Should We All Be Doing Dopamine Detoxes? (I Have Concerns)

This week I’ve saved a worrying number of reels about dopamine detoxes.

So naturally, I decided to make it everyone else’s problem too.

From raw-dogging flights (no phone, no music, no water, no joy) to promises that cutting out dopamine will magically fix motivation, laziness, and modern life in general — dopamine has officially entered its villain era.

In this episode, I’m not trying anything yet. I’m circling the idea, poking it, and asking some basic questions first, like:

• What actually is dopamine and why has it suddenly become the enemy?
• Are dopamine detoxes sensible… or just dry January for your phone?
• Is scrolling ruining our brains, or are we just terrible at stopping?
• Why can I listen to podcasts endlessly but can’t watch a full TV episode without grabbing my phone?
• And at what point does “self-control” turn into sitting on a plane staring at the flight map like a Victorian orphan?

I also dig into:

• Healthy vs unhelpful dopamine (effort vs passive flooding)
• Why modern life makes everything feel simultaneously overstimulating and boring
• How screen culture is quietly reshaping films, TV, and attention spans
• And whether completely removing stimulation actually helps… or just makes life grim

By the end, I set up this week’s experiment:

• One day of doing nothing (true detox, unfortunately)
• One day replacing scrolling with reading
• One day watching a full film without touching my phone (pray for me)

This is Field Notes — where I test modern self-improvement ideas in real life, outside of perfect conditions, and report back honestly on what actually happens.

🎧 Friday: I’ll be back with a Field Report on whether any of this helped, or whether I just became deeply annoying to live with.

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