Dopamine Detoxes Are Popular For A Reason, But They Work Differently Than You’d Think

Do you think you’re capable of reading this entire article in one sitting, without checking your phone or getting distracted? If not, you are definitely not alone (hi!). Your brain is probably fried. You’re overstimulated. You can hardly think straight. Your attention span is wrecked. You can’t stop fiddling with your smartphone. And you don’t know what to do. All that endless scrolling on social media, excessive tech use, online shopping, juggling multiple screens, video game binging, watching TV, adult entertainment, doomscrolling the news, chatting with AI chatbots, and consuming ultra-processed food has left you feeling exhausted and soulless. You’ve been giving your body and mind too much junk food, both physical and digital. The ‘solution’ to your brain fog, lack of focus, and distractedness—you’re told online, repeatedly—is to go on a short dopamine detox to beat your addictions, rewire your brain, and reset your internal reward system.

It sounds tempting. It sounds like the shortcut you need. But it’s all a bunch of baloney grounded in pseudo-scientific marketing and lucrative wellness trends. Content creators, up-and-coming entrepreneurs, and companies are attempting to sell you their products and services. Dopamine detoxes and fasts—in the form of apps, courses, and products—are often suggested, rather ironically, in posts, videos, or ads while you’re mindlessly scrolling your social media feed. Basically, you’re being offered a solution to a problem while you’re already engaging in problematic behavior (too much compulsive screen time). So, it makes the idea of going on a digital or other detox particularly relevant and seductive. 

What you’re being offered is—surprise, surprise—packaged and presented as a magical hack and genius shortcut to fixing your life. Finally! If only you can ‘purge’ your ‘bad’ dopamine with a screen-blocking app, everything will be right as rain! But things aren’t that simple. The people pitching you these detoxes misinterpret and misrepresent addiction, habit-forming, behavioral triggers, and your brain chemistry. They are trying to get you to buy a product, consume their content, or sign up for their services. In short, it’s just another day in the business world for them: entrepreneurs pushing these ‘solutions’ are looking to make a quick buck on a trending topic and don’t care about the consumer’s outcome. But for you, it might sound like salvation that never comes.

In reality, though, dopamine doesn’t cause pleasure like you’re told. You are better off redirecting your energy and time (not to mention money!) in a different direction than this fad. Let’s dive into what dopamine actually does, why what you’re told online is wrong, how to actually develop healthy habits, and what to do to fix your ailing attention span.