I asked two scientists to help me stop endlessly scrolling on social media—this one trick worked really well
How you can use your brain’s reward system to tackle unwanted habits
Sometimes the tools to make positive changes are already right under your nose. I discovered this recently when thinking about how I train my dog.
My dog is rewarded with high-value treats when she displays desirable behaviors, like waiting at a crosswalk.
I also use these treats to help redirect her from less desirable behaviors (digging up my flowerbeds) and to encourage better ones (digging in her sandbox).
After speaking to two motivation experts, I decided to apply the same principle to myself in an attempt to break my habit of compulsively scrolling on social media—and I was amazed at how effective it was.
I spoke to Philip Gable, a professor of psychology and brain sciences at the University of Delaware, and Kathleen Martin Ginis, a professor in the Department of Medicine and the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at the University of British Columbia.
They explained why scrolling on social media is so hard to stop once you’ve started, and what I could do to break the habit.
Why is scrolling on social media so addictive?
Few things can command your attention as effectively as the never-ending feed of social media, and I often look up to find I’ve lost hours to the infinite scroll.
It’s frustrating to realize I’ve indulged in such a pointless activity for so long.
“We often do it at night or in the afternoon when we’re tired, and it provides a little shot of dopamine, so we keep going,” says Gable.
He compares scrolling on social media to the addictive nature of slot machines.
“People will sit there until their back hurts, their butt is numb, and they’re broke, hoping to get that payout from pressing a button or pulling a lever,” he says.
He explains that social media works similarly, right down to the action of pulling the screen down to look for the next pleasurable thing.
Even if everything you see makes you feel anxious or dissatisfied, the hope that you will find something that makes you feel good keeps you scrolling.
This was a trap I found myself in more often than not, especially after a day of work.
When I want to do something low-effort that doesn’t require as much focus as watching a show or reading a book, I scroll.
Gable explains that the best way to break this pattern is to replace it with something that gives you a superior sense of reward—something that gets your pleasure centers more excited than the prospect of the next humorous post.
So for every hour I stayed off my phone, I rewarded myself with a lemon bonbon.
I was amazed at how quickly the desire for my hourly bonbon overrode my desire to check my phone.
How to choose an effective reward
1. The reward needs to be high value
Martin Ginis explains that choosing the right reward is important. “I think number one is it needs to be something that you value. You have to really love that lemon bonbon for it to work,” she says.
“I’ve seen other people give themselves a check mark or a star in a calendar. Then after 10 stars they get a bigger treat.”
She also stresses that this method is highly personal and doing exactly what someone else does to quit their bad habits may not work for you.
“Different people will have different things that are a treat for them.”
2. The reward needs to be immediate
“We know that when rewards are delivered immediately after the behavior, rather than a week or a month later, they’re more likely to change the behavior,” says Martin Ginis.
“Ideally, it should follow the behavior that you’re trying to stop or start relatively soon afterwards.”
3. If it isn’t working, it’s not the right reward
“If something isn’t working, try something else,” suggests Martin Ginis.
“I think it’s unusual to find something that we love right off the bat, but there are so many different options to choose from.
“Ask friends who have been in a similar situation to get ideas and go from there.”
Does the reward become less effective over time?
I noticed that the rewards I give my dog lose their effectiveness after a while. I have to rotate through a series of high-value treats to keep her motivated.
So what happens when my lemon bonbon loses the value it has now?
“I think you've chosen a pretty good reward because typically sugar is much more rewarding and more powerful than doomscrolling,” says Gable.
However, if that reward starts to lose its appeal, there are a few things you can do to increase its value again.
1. Change the parameters
I suggested that instead of getting a bonbon for every hour, I could make my reward more challenging to obtain by holding out even longer.
Two hours without looking at my phone will earn me a single bonbon, rather than just one hour.
“It works the same as how you would train a dog using intervals,” says Gable
“If you want your dog to let you know when they want to go outside, first you reward them for just looking at the door. Then you don't reward for that and you only reward them when they’re near the door,” he says.
“Then you only reward them when they scratch at the door or sniff at the door. It works on humans just as well.”
2. Make it rare
“The less sugar you’ve had, the less food that you’ve eaten, the more rewarding that food is,” explains Gable. “It’s why the first bite of a meal always tastes better than the 10th.”
He suggests making every 10th bonbon even more exciting, perhaps raspberry flavor to keep the reward fresh.
How to break up with compulsive scrolling for good
While I was pleased with my progress, my dentist would have a thing or two to say about a budding lemon bonbon addiction.
I asked Martin Ginis how to make the change more permanent (and less reliant on sugar).
She explains that over time, extrinsic motivation—motivation from outside sources—shifts and becomes intrinsic.
So, if you are starting an activity for an extrinsic reward, like a bonbon, eventually you should do it because you enjoy the activity, or the result.
“Over time, hopefully you realize you feel much better when you aren’t doomscrolling,” explains Martin Ginis. “We see it in the people who manage to change their behavior long term.”
With consistency, you should become someone who simply enjoys an activity and does it habitually, or in my case, enjoys avoiding an activity.
Philip Gable is the director of the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Graduate (ING) program and a professor of psychology and brain sciences at the University of Delaware. His research explores the influence of positive and negative affects, varying in motivational direction and motivational intensity, on attention, time perception, emotion regulation and substance use.
Dr. Kathleen Martin Ginis is a distinguished university scholar and a professor in the Department of Medicine and the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at the University of British Columbia.
She holds the Reichwald Family Chair in preventive medicine and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology, and is an international fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology.
