Flex the “Not Right Now” Muscle

Recently, I’ve been using social media with more frequency than I’d like. Usually I’m pretty good at hampering my social media use, but not these days. My “not right now” muscle has been getting out of shape.

Social media offers an increase in immediate dopamine levels. Dopamine is the chemical in our brain responsible for motivation and movement. The platforms are designed to do this, with red notifications, public likes, and follower counts. The content that does best on these platforms triggers dopamine increases–think of fast-paced videos and polarizing political views. 

But dopamine isn’t just available to us in short spurts via social media. It’s also what drives us to do difficult things over the long term, like getting a college degree, or building a business. The trouble comes when we give into short-term dopaminergic urges again and again. Like an addict chasing a high, long-term projects can never compare to short-term rewards, from a dopamine perspective. 

In order to manage our own dopamine levels in a responsible, productive way, we need to flex our “not right now” muscle. Dopamine isn’t bad. It’s essential for accomplishing anything, and experiencing any kind of pleasure. But if we allow short-term dopamine releases to define what pleasure is to us, we won’t feel motivated to do anything substantial. We need to get better at saying not right now to the legion of distractions available to us. 

P.S Much of my limited knowledge on dopamine comes from a series of interviews I heard with Andrew Huberman, PhD at Stanford. His neuroscience lab does extensive research on the topic, and I highly suggest everyone listens to these. Social media might just be the cigarettes of our day, and if this is the case, then dopamine management is a topic of public health that we should all be actively learning about. 

Interview on Impact Theory with Andrew Huberman
Andrew Huberman’s deep dive on dopamine