Have you heard of dopamine? Some people call it the “pleasure” chemical, but that’s not really accurate. Dopamine is a chemical that your brain produces and releases between brain cells when you do certain things. Lots of activities can trigger a release of extra dopamine: eating sugar, playing sports, scrolling social media, watching movies, playing video games, taking drugs, drinking alcohol, watching pornography. Different activities cause different amounts of dopamine to be released, but when it happens, the dopamine gives you a little boost. You feel a little happier, a little excited, or just a little less blah for a short time.

This is not always a bad thing. Dopamine gives you the drive to put in hard work because you know you will feel accomplished when you’re done. Dopamine pushes you to want more for yourself, for your life or for your family. However, today we have access to more dopamine triggers than any other time of human history. Here’s the problem: the brain is never satisfied. It always tells you: You need more. Dopamine never produces feelings of contentment, satisfaction or peace. Notifications on your phone, Netflix on your tv, video games in your room—all these are triggering consistent and strong dopamine releases in your brain, telling you to keep doing those things over and over, but not producing true happiness or satisfaction.

Proverbs 27:20 says, “the eyes of man are never satisfied.” This is a great description of the dopamine cycle in our brain. If you follow just desire, pleasure and entertainment, it never brings satisfaction because that’s not the purpose of dopamine.

Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 tells us: “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (New International Version).

Pursuing pleasure (dopamine) is not satisfying and does not produce true joy or satisfaction in the long run. Over time your brain gets used to having high levels of dopamine being released constantly. Consequently, you start to feel bad if you try to stop checking social media or playing video games. Things that normally give you a little satisfaction, like spending time with family, walking in nature or figuring out a tough problem, stop feeling good. These changes are especially influential to teenage brains, which are still going through major changes up until at least age 25. The human body is never satisfied with dopamine because its only purpose is to motivate you to take action.

Distractions like social media or video games are really just your brain seeking a quick excitement and energy from a dopamine spike, which is a lot easier than putting in the effort to find peace and satisfaction. Distraction and escape are easy and pleasurable in the short term, but they end up making you more sensitive to pain. It becomes more and more difficult to feel good. Your brain requires more and more dopamine to feel pleasure in the moment.

On the other hand, if you are willing to moderate and put limits on how much dopamine you are seeking during the day, you will allow your brain to produce other chemicals that allow for contentment and true happiness.

So, what can we do? It helps to make a plan for how you want social media, video games, tv, etc. to play a role in your life. If you don’t have social media, I would suggest waiting to start. Research is showing that it makes teens less happy over time.

Talk with your parents. Be honest with them about what you see around you and how teens are using social media. Your parents want you to be happy, but they also need to keep you safe and help you develop your full potential through your teenage years.

If you do have social media, be honest with yourself—are there things that you wish you spent less time on but can’t seem to stop? Do you feel worse about yourself after using social media or watching too much tv or playing video games for too long?

If yes, you will need to decide on some rules for yourself to moderate how you spend your time. This is not just for teens; it’s important for adults to do this as well. For example, you could decide to make the Sabbath a digital Sabbath as well. Or you can limit yourself to a certain amount of time on social media each day. Ask your parents for help—you shouldn’t try to rely only on will power for this. Have them turn off your access to your phone or social media outside of the time you decide together. (For more ideas on social media usage, see ucg.org/members/compass-check/4-tips-to-cut-the-negativity-of-social-media-in-your-life.)

You could also decide to delete certain social media apps altogether. If there is a certain one that your parents feel is unsafe or is creating negative interactions or temptations, it’s not worth keeping it.

This isn’t an easy process. Unfortunately, you will probably feel worse before you feel better. If you implement some of these techniques, be ready for negative feelings for up to two weeks. This is the time it takes for your brain to bounce back. It is telling you that it’s not getting the dopamine it’s used to getting. Lean in to family time, time in person with friends, time in nature and time doing truly satisfying activities like art, music or sports. After two weeks your brain should be back to producing dopamine from these productive and healthy activities and you will start to feel better.

Today’s culture tells you that you should pursue what makes you feel good, whether that’s social media, video games or even drugs or alcohol. But those things only give a temporary pleasure and in the long term make you feel worse. In our society today, you have to be proactive with moderating dopamine-releasing activities like social media, so it doesn’t hijack your brain’s ability to feel pleasure from healthy activities.

You do have to be willing to experience and feel some unpleasant emotions like boredom, loneliness, frustration and awkwardness without immediately seeking an escape. Insulating ourselves from all pain and discomfort, running from it instead of facing it, ends up just making it worse. Sometimes understanding how our brains work can help us take back control of behaviors that we know we should reduce or eliminate.

Psalm 16:11 reminds us that God provides the way to contentment and true joy: “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."