Smart Phone, Dumber You?

It’s the first thing you grab when you wake up and the last thing you touch at night (even after bae). You reach for it countless times in between and panic if you leave it at home..

- Lisa Freedman

You can become psychologically addicted to almost anything—including, and maybe even especially, your phone,” says Earl Miller, PhD, a professor of neuroscience at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT.

A smartphone is basically a mini dopamine factory, doling out hits of the feel-good brain chemical as a reward when you get Likes on social media or relieve boredom by scrolling Instagram. Unfortunately, “the dopamine system is not satiable, so you continue to crave more and more,” says clinical psychologist Elyssa Barbash, PhD, of doctorelyssa.com.

That’s why the average person ends up reaching for their phone 80 times a day, according to one survey (if you think this sounds low, same). And chances are, you don’t love it. More than half of people between the ages 18 and 24 are seeking relief from social media, according to a recent report.