This article explores how smartphones leverage the brain’s dopamine-reward system, drawing users into a cycle of constant checking, and suggests strategies to help regain focus and wellbeing.
How often do we find ourselves glancing at our smartphone for ‘just a minute’ and one hour later we’re still looking at it, often tantalisingly drawn to numerous apps on our phone? We even forget why we picked up the phone in the first place. Vivid colours and high refresh rates pull us deeper into the screen. This is rewarding for both our visual system and for our brain as scrolling feels effortless and pleasing.
Is not being able to tear ourselves away a lack of willpower? Is it habit that drives us to look at our phones so regularly?
It’s no accident that our smartphone entices us in this way. It’s designed to give us an intuitive, seamless interface that reduces mental effort. ‘Clicks’ reinforce action and encourage more stimulation, while algorithms tailor our feeds to our personal preferences, increasing the likelihood of further engagement. What is it specifically about the smartphone that has this effect on us, where use of digital technology on other types of devices does not?
The dopamine loop
The smartphone is designed to exploit our dopaminergic reward system. Bunzeck and Düzel (2006) demonstrate through functional MRI imaging that novelty and unpredictability trigger small dopamine spikes giving intrinsic motivation. The visual richness of the technology and graphics keeps the brain curious, giving positive feedback that reinforces the habit loop and reward circuits (Anderson, 2013).
To understand the effect that a phone has on our brain, we need to understand the role of dopamine. Dopamine is an essential neurotransmitter and hormone that influences mood, motivation, learning and attention and can provide an intense feeling of reward. The brain is wired to find balance between effort and reward. If we put in the effort, we gain a reward – cooking a tasty snack, then enjoying the delicious treat. The phone has broken the effort – reward cycle to give reward, reward, reward. No effort in cooking, just order a meal on an app. No effort in walking around shops looking for the perfect outfit to wear to a party, just order on a shopping app and it will be delivered to your door.
So, apart from time wasted doom-scrolling on our phones and distracting us from pursuing other activities, what is the effect on our brains?
Without the effort – reward cycle to balance our dopamine, it grows unchecked and then subsequently, we produce less dopamine. This leads us to search for more dopamine sources such as phone notifications – likes, messages and new content, social media, video games, online shopping or watching short video clips. This keeps us stuck in the reward feedback dopamine loop.
Other more natural dopamine sources such as exercise, social interaction, listening to music, achieving goals and gaining good quality sleep help support healthy dopamine regulation whereas high-frequency, high-intensity sources like constant phone checking overstimulate the system and reduce sensitivity over time.
Brain changes
These chemical changes are mirrored by physical changes in the brain. A study by Horvath et al. (2020) found structural and functional brain alterations in regions central to emotional regulation, attention and decision making from excessive phone use. Although this study is small and causation not yet fully established, it is enough to alert us to the potentially long-term damaging effects of phone usage, especially in young people. It is supported by neuroimaging studies of heavy phone users such as Chun et al. (2017), showing prefrontal cortex and salience network alterations, which affects cognition and learning. It reduces the ability to regulate attention and reduces working memory capacity and attention span, impairing concentration.
This reduces self-control, planning and goal directed attention making it harder to resist distractions and regulate screen time (Ahn et al., 2021). Not only that, but the brain may flag phone related cues such as notifications and apps as highly important, which reinforces craving and constantly checking our phone for digital stimulation. This keeps us in the habit reward feedback loop. Worth noting, is the effect on adolescents as highlighted by Lemola, Perkinson-Gloor, and Brand (2022) who found excessive use of social media to have a negative effect on emotional and mental wellbeing leading to mood disturbances and sleep problems.
Breaking the cycle
The phone has become such a normalised part of daily life that the thought of being without it for even five minutes seems incomprehensible. Yet, with the wealth of emerging evidence of the effect that it has on our brain, memory, attention and mental wellbeing, surely it is worth attempting to break the cycle?
So compelling is the evidence of the effect of high phone use and its effects on the brain, that experts and behavioural scientists are ready to share their tips on how to break the dopamine reward cycle by reducing phone usage. The key is to focus on mindful phone use by taking measures to reduce the amount of screen time.
Phones have digital wellbeing measures to limit time on apps and the internet. As the visual attraction of graphics and bright colours draw us in, turning our screens to grayscale is an effective way of reducing our phone usage. It’s not quite as rewarding to look at a grey screen and our phone quickly loses its appeal once everything turns to black and white.
