It’s a Saturday at 2pm and you have no idea where the day’s gone. You’ve been sat staring at your phone for hours, but you can’t recall a single thing you’ve seen. What have you been doing? Where has the time gone? What was the point? 

We know full well that falling into the mindless, aimless scrolling hole isn’t serving us. And yet we do it over and over and over, all too often unaware of what we’re doing until we’ve lost hours to nothingness. 

Why? It’s all to do with dopamine, explains Kyle Taylor, the author of The Little Black Book Of Social Media. 

“The infinite scroll is how we describe the fact that the page ‘never ends’ on social media sites,” Taylor tells Stylist. “You can scroll and scroll literally forever, and there will always be more information provided to you. In fact, it has the same effect on people as gambling on slot machines. It’s intentionally designed to get you addicted. You can hear the people in Las Vegas now. ‘Just one more pull, and I’ll win big. Big money, big money!’

“The infinite scroll creates the same effect. You can hear yourself now. ‘Just one more scroll, and I’ll see the best photo, video, or status update EVER. New GIF! New GIF!’ Only that’s not the case. On almost every scroll, it’s just another friend travelling somewhere you aren’t travelling or someone eating something you aren’t eating. Just like slot machines, you feel again and again like you didn’t ‘win’.

“It’s driven by dopamine, the chemical in our brain that deals with reward, motivation and, most crucially, alleviating pain. Right when we’re on that high of thinking we might get a reward, it spikes. Then when we don’t, it plummets. To alleviate that pain, we go for it again, hoping it’ll be good this time. Every ‘like’ is a hit, and then when the likes stop, we experience a comedown. It can be so attractive it takes control of us.

“For example, your best friend posts a photo from some fabulous beach. REWARD. But oh no, that felt so good. Now you’re motivated to find another hit, so you scroll. Oh! Your sister posted a pic of her dinner. Yum! You ‘like’ it. But wait, sad again. Time to alleviate that pain. Scroll a little more. Something else. Like. Come-down. Scroll. Repeat. It’s meant to be addictive.”

The sites we find ourselves endlessly, mindlessly scrolling are specifically designed to keep us in that loop. So of course it’s hard to break out of it… but it’s not impossible. Here’s how to do it. 

Have phone-free times/days 

The temptation to scroll is tricky to resist if your phone is right there, in your hand, already unlocked. Cordon off some time when it’s not – when you can physically shut your phone in a drawer and do something entirely free of screens. Perhaps you’ll do a digital detox every Sunday. Maybe you’ll want to ease yourself in with just a few hours of a screen ban a week. You might finally take the advice of sleep experts and ditch your phone, laptop and TV after 8pm. 

Use your phone’s built-in tools to limit app use 

Most phones will have features built in to limit the time you can spend on certain apps. “Found in your settings, these tools allow you to set maximum amounts of time for different apps, and the phone will let you know when you’ve reached your daily limit, helping us get out of that endless scrolling cycle,” explains Taylor.

Actively schedule in social media time

Trying to go completely cold turkey is likely to fail… sorry. What may be a better plan is being more conscious and deliberate about your scrolling time. “You can schedule social media time into your calendar, for example, so it’s right alongside work meetings, gym time and dinner events with friends,” Taylor suggests. 

This way, you’ll know that during specific time slots your only task is to scroll and actually enjoy it, meaning you won’t feel too guilty for ‘wasting time’. Then you’ll also know that outside of those times, you really shouldn’t be scrolling. 

Get mindful

The key to breaking free from the mindless scrolling cycle is to be a bit more mindful. That means pulling yourself out of the loop and bringing yourself into the present moment, and asking yourself how what you’re doing is actually making you feel. 

It can help to set reminders on your phone to go off mid-scroll and encourage you to do a check-in. Take a pause and ask yourself: is what you’re consuming on your screen adding any value to this moment? Are you learning something? Are you feeling relaxed? Are you actually having fun? Or do you feel tense, envious, or self-critical? 

Main image: Getty; Unsplash