Is there any evidence that that social media causes higher levels of dopamine release than say, music? Exercise? Eating? Regular old socialization? Games? Sun exposure?

I'm highly skeptical here, largely due to all the other moral panics based on questionable science that have come before claiming everything from phones (as in landlines) to video games were as addictive as crack.

Yep!

The lawsuit cites one group within the company, called “TikTank,” which noted in an internal report that compulsive usage was “rampant” on the platform. It also quotes an unnamed executive who said kids watch TikTok because the algorithm is “really good.”

“But I think we need to be cognizant of what it might mean for other opportunities. And when I say other opportunities, I literally mean sleep, and eating, and moving around the room, and looking at somebody in the eyes,” the unnamed executive said, according to the complaint.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/tiktok-aware-risks-kids-...

Straight from the horse’s mouth

That is absolutely not evidence.

It’s not a peer reviewed double blind study but it absolutely is evidence that the people with 95% share think that their product interferes with basic human needs and becomes habit forming after half an hour, just as it was evidence that R. J. Reynolds executives knew roughly how few cigarettes a teenager needed to smoke to become a lifelong customer even if they didn’t know the exact neuroscience of how that worked or run a psychology study trying to exactly quantify effectiveness.

So, absolutely not evidence of dopamine release which is what the parent comment asked for.

No, it is evidence but it’s at different levels as explained. Trying to be pedantic is just obscuring whatever point you are trying to make.

TikTok’s own research showing specifically that TikTok fixation is pulling kids away from the activities that GP listed?

“Higher levels of dopamine release” is a nonsense metric. To the extent that it matters, it matters due to its ability to steer decision-making, and TikTok here is saying they know their product distorts decision-making in exactly the problematic manner.

The particular mixture of hormone signals yielding those behaviors is a red herring.

> “Higher levels of dopamine release” is a nonsense metric.

Then the correct answer to the parent comment's request for evidence to the claims of higher levels of dopamine release is "no, there isn't any, and it is likely a fabricated claim" and not "here is something completely different that I am falsely going to claim is evidence to the question you asked."

Uhhh no one claimed it releases more dopamine than other activities, so the question itself was a red herring from the actual discussion. You're right though, you can go on your pedantic way :) Thank you for your contribution!

From a lawsuit standpoint, that is evidence.

In this case the poison is in the dose. Sex also releases a cascade of neurochemicals, but I challenge you to have more sex in a day than you can watch videos on TikTok in two hours. You can essentially hold down the button in the Skinner Box.

You can use Google just like I can. You’re not asking because of curiosity, you’re asking because you’re hoping you won’t have to think.

This guy seems to be getting cited a lot:

https://theconversation.com/debunking-the-6-biggest-myths-ab...

Unfortunately he doesn’t single out games versus social media, and that seems to be because his position is that video games aren’t a blight on children.

His belief in how few people this actually affects doesn’t line up with my own anecdotes about gaming addiction. And “goes away”? Well yes it’s not like heroin, you can quit without the aid of a doctor, but these people all had lifelong consequences from their overindulgence. It doesn’t “go away” like a rash, it goes away like a wound - leaving scar tissue.

If you read all the way to the end, he concludes that overuse is a symptom of another neurological problems. Which makes it self medication, and to that I say, if you find a child with depression or ADHD self medicating with large quantities of caffeine, or an adult using cocaine to do the same, you don’t leave them on that much caffeine/narcotics. You get them on medicine that works better and reduce the stimulant abuse.

The current US political climate would indicate adults are no better equipped to handle the dopamine from social media.

But we tried that already with alcohol and we got organized crime.

So there gonna be some bootleg twitter posts now?

Also wouldn't HN count as social media too, as we are interacting here?

> So there gonna be some bootleg twitter posts now?

You joke, but I worry about this if Norway implements an age limit based on geographic location - it either gets kids onto the shittiest possible free VPN which MITMs everything, or gets them onto imageboards/apps with even fewer facilities for handling abuse than FB and Snapchat have

E: > Also wouldn't HN count as social media too, as we are interacting here?

Family minister Toppe was immediately asked afterwards if the age limit would cover newspapers with comment sections, and she responded that it would - so parents would have to consent to you sharing personal info with the newspaper, which seems like a long way to say "your parents decide whether you get to read the news"

https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/mPzg0q/regjeringen-vil-innfoere-...

Yep, dopamine plays a crucial role in how we cope with challenges, especially during adolescence