Taking deliberate dopamine breaks is easier said than done, therefore we need to make a deliberate decision to take a break and distance ourselves from the phone. As research on behavioural addiction shows that cravings and mood can be improved with even very small breaks, it is important to try this first (Fernandez, Kuss, and Griffiths, 2020).
Start small – half an hour a day, building up to one hour, two hours and more. Take a four-hour break on the weekend building up to a whole day. Not only will this break the reward cycle, but it will give a sense of freedom as we escape from our reliance on constant checking for new notifications or information.
While the phone is an effective tool for organising our lives with all information in one place, some of us are moving to a paper-based system in a bid to avoid being sidetracked when checking our phone for calendar appointments or task lists. By building in breaks from our phone, we can resist the urge to reach for it. Constant connectivity and doom-scrolling undermine our ability to focus and regulate emotions, but taking breaks helps recondition the brain toward greater control (Chatterjee and Kanojia, 2023).
We can do something else rewarding with our time instead. We might be surprised by how much we enjoy healthy activities such as walking, spending time with family and friends or pursuing a hobby. These slower more rewarding activities will replace the quick dopamine increases gained from using our phone. Joining a digital minimalism challenge with a friend or organised group to support this habit change will make it more likely to succeed.
The next time you pick up your phone, ask yourself why you are picking it up. Is this a habit or a need?
References
Ahn, J., S. H. Kim, J. Y. Hwang, J. E. Jeong, H. Kim, Y. S. Lee, and J. S. Choi. “Altered Functional Connectivity of the Salience Network in Young Adults with Problematic Smartphone Use.” Frontiers in Psychiatry, vol. 12, 2021, p. 669019.
Anderson, Brian A. “A Value‐Driven Mechanism of Attentional Selection.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 22, no. 6, 2013, pp. 403–09.
Bunzeck, Nico, and Emrah Düzel. “Absolute Coding of Stimulus Novelty in the Human Substantia Nigra/VTA.” Neuron, vol. 51, no. 3, 2006, pp. 369–79.
Chatterjee, Rangan, and Alok Kanojia. “How to Gain Control over Your Mind, the Healing Power of Discomfort & the True Essence of Happiness.” Feel Better, Live More, episode 561, 7 June 2023. Podcast, www.drchatterjee.com/how-to-gain-control-over-your-mind-the-healing-power-of-discomfort-the-true-essence-of-happiness-with-dr-alok-kanojia/.
Chun, J. W., J. Choi, H. Cho, K. J. Ahn, J. S. Choi, and D. J. Kim. “Altered Brain Activity and the Effect of Personality Traits in Excessive Smartphone Use: An fMRI Study.” Scientific Reports, vol. 7, no. 1, 2017, p. 12156.
Fernandez, D. P., D. Kuss, and M. D. Griffiths. “Short-Term Abstinence Effects across Potential Behavioral Addictions.” Addictive Behaviors, 2020.
Horvath, Juliane, Christina Mundinger, M. M. Schmitgen, N. D. Wolf, Fabio Sambataro, Dusan Hirjak, K. M. Kubera, Julian Koenig, and R. C. Wolf. “Structural and Functional Correlates of Smartphone Addiction.” Journal of Behavioral Addictions, vol. 9, no. 3, 2020, pp. 1–12.
Lemola, S., N. Perkinson-Gloor, and S. Brand. “Social Media Use and Adolescent Sleep: A Narrative Review.” Current Addiction Reports, vol. 9, no. 4, 2022, pp. 575–84.
Sadie Moseley is a Grade 1 Support Teacher at North London Collegiate School Dubai. After beginning her career in business, she earned a PGCE with distinction from the University of Nottingham and later a PGCert in Dyslexia and Literacy Difficulties (AMBDA) with distinction from the University of Birmingham, deepening her expertise in inclusive education. A Level 7 Specialist Dyslexia Teacher and Assessor accredited by the British Dyslexia Association, she is currently completing an MA in Inclusion (SEN) at the University of Birmingham.
Previously Head of Year 1 and Key Stage 1 Literacy Coordinator at an international school in Spain, Sadie has a passion for multilingualism, neurodiversity, and evidence-based teaching that enables every child to thrive.
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