Comment by __turbobrew__
2 days ago
I have similar ideas from my own experience. I believe that humans have a “set point” for dopamine hits, if you are constantly receiving quick cheap dopamine hits your set point goes higher and you are constantly craving more. Similarly, if you back off the hits it will initially become uncomfortable but your set point will lower and you will not have those cravings.
This may be controversial, but I believe a part of the prevalence of ADHD in younger people is that their set point is unnaturally high from childhood as they never learned how to be bored.
This is my mental model as I personally have observed my set point change throughout my life. I think it makes sense logically as well as these small dopamine hits can become addictive like anything else, just to a lesser extent than something like heroin.
There is some research about this. I'm by no means an expert but a lot of it seems to tie back to dopamine and addiction science. You might like to look into the research of Anna Lembke around this.
I was never bored as a kid because I was almost always reading books. I don't think it has had negative effects on me.
Books are not particularly optimized for addiction or dopamine, but social media is. Very intentionally and expertly so.