How Social Media Can Lead to Emotional Numbness, Low Motivation, and Depression Symptoms

I thought having an endless data plan would be the cure to all of my problems, but oh was I wrong.

Imagine every text we sent was counted towards the length of time we are able to use our phones, and then we would have to pay more for more time?? Oh yessss.

We used abbreviations to literally not go over our plans. I think this taught me some true core creative skills now that I look back. gtz <3

I truly miss my pay by the minute phone from elementary school, lol. Or my hot pink razr flip phone from middle school in 2007, my chocolate, blackberry, etc. And how fun was it that we all had different phones?

I'm urging anyone reading this to think back to the days without iphones (for those who can remember) when we had full lives outside of our phones, not inside.

Our phone was a tool for communication, not our only source of connection. We had aim, myspace, and then facebook, but it was impossible to be on those platforms for much time that could be as harmful as what we experience today. We couldn't be on facebook while sitting in class. We couldn't send aim messages while at lacrosse practice. We couldn't update our top friends while eating dinner with our family.

'Social media' at that point meant we were only going "online" to talk to each other after school, and to post the pictures we would take when we would hang out. There was really very few other reasons to be online.

I honestly have always been a little bit dismissive of the idea that social media could be harmful for me today. I know that younger, more impressionable kids growing up in this era of social media have it way harder than we did as kids/teens.

I truly could NOT imagine being a pre-teen in this time of social media. In the early 2000's we were comparing ourselves to VS models which at the time was very peak ED era. But now kids are battling EDs x 10000 with filters, AI, and non-stop access for comparison at every level. I think it's abundantly obvious that kids under 18 should be extremely limited, extremely censored, if not, completely prohibited from using social media.

But I have experienced something dangerous with social media that I didn't really expect. I didn't realize how harmful it was until I really suffered from the damage of it.

I fell into a really dark loop of scrolling mindlessly. Minutes would turn to hours...

As a social media manager, my job is partly to stay on top of trends, so this is not really too far off from a regular work task.

But eventually it got worse. I fell deeper into this hole. Hours would turn to days. Days would turn to nights and then would turn to mornings.

The problem isn't that I'm comparing myself or feeling negatively about my body / appearance, like my initial presumption of social media harms. For me, the issue became noticeable as this endless scrolling pattern got really embarrassingly worse. I had lost all sense of joy. My brain wiring was literally changing, very quickly, and negatively impacting my life.

I basically became addicted to the highs of scrolling. And it wasn't clearly a problem right away, which allowed me to continue scrolling, and scrolling.

....some fear she's still scrolling now.

I'm familiar with the feelings of sadness, depression, anxiety, and even hopelessness, but this feeling was much different. And somehow, it felt even worse than all of those. After a quick search, I found that I had scrolled into a dark state called anhedonia.

From google AI : "Anhedonia is the inability to experience pleasure or a diminished capacity to feel joy in previously enjoyed activities, whereas depression is a broader clinical disorder characterized by a persistent low mood and a range of emotional/physical symptoms. While anhedonia is a core symptom of depression, it can exist independently—sometimes described as feeling "numb" rather than sad"

Not only did my brain stop allowing me to experience joy, but it also wouldn't be able to anticipate something to be joyful.

Excessive scrolling on social media can cause anhedonia—specifically referred to as "digital anhedonia"—which is the reduced ability to experience pleasure from real-world activities due to constant, high-level digital stimulation. It works by overstimulating the brain's reward system, raising the threshold for enjoyment and making daily life feel dull. [1, 2, 3]

What I find so interesting isn't the overlap between anhedonia and depression, but the distinction in what makes them different, based on my experiences. When I've been depressed, I've still been able to eat something and enjoy it, do something and enjoy it, or look forward to doing something / expect to enjoy it. With anhedonia, there was absolutely no experience of pleasure, even things that my depressed version could find joy in.

The other really hard part is with depression, I typically lack motivation, I don't want to do things, and I'm content with that. With anhedonia, I really wanted to feel better, but it just felt impossible. There's definitely a lot of overlap between the two, but from what I've learned and experienced, they can both exist without the other.

After just a few days without going on any social media apps, I already feel so much better. Being so desperate to feel ANYTHING led me to finding out that social media scrolling was the cause, and I abruptly stopped completely. I can't even remember the last time in my life I have gone so long without it. (Note: I still post recipes on my accounts, but I haven't been engaging, or scrolling and I even post it from my laptop).

The biggest sign that this was a real problem is that I genuinely feel the best I have felt in a really long time. I am really excited about how much bigger life feels without being addicted to my phone.

I am now learning more about the harms of social media, screen time, and our dopamine / reward systems. I am looking forward to spreading more information and hopefully inspiration to cut back on phone time.

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How Social Media Causes Anhedonia:

• Dopamine Desensitization: Social media provides intense, rapid, and unpredictable bursts of dopamine (variable rewards), similar to gambling. The brain adapts to this high stimulation, making mundane, real-world activities feel boring or unrewarding.

• "Digital Anhedonia" Syndrome: Researchers have identified a phenomenon where chronic digital overexposure leads to a selective blunting of reward responses, resulting in a, "flat" feeling, or boredom with in-person hobbies and social interaction.

• Rewiring Reward Circuits: Frequent use can alter brainwave activity and reduce activation in areas of the brain critical for processing pleasure, such as the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex.

• Heightened Risk for Vulnerable Groups: Adolescents are particularly susceptible to these changes due to higher brain plasticity and sensitivity to social validation.