I also started a one month social media detox and I must tell you that we have similar experiences. My aim was to fix my attention span because I realised that I couldn't even sit down to finish a book! Which was what I loved doing(reading)
thank you for reading and thank you for your words! i wish you the best on your digital detox. i honestly had the same problem, but now i am reading so much more!! i hope it's the same for you :) turning off my phone while reading so i don't get distracted really helps
Hi, sorry for intruding but just saw your comment and as someone who also tried to read more for my attention span I'd suggest reading before bed!
It's one of the few moments when I can't do any work because I'm supposed to wind down for sleep, so I picked up a book, and coincidentally it also fixed my sleep schedule as I wasn't exposed to screen lights that usually kept me awake☺️
It might be easier if you include reading as part of your sleeping/before bed routine to commit to it first, then slowly increase your reading frequency to moments during the day
This is such an inspiring article. I’ve never heard of a dopamine menu before, so thanks for exposing me to this idea!
Congrats on one month, by the way. That’s a big feat! I agree with you that it’s very tempting to switch over to a flip phone (I’ve been very un-seriously considering it for years now), but it just seems impossible. It would involve getting a bunch of analog things (such as a device to listen to music with on walks, a map, a wrist watch, etc etc). Smartphones are great tools. Our relationship with them, however, can be tricky. I feel like if there was a way to delete the App Store (and thus prevent myself from ever downloading social media or third party apps), it would be easier to maintain a healthy relationship with my phone. Or maybe I just need better self control lol.
thank you so much and thank you for reading! i am glad it was helpful :)). i also agree with you —i've been thinking about doing one flip phone day a week, but we'll see. one of my best friends keeps going back and forth from flip phone to smartphone —she loves her 'flip phone eras', but she also admits that it's so hard to navigate the modern world without the internet. sometimes, she has problems even accessing her bank account. i agree with the app store thing —many things would be easier to resist then. however, i don't think it's a self-control thing, since everