May 16, 2024
We all know the feeling of getting lost in an endless scroll on social media. The way social media impacts our brains means that can be harder and harder to draw our attention away from the screen and maintain focus else where. Exercises provide a simple and natural solution to counter these effects, and to positively impact on our wellbeing, mood and cognitive health. Let's explore.
Dopamine 101 : Dopamine is a neurotransmitter often referred to as the "feel-good" chemical. It plays a key role in motivation, reward, and pleasure. It is heavily involved in the brain's reward system. When we engage in pleasurable activities, dopamine is released reinforcing those behaviours and motivating us to repeat them.
Both social media and exercise trigger dopamine release.
When scrolling on social media, the rewards, in the form a like, comment, engagement and endless scroling, are unpredictable - you don't know what you are going to see next engagement or stimulating content. This variable reward schedule creates high anticipation for a pleasurable experience and is particularly stimulating for the brain's dopamine system.
With the constant bombardment of highly stimulating content and the unpredictability of the reward, the brain can become desensitised to the stimuli needing more engaging content to experience the same pleasurable feeling. This leads to a cycle of constantly scrolling longer and longer, and can often leave you feeling unsatisfied.
Regular daily movement, helps regulate dopamine in the brain by countering the fluctuations caused by social media, providing a natural dopamine boost almost immediately. Exercise promotes an increase release of dopamine and improved transportation and uptake of the neurotransmitter throughout the brain. It reinforces the internal dopamine reward pathway, reducing the brains dependence on external rewards provided by social media.
Moreover, compared to social media, exercise provides a predictable reward system with the brain consistently receiving a release of dopamine, creating a positive sense of accomplishment as well as improved self-confidence.
Whether it's a full blown workout, or just 5 minutes of dance in your kitchen, moving your body will help your physical and mental welbeing. You may not realise how much social media is consuming your time and negatively impacting your mind. Next time you become engrossing in the endless scroll, remember to get up move about, dance, stretch, squat and counter the negative impacts of social media.