The so-called dopamine problem. That is, getting hooked on smartphones, YouTube, and games is seen as a problem. These activities are called cheap dopamine. Cheap dopamine is seen as a problem because it lowers our productivity.
As answers to this problem, "choose pain" and "hack your dopamine" seem to be in fashion. The idea is to do a digital detox, take cold showers to boost dopamine release, or swap a smartphone addiction for a book addiction.
But I don't think these methods are the fundamental solution. If they worked, they would have gone around the college entrance exam scene first, and cold showers would have been used to treat drug addiction. They might work for a day or two, but I don't think they are sustainable. They are hollow methods.
I think that what gets called the dopamine problem is actually caused, at root, by a lack of cultural capital. So increasing cultural capital is the real answer. In this post, I'll offer a slightly different perspective on the dopamine problem. I hope this strategy helps improve your productivity.
It's Not a Problem with Dopamine Itself
The first thing to consider is that dopamine-related problems are not problems with dopamine itself. There's nothing wrong with the neurotransmitter itself. If too much or too little dopamine were the problem, you could just see a psychiatrist and take medication. There are drugs that lower dopamine and drugs that raise it. There's no need to bother with cold showers and the like. I think motivational messaging is causing a social problem by keeping people who should go to a hospital from going. The cause of the cheap dopamine problem lies less in dopamine itself than in "the fact that I feel pleasure while doing unproductive activities."
There's No "Dopamine Hack" That Makes Boring Things Fun
So people try to turn productive activities, or obligatory tasks, into something enjoyable in place of unproductive ones. This is the so-called dopamine hack. But you can't turn a boring task into a hobby. If such a method existed, it would have spread through the exam scene first, and top students' pure study time would have hit 18 hours. Finding productive work fun is the realm of turning your passion into your job. And that is actually a blessing. After all, they say you can't beat someone who enjoys what they do.
Self-help is full of skills meant to make boring work feel even slightly fun. Gamification, or making a to-do list and knocking items off to get a sense of achievement, and so on. It's all nonsense. No matter how you dress it up, boring is boring. If the movie itself is boring, what good does it do to make the edges of the screen flash or the seats more comfortable? Once again, if such methods worked, they would have gone around the exam scene first.
Changing boring work into something you find fun would take a lot of environmental factors. You'd need people who give feedback and cheer you on when you do the boring activity. Maybe you'd even need a rival right in front of you. This isn't a problem you can solve by changing your personal mindset. It's a problem you solve by throwing money at it. Most people aren't in a position to build such an environment.
Some people are overloaded with obligations that force them to do boring activities. They have no choice but to use the self-help methods already circulating widely, like putting the phone away or trying to focus for just five minutes.
"Deliberately Choose Pain!" Isn't Sustainable
There's also the message to deliberately choose pain. This is hollow talk that doesn't even merit discussion. In decision-making, you can choose the more painful option. But I think very few people can choose the more painful action. Maybe a Navy SEAL could. (Again) if the method of deliberately choosing pain worked, every exam taker would have hit 18 hours of pure study time.
I think messages like the cold shower are just Miracle Morning 2.0. They say a cold shower makes you realize life is suffering, boosts dopamine release, and has lots of other good effects. But if it worked, the US government would have adopted it first. Here's what I mean: the ultimate dopamine problem is drug addiction. If a simple cold shower were that effective, the US government would have kidnapped fentanyl addicts and forced them to do the ice bucket challenge. (Just kidding.)
I've taken quite a few cold showers myself. When you take a cold shower in the locker room after the gym, you do get a sense of elation. "Life is pain!" you think, and something seems to boil up inside you. But it only lasts that moment. I never felt any effect like increased productivity. All I got was dry skin and a cold.
This is separate from the dopamine problem, but you should ask whether the messages coming at you are meant simply to get likes or to actually deliver results. The simpler a message is and the easier it looks to follow, the less likely it is to work. If there were such a good method, everyone would already be doing it. Or it would have been adopted in medicine or the exam scene, where things are more desperate and more money changes hands.
YouTube and Shorts Are Often the Only Hobby
In the US, obesity rates are said to be higher among low-income people than among high-income people. The reason, they say, is that low-income people eat cheap junk food that is inexpensive and easy to get. Obesity is a health problem, but its causes actually lie in culture and economics. In this way, a phenomenon and its cause can lie in different fields. For such people, rather than an approach of "Don't eat junk food!", you'd need to raise awareness and consumption of healthy food that isn't junk. The dopamine problem I'm talking about now is the same.
Cheap dopamine is likely to become the only hobby of modern people. It's easy to access, and above all, they're too busy to enjoy other hobbies. It doesn't cost money either. It's the same reason as the junk food above. If people didn't watch Shorts or YouTube videos, how many of them would have another hobby to enjoy in that time? Honestly, probably none. Study or work, you say? That's not a hobby. As I said earlier, there's no such thing as a dopamine hack. Most people's go-to activities for getting absorbed are YouTube, Shorts, and games. They have no hobby other than that.
I rarely watch Shorts. I also run a YouTube channel, but except when I need to, I hardly watch videos. The reason is that reading and thinking are more fun. Writing them down in my Zettelkasten is fun too. Coming up with a different perspective and thinking about how to sell it to people is even more fun. I enjoy it when people are surprised or respond with support. Of course, I could enjoy Shorts and YouTube videos too. It's just that this is more fun. Having tried many different activities, I've built up cultural capital, and that's why I don't watch them. If you love Korean food, you have no need to eat at McDonald's, do you?
You can't deliberately live like a monk. A digital detox will probably fizzle out within three days. So the cheap dopamine problem should be solved not by avoidance but by aggressively finding alternatives. The problem for most people is that they have no hobbies or fields of interest. So the right question to ask is not "How can I stop doing unproductive activities?" but "What topics or activities would I enjoy?" It's a hard question. It can only be answered once you've gained a range of experiences and built up cultural capital and an understanding of yourself.