Depression, dopamine and Social Media

I'm wondering about this...I have nothing to do with social media. I belong to 2 forums...if you consider that to be social media. I don't think I do but some of you may disagree.

It's my understanding that an addiction is, essentially, an ever increasing requirement for dopamine? (Please feel free to correct anything I say here as I really am just talking without any real research or reading)....

So social media creates addicts by giving a person a dopamine high...right? Validation through "likes"?

Now here, on Psych Central, we have a "thanks" and a "hugs" button and the ability to create a "friends" list...does seeing these create a dopamine high also? Oh and I do not judge you for using or not using any of these things so please...you don't have to defend yourselves...that's not what this is about...

Do those of you who have Instagram or Facebook or Youtube...can you equate the feeling of validation the same as you get here?

Where am I going with this? Well, since I have no frame of reference or any way to compare because I only use PC, and I use it as a tool to connect. And it does nothing for me to make me feel better (as far as my brain knows )

I understand that social media can contribute to depression. But I was wondering if those of you who use it, feel better (even momentarily) or if you feel no different. Wouldn't that be a decent indicator of the cause of an individuals depression? So treatment might be different, right? If it means nothing to you, or if you have no reaction, then your dopamine levels are low.
If you "need" to check your status or hearts or thumbs up or whatever it is...then you don't have a lack of dopamine.

If I make no sense, I'm not surprised. And just ignore this thread.

The only social media I use is facebook. And obviously I use pc.

Honestly I feel that thanks/hugs/general responses impact me more on here than they would on facebook. Facebook is fake. People rarely show their true colours. I know I don't.

But on here I am more open than anywhere else. And that hurts when it gets ignored.

Not sure if that's what you meant...but hope I'm not too far off topic

Facebook, in my eyes, turns people into cherished idols.
Now an idol is symbolic, so cherishing an idol is just no room for true communication and compassion.
However seeing those "idols" as humans, we get mixed with feelings, whether this is all real or not. Looking at all the people getting so much attention, yes, it can create depression.
To cope with this is the understanding that Facebook creates an "Idol" effect.
Another way I used to cope is to unfollow those who get tons of likes and comments. Those who tended to show off their achievements mostly got unfollowed.

I feel better when I use the social media for beneficial or personally entertaining purposes, although sometimes I do press the like button on specific people's photos who have at least a small place in my heart.

I get where you're coming from referring to the "Thanks!", "Hug" and friend list. But it's different, since typical and popular social media sites are about idolizing and competing for attention, competing for positiveness and productivity.
This forum however, is a non-competitive place. It's a balanced place of positiveness and negativeness, creating the vital support for all of us.

Maybe you are right although I find a lot of differences between this and Facebook. To me thanks is thanks and not a like. But this is me

And yes. We are animals subject to conditioning. A like is conditioning, so is a salary, or any other reward you can imagine (food, a hug, a kiss, a word of encouragement, etc)

I think your question is an intriguing one. I agree with Clara about people being animals subject to conditioning. We tend to gravitate to, and become pleased by, those things which give us pleasure - unless we're depressed.

Strangely, I don't view 'Hugs' on PC as validation...I view hugs as support and concern. But I do use PC's 'Thanks' in the same way as I use Facebook's 'Like.'

I feel like a hug and a kiss is a bit more though...it creates connection, it's not that mechanical, it's "human", alive. That something that can't be measured..But this is how I see it, I understand that there are different perspectives.

But yeah, hugs in a social platform are somewhat a different thing than hugs IRL.
As mentioned above, I also feel that the "hugs" on this forum are more personal than the like on FB, I appreciate them more. I am more open and vulnerable here than there, more deeply myself. If that's ever possible.
I don't know about the dopamine high though...I feel more of a validation, not feeling alone, support kinda reaction.

I'm not a "fan" of fb..

I typically check my Facebook account 1 X a year even if I don't need to , I think social media is a very destructive thing, and psychologists agree that social media and that damn like button is turning the Internet into a popularity contest that is having very negative effects on the younger generations, the Internet does provide incredible learning opportunities if people take advantage of them, unfortunately the trends towards the social media circus is dwarfing that aspect in favor of the instant validation and being able you say whatever you want , I cautioned my girlfriends daughter about the saying whatever comes to mind, in my day we talked trash about teachers and classmates in the stalls of the bathroom, and over summer break the janitors would literally wipe the slate clean by painting it , with social media it's all backed up and accesible for the rest of eternity, and anything you say due to misinformation of a young eager angry mind can come back to haunt you, go ahead say it i am no fun, put your much thought into things.

Great comments so far...

I do wonder if social media could be a tool to measure dopamine levels? Ultimately (according to what I read) social media does tend to contribute to depression...likened to gambling, alcohol, drugs, because your brain can't keep up the level of dopamine.

Since I don't have an "addictive" personality (which, I would say, means that there is LESS dopamine) then isn't that an indicator of my "type" of depression?

Has social media created a whole generation of addicts?

I think that it can be addictive

I have been in pain management for many years and my doctor knows I worry a lot about addiction but don't have any addictive component to my personality , I am not really a competitive type of person , I am more like a wet blanket , I had a landlord that was doing crazy things to try and keep me as a tenant , because I had a "cooling effect" on some of the more wild tenants , drinking and drug use went down and all that happy stuff associated with it , he was considering spending over 1 million dollars to remodel the place so I could stay, I told him that was plain crazy he would never get the money back ( that was really a good thing that he didn't because after I moved one of the tenants burned the complex down in an arson fire ) .

Being almost 50 I do really wonder what we are adding to the destruction of "newer generations" ,the breakup of the family unit , gangs and guns and drugs and always having to wonder who is lurking around , I thank God had a yard and a mom who was fantastic , but what about the people that didn't, the ones whose yard is the street and all the bad things that come with that , and then the pressure to succeed and be popular on the Internet, it's just putting young people in a negative loop , and we haven't even covered the skyrocketing incidence of depression and anxiety , I really think we are our own worst enemy and all of the things that people get involved in to escape is eroding what makes us remarkable "our brains" . The greatest threat to human survival is the humans in the race. I recently read that even though medications are failing people and depression I'd on the rise , big pharma has no interest in spending money on more effective drugs , there currently won't be any new anti depressants anywhere near trials for at least 10 years , of course there is big money being poured down the drain on things that I think are a waste like drugs to combat the horrible side-effects of neuroleptics , and experimental drugs to ward of dementia , I don't want to offend anyone here its not my intention , but don't people have to survive to get old to even get dementia, I don't trust big pharma to begin with but when they are trying to solve old age , before they find some better answers to get people to old age , something isn't right , maybe I think you simply or just am out of touch , but to me it seems like trying to save the people that are dying now "the boomers" is a day late and a dollar short effort, there is not going to be a huge die off like the boomers again for a very long time , even if they found the magic bullet tommorow by the time it was thru human trials FDA approved and priced so insurance formulates would pay for it , most of the boomers would be gone and the drugs patent would expire and big pharma would be crying we didn't make enough profit off it, so take on something important like depression ,so people get old enough to have dementia,and this is being said by a guy who could lose his brain to dementia tomorow, my diseases leave me amazingly wide open for early onset dementia.

I could die dumber than a box of rocks , but that would mean I said something intelligent before I died , nah not gonna happen !

Here's a little article I read. Note it's primary goal is the importance of social media in marketing, but it's interesting nonetheless.

https://www.ama.org/publications/Mar...addiction.aspx

In the article it says: “....if you’re getting positive feedback in social media—‘likes’ and shares and retweets—it’s a positive ‘reinforcer’."

Interesting; so maybe it is good that you are posting because when we respond we are helping you feel less depressed? (We all want you to feel better )

I suppose this means I should quit eating chocolate when I am reading postings on PC. Maybe those who want to cut back on the consumption of alcohol should drink water instead when they are surfing social media?

I've been using forums for over 16 years, and despite all the "hard work" I've put into them, there's not a great deal to show for it. Although the Internet is supposed to be a hobby. Many of the message boards I was fond of from yesteryear are gone now. Forums in general also seem to have gone downhill, and messengers too, since Facebook has a chat function.

Really, I think the online world can make people abhorrent. I'm not really a lover of social media, per se. Forums have always been my home away from home. Although I liked Bebo far more than Facebook, Bebo is now just an app. To me, Facebook isn't that fascinating anyway. It seems to slow my laptop down now too.

If you spend too long in front of a screen, it can make you feel proper ill. Reading that last post about the online world being addictive is certainly true.

Hi Hoping....
Not really. Perhaps you missed my initial post that indicates that it doesn't work for me that way....

Another misunderstanding (and an unfocussed brain)--your depression is quite deep but at least you still have enough energy to keep us on our toes. In my case, I think PC actually helped me recover from my depression. Maybe there is something to that hug ("like") thing-a-ma-jig; it makes you feel less isolated.