Dopamine Destiny Part II
You don’t need to quit tech. You need to shape it before it shapes you.
What if “iPad Kids” are an early prototype of where we’re all headed?
What if we’re not so different? Just grown-up versions with subtler tools (AirPods) and subtler addictions?
I just left a London coffee shop... 8:20am.
Even though I had a quick five minute walk back before yoga, I craved five minutes of stimulation from my current favorite songs. I instantly plugged AirPods into my ears, opened Spotify, and queued up 2 of my latest favorite songs from “Adam’s Vibes”.
Why? My brain wanted a hit. A little energy. A little dopamine.
This impulse isn’t unique… I catch myself reflexively repeating this dozens of times daily. My urge to fill every gap of silence is proof of how deeply our tools are rewiring us.
I see it everywhere. People are plugged into devices and plugged out of the present moment.
Marshall McLuhan predicted this over 50 years ago. In Understanding Media, he argued that the medium itself, not the content, reshapes us. Every new tool reshapes us.
TV rewired our evenings and our phones have rewired our nervous system.
McLuhan warned us:
Once we have surrendered our senses and nervous systems to the private manipulation of those who would try to benefit from taking a lease on our eyes and ears and nerves, we don’t really have any rights left.”
My (our) eyes, my (our) ears, my (our) nervous system(s), have all been leased out to private platforms for a micro-dose of attention.
Our attention is intimately intertwined with our devices, now living in architecture built by somebody else. And our technology is more addictive than ever, as proven by my walk back from the coffee shop.
Despite being hyper-intentional with my tech usage…
Despite spending the last 40 minutes writing about this very trap (I was literally writing this essay on awareness of our tech usage)…
I still defaulted to my conditioning and slipped right back into it.
Nervous systems under siege (mine included)
How many times do you mindlessly check your phone? I’ll start.
It’s 11:05am as I re-write this essay and and my iPhone’s screen time settings tell me I’ve picked up my phone 40 times… Yikes.
What should I make of this? What’s the lesson? What’s the takeaway? What did Mcluhan predict in the 60’s?
He explained how every new medium reshapes our nervous system…
All media are extensions of some human faculty - psychic or physical.
The wheel is an extension of the foot… the book is an extension of the eye… clothing, an extension of the skin…
electric circuitry, an extension of the central nervous system.
Back then, “media” meant TV, radio, print. Simpler technologies. Simpler times where the tech wasn’t optimized yet to hijack our dopamine systems.
Today, the same neurotransmitters that move us towards novelty and desire are under siege from every business model in sight. We scroll endlessly and get slammed with notifications.
None of it is accidental. McLuhan saw this coming decades ago. He warned that every new medium “works us over completely.”
Do you feel it too? Every time you check your phone without thinking, or when twenty minutes on Instagram feels like two?
(Y)our brain circuitry is no longer (y)ours if you’re not careful.
Why this matters
When most people think about addiction, they think substances.
What they miss is that addictive patterns can be baked into the very shape of a medium. Slot machines aren’t addictive because of the pictures. They’re addictive because of the variable reward structure.
The form, not the message.
Your phone works the same way. It’s the endless scroll that hooks you. You anticipate the “next piece of content” that might give you dopamine.
Here’s what’s actually happening in your brain:
every time you pull refresh or scroll, your brain’s reward system fires up.
dopamine surges in anticipation of something new - a text, a like, maybe nothing at all… that uncertainty is what makes it powerful.
each swipe tells your brain, “maybe the next one will be the hit!”
the loop is self-reinforcing: dopamine makes you check, checking creates anticipation, anticipation triggers more dopamine. The medium… your phone’s design… is literally rewiring your nervous system to keep you hooked.
The content isn’t the core issue. The design is.
Build with Intention
If we’re not intentional about how we use our tech, it’ll keep warping us at a nervous-system level.
In a world where everything can be outsourced, our mental environment shouldn’t be one of them. If we don’t design it, somebody else will… and their incentives won’t include your peace of mind.
I’m writing this with an oversimplified goal (that I’d like to expand upon in future pieces)…
Build your digital world with intention.
Step 1 is reclaiming your headspace. I don’t have it all figured out either, but here’s a few principles I keep coming back to.
No Notifications - every notification is a knock on your mind’s door. Shut most of the doors. Open them up to the select few people and open them on your schedule.
Add friction. I’m a dumb little monkey like you are. Since I know I’m a dumb little monkey who, when not writing essays, will default to the lowest friction action of the system I’m in, I try to place obstacles between me and the habits that hijack attention (i.e. my phone). A phone that's intentionally 5-10 feet away (or better yet in the other room) is insulation. Try it out.
Perpetual Do Not Disturb. - Spend the 10 minutes setting up your phone’s DND settings.
Long-Form = Long-Term Clarity. Our modern society runs on short-form, but consuming long-form material keeps the brain sharp. Books. Essays. Uninterrupted conversations… they create different neurological effects than feeds. This one’s a work in progress for me as I need some pruning in my own life. I used to read voraciously, and I’ve gotten away from this.
Remember the Feeling. Notice how you feel after an interaction where your tech is away for elongated periods of time. RELISH that feeling, build awareness of it, and you’ll be more likely to keep doing it.
Destiny, not prison
When I wrote about “dopamine destiny” 3 years ago, I didn’t mean to be a doomer.
Destiny here… it means trajectory. If our media environments shape our brains, then the future of your mind depends on which environments you inhabit.
McLuhan’s brilliance was to show us that media are not neutral channels. They’re climates. And our (media) climates are burning before our eyes.
If you don’t build your media environment, it’ll be built for you. And in this architecture… your attention doesn’t belong to you.
Reclaim it. Design it. It’s our only way forward.
End Note
I wrote this because this theme keeps showing up in my life. It’s been three years since I wrote “Dopamine Destiny” and our connection to our devices isn’t slowing anytime soon. I’ve felt myself being braided tighter into the rhythms of tech in my own life, even after building so much awareness, so many habits and systems that protect my attention.
It’s important to discuss this because the versions of ourselves that we want to continuously step into can only exist if we’re fully here. Fully present.
I wrote this to remind myself (and you) that this is a daily battle worth fighting.
You don’t need to quit tech. You need to shape it before it shapes you.
A Few Questions to Sit With:
Where is your attention leaking?
How many moments of stillness did you allow into today?
Who might you become with just 10% more presence each day?
What’s the app you know drains you? What happens if you delete it for 3 days?
this is such an important article for everyone.
Yeah. I've discovered that the power to change my life comes indirectly through changing the terrain. I'm more likely to take vitamins when they're sitting on the counter instead of in the cabinet.
Great post. Good reminder