With every scroll or swipe, the action provides a hit of dopamine to our brain, similar to an addictive drug.
In a study published in the journal Psychology Science, researchers found that our brain reward centers were more activated by social media than by images of food or money.
When you sign off, this source of dopamine is removed, and your brain will go into a dopamine-deficit state. This is why social media feels good when you are using it, but you may not feel as good when you stop.
The long-term dopamine exposure is still being studied to see if it will lead to desensitization, as with illicit drugs.
A digital detox allows you to see if technology is affecting your productivity as well as your well-being, both physical and mental. It allows your brain to withdraw from the additive effects of excess dopamine. According to a Standard Medicine Scope article, one month is the minimum duration typically required to reset the dopamine reward pathways, and it may decrease the anxiety and depression that social media can induce. Upon returning from detox, the article recommends prioritizing app usage toward connecting with real people and consolidating its use to specific times of the day.
So if you are looking for ideas to improve your overall well-being, look into digital detox this January, and have a healthy and happy 2025!
