Do You Think Supernormal-stimuli And The Modern Lifestyle Is Messing Up People's Dopamine Systems?

[ReSTART]

I don't know what I'm trying to say exactly but stuff is so high stimulation, so high dopamine these days I think that the dopamine system in many people is becoming messed up.

I'll use food because it's the easiest example I can think of. In some rat studies they give the rats very high carb + very high fat food then their dopamine receptors become desensitized.

In the same way... you have people eating these foods that are perfectly engineered in labs by food scientists to have the exactly perfect texture, flavor, mouth feel, salt level, sugar level, etc, etc and then they wonder why fruits and vegetables taste so bad in comparison.

 

[opethfeldt]

Let's not forget about social media and smartphones either. We're constantly bombarded with stimuli in the modern world. I think this has made many people mindless pleasure seekers as a result. They're unable to delay gratification to pursue long term goals with greater rewards after spending their childhood and young adulthood "consuming" pleasurable things.

 

[boris]

I'll use food because it's the easiest example I can think of. In some rat studies they give the rats very high carb + very high fat food then their dopamine receptors become desensitized.

Can you link that study?

Social media is designed to mess up your dopamine system:


I don't think the stimuli are the problem, but rather that society is making everyone run on serotonergic systems and thereby making you addicted to small dopamine surges (social media, buying addiction, drugs).