Around this topic, many claims have accumulated that sound scientific but are not scientific. The most common of them is the explanation through dopamine, according to which scrolling through the feed supposedly exhausts the brain's reward system, and that is why the so-called dopamine detox is needed. Specialists who study this issue assess such explanations harshly. Andrew Przybylski, a professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, directly calls claims about dopamine addiction to screens nonsense, while the studies referred to in this context are very poorly conducted.

Let's look at what the data actually show, and what follows from this in practice.

What the Researchers Found

The most well-known work on this topic is a study by Amy Orben and Andrew Przybylski, published in the journal Psychological Science. The authors worked with three nationally representative datasets from Ireland, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and after exclusions, the sample consisted of more than seventeen thousand participants. The key methodological difference was that instead of the usual self-reports, in which people estimate their screen time from memory, time-use diaries were used. This is important because self-reports are inaccurate, although popular. The result was that little convincing evidence was found of a decrease in well-being due to screen time, including in cases of using devices directly before sleep.

The authors' general conclusion is that the existing level of evidence is significantly more modest than the confidence with which commentators speak about this topic.

Why This Does Not Mean That There Is No Problem

The study showed the weakness of the connection between the total number of hours and well-being indicators, rather than the absence of any problems with device use. The practical conclusion from this is different, and it is that screen time as one number is a poor indicator. Two hours spent on a video call with a close person, on an educational course, and scrolling through the feed aimlessly at two in the morning produce the same number in statistics and completely different consequences. Therefore, the meaningful question concerns not duration, but three other things. What exactly this use replaces, that is, sleep, movement, live communication, or something else. Whether your use is active or passive, since creating and communicating are different from endless consumption.

Do you feel that you control the process, or does the process control you?

About Moral Panic

Przybylski draws attention to the fact that parents' statements about arcade machines in the early eighties are practically no different from modern statements about online games.

Before that, television, comics, radio, and even novels in the nineteenth century had played the same role. This does not mean that concerns are always groundless, but it does mean that it is worth distinguishing a real problem of a particular person from a general feeling of anxiety about a new technology.

What Actually Works

Since willpower is a finite resource, and the systems on the other side of the screen are professionally designed and tested on millions of people, relying on self-control is ineffective. Changing the environment works much better, that is, creating friction where there was none.

Notifications are the biggest lever of all. Turn them off for everything except calls and messages from specific people. Social networks, news, games, and stores do not need the right to interrupt you at any moment. This is one action that gives more than all the others together.

Remove apps from the home screen. When you need to use search to open them, automatic tapping disappears because the gesture stops being a habit.

Log out of accounts in apps that you use automatically. The need to enter a password adds a few seconds, and this is often enough to remember why you opened the phone in the first place.

Charge your phone outside the bedroom. This solves two tasks at once, that is, it removes scrolling before sleep and takes away the phone's role as an alarm clock, because of which the day begins with the feed.

Switch the screen to shades of gray for the evening, since without color, interfaces become noticeably less attractive.

Use search instead of the feed when you need specific information, because this moves you from consumption mode to intention mode.

Built-in Tools

Both mobile systems have their own tools, and third-party applications are not needed for this.

On iPhone, the corresponding section is called Screen Time, and it allows you to set limits for individual apps and categories, time without distractions, and restrictions for certain periods of the day.

On Android, similar functions are collected in the Digital Wellbeing section, where there are app timers, Focus mode, and Bedtime mode, which switches the screen to black and white and mutes notifications.

Both systems show statistics for the week, and it is worth starting with them, that is, simply looking at the real numbers without making any changes for several days. The practical advice is to set limits not for the entire phone, but for specific apps that you yourself have identified as problematic, since a general restriction is usually simply turned off on the second day.

About Replacement

The most common reason why attempts to reduce screen time fail is that a person removes the habit without adding anything in its place. Scrolling through the feed fulfills specific needs, that is, it fills pauses, relieves tension, gives a feeling of connection with others, and saves from boredom. If these needs remain unmet, the behavior returns. Therefore, it is more useful not to prohibit, but to plan a replacement, and this can be anything, from a book or podcast to a call with a friend or a walk.

What Not to Do

Do not make radical refusals for a week, since they usually end with a return to the previous level, and sometimes an even higher one. Do not focus on other people's screen-time numbers, because they say nothing about the content of use. Do not scold yourself for the figures in the statistics, since self-criticism on this topic works just as poorly as in any other. Do not take dopamine explanations seriously, since neurotransmitters do not work in the simplified way in which they are described in popular materials.

When It Is Worth Seeking Help

Most people simply want to use their phones more consciously, and the changes described above are enough for this. But if you feel that you cannot stop despite real consequences for work, studying, sleep, or relationships, and attempts to change this do not work for a long time, this is already a different situation. In this case, it makes sense to talk to a specialist, since something else is often behind such states, for example anxiety or a depressed mood, and the phone is a way of coping with this rather than the cause.


Sources: Interview with Andrew Przybylski for the British Psychological Society. Apple and Google guides on built-in tools