The mind adrift in the scroll of modern life
- Klaudia Aksiucik
- Jan 25
- 4 min read
It is inevitable that our century is defined by the scroll. Phones rarely leave our hands, social media quietly exists in the background of almost every moment of our lives. We already know this. We acknowledge the fact that we spend too much time online, even that scrolling on TikTok or Instagram, especially before bed, is perhaps not good for us. These facts are familiar due to the fact that we talk about them openly, sometimes even joke about them. However, we still continue to scroll, simultaneously aware of the fact that this brings us more harm than good.
But we already know this, right?
What we speak about far less is what genuinely occurs underneath this awareness. What happens when scrolling stops being a habit and becomes a background state of mind? When reaching for our phones is no longer a decision, but a reflex? We can see that the negative effects of social media do not arrive as loud warnings. They tend to appear quietly, similar to small shifts we struggle or cannot bring ourselves to name.
Quite shockingly, we do not necessarily unlock our phones because we are interested. The reason why is usually that we are trying to avoid something, whether it is an awkward moment, or even boredom, loneliness, restlessness and stress. These may be found as feelings we cannot explain, but they can be softened within seconds by movements on a screen. In the long run, the brain begins to associate scrolling with relief. Not as something linked to the sense of solving a specific problem, but reassurance from having to sit with it. Various platforms like TikTok intensify this effect in an oddly personal way. We scroll and scroll, until suddenly a stranger is describing an emotion we have not been able to name ourselves. We realise that a short video explains why we feel the way we actually feel. For a moment, it feels like we are finally understood and heard. Neurologically, the brain registers this recognition as comfort, simultaneously releasing dopamine, which is the same chemical that is responsible for both motivation and reward.
Moreover, it is understandable why we keep scrolling: we are not just consuming content, we are searching for our true selves within it. But the catch is that the more we rely on social media to guide us in those moments, the harder it can be from our brains to resist it. We can compare this to training our brains to crave the dopamine hits that scrolling gives us, gradually forming into an addiction.
But slowly, something shifts.
Beyond the chemical response, social media subtly rewires the way we evaluate ourselves through the comparison to others. Neural circuits become intertwined, so we start measuring ourselves constantly: ‘She is happier; he is more accomplished; I wish my life looked like theirs.’ Even our struggles feel relative, judged against the ideal life of others on different platforms: ‘I’m not struggling enough; others have it worse.’ This exposure reshapes the way the brain processes both self-worthiness and emotional validation. The mind drifts while our sense of self-esteem is constantly dependent on external cues.
There is no doubt that social media definitely alters how our emotions are truly interpreted, both by us and the people that post on various platforms. When feelings are constantly ranked and displayed by others, the human brain starts to outsource emotional understanding. Instead of questioning what we genuinely feel, we look for confirmation that what we endure is valid or severe enough. This constant exposure begins to blur the line between who we truly are and who we desire to be. Our brains gradually learn to measure itself against what it sees, usually without conscious attention. This is the prime example as to why comparison becomes automatic, as there will always be someone we may look up to: someone may be doing better or seem more fulfilled. However, pain is ranked as well. We may even doubt the validity or own struggles, convincing ourselves that we are not deserving of a break from it all and compassion. In this state, the mind no longer rests in its own reality, but is a clash between lived experience and perceived expectation.
Although this article is not about a single experience or person, I decided to shine a spotlight on the pattern that has become so ordinary that it is almost invisible. The mind does not fracture under the scroll; it drifts. Awareness fades not because we are careless, but because the process is found to be normalised and deeply woven into modern life. What unsettles us is not how much we actually spend on social media, but more about who we are becoming while we do. Perhaps social media doesn’t necessarily change us drastically, but that it does so gently enough for us to barely notice. The scroll does not demand our attention - it absorbs it. Perhaps in modern life, it is this silent reshaping of our minds that leaves the deepest impression. And so, in this quiet drift, the very reward mechanisms that once kept us engaged also guide us further from ourselves.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Waters, Jamie. “Constant Craving: How Digital Media Turned Us All into Dopamine Addicts.” The Guardian, 22 Aug. 2021, Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global/2021/aug/22/how-digital-media-turned-us-all-into-dopamine-addicts-and-what-we-can-do-to-break-the-cycle#:~:text=With%20cocaine%20you%20run%20out%20of%20money%2C%20but%20TikTok%20is%20indefatigable
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