In this blog post, we will examine how dopamine addiction is related to the constant conflicts that arise on social media and analyze the psychological mechanisms that cause people to repeatedly engage in online disputes.
Have you ever read the comments on overseas soccer articles on Naver, a popular portal site in Korea? After reading comments on various sports articles, including overseas soccer, for a long time, I feel that the situation is quite serious. From arguments over which soccer star, Ronaldo or Messi, is better, to people openly disparaging certain celebrities to attract attention, there are more abnormal comments than normal ones.
With the increasing number of social media users, the number of disputes is growing not only in the comments section of Naver articles but also across social networks in Korea. There is no sign of a decrease in malicious comments, profanity, and bad manners, and these negative behaviors continue unabated. Why do people argue with each other and express their opinions based on subjective standards? The root cause of these disputes stems from the human emotion of “pleasure.”
Humans have always been sensitive to communication and contact with others. The responses of others through language stimulate the human brain and promote the secretion of the neurohormone “dopamine.” This substance, dopamine, transmits excitement to nerve cells, causing humans to feel pleasure such as happiness and satisfaction. In other words, when others respond to and acknowledge our words, dopamine is secreted, causing us to feel pleasure, and in order to obtain that pleasure again, we respond to others, forming a kind of interactive relationship. The problem is that dopamine is a substance that is addictive, like a drug. In order to obtain the same pleasure, stronger and stronger stimuli are needed, which requires the secretion of more dopamine. In other words, the more you talk, the more you want faster and more immediate responses and stronger stimuli from others. When you repeatedly interact with others for a short period of time, you become unaware of your own behavior and continue to seek connection with others in order to obtain pleasure through dopamine. If this phenomenon continues, you will fall into a state of dopamine addiction, becoming excited and anxious due to excessive dopamine secretion. From that point on, you will seek reactions from others like a machine in order to obtain pleasure and escape from your unbearable anxiety.
So, what is the best way to stimulate people who are addicted to dopamine? There are many ways, of course, but among them, the one that strongly stimulates their psychology is undoubtedly “conflict.” Conflict provides people with faster and more powerful stimulation, giving them the greatest pleasure. Real-life arguments and debates are good examples of this. Arguments and debates, where counterarguments to opinions are immediately returned, are much faster than normal conversations in terms of the speed of speech and the flow of the conversation. Why is that? Arguments and debates are continuous in nature and connect people with each other in a short period of time, which promotes the secretion of dopamine, bringing greater pleasure and leading to active participation. The effect of conflict is clear in the recently popular rap programs “Show Me the Money” and “Unpretty Rapstar.” In these programs, so-called “diss battles,” in which rappers attack each other through their lyrics, have become an essential element. Unlike monologue-style rap, which simply tells a story or describes a situation, these rap battles are a kind of conflict between two people. This gives rappers greater stimulation and a sense of pleasure, allowing them to fully demonstrate their abilities and create a much more active and lively broadcast that attracts the attention of viewers. Unlike ordinary conversation, conflict promotes the secretion of dopamine through rapid developments and active responses, providing maximum pleasure and further stimulating people.
According to the previous paragraph, social networks provide the best environmental conditions for disputes to arise, in other words, for human pleasure to be satisfied.
First, the desire to check the reactions of others on social networks is much greater than the desire to obtain information through other means of communication (such as phone calls or text messages). According to a study on the addictiveness of social media, the desire to check the reactions of others on social networks ranks third after sexual desire and sleep, which are considered basic human needs. Unlike analog methods such as conversation and text messages, which require interaction with specific people in a limited space, social networks are open spaces where you can see the reactions and comments of many people in real time, so conflicts naturally arise as people respond to each other. Strong desires bring greater pleasure to humans, so reactions on social media are faster, more powerful, and unstoppable.
Second, social networks are a collection of diverse information. A typical example is the famous social network Facebook, where you can see not only other people’s news but also various advertisements and news articles. And those advertisements and news articles are invariably accompanied by comments containing people’s opinions. This diverse information strongly stimulates people’s curiosity and leads to lively conversations between them. In other words, the fact that social networks are not only personal spaces but also allow the influx of various information activates connections between people, which ultimately increases the possibility of conflict.
Finally, the response of social networks is incomparably faster than that of analog systems. In the past, when people communicated by telephone, it took time for a response to occur, and by the time the response was given, the influence of dopamine had disappeared, so it was not a big deal. But what about now? When you post something on social media, people’s reactions to your post are displayed immediately, and apps are designed to notify you of those reactions. Therefore, before the dopamine has completely subsided, new dopamine is generated, stimulating people, and those who are addicted to dopamine start replying like robots.
The pursuit of pleasure is an unconscious human behavior, so disputes on social media may never be resolved. But that’s okay. Disputes are a process of learning and accepting each other’s values, and another process of broadening one’s thinking. The important thing is to not lose self-control and engage in emotional fights between people or behave in a way that harms others. As long as that is observed, social media disputes may be the most effective and universal way to satisfy human pleasure.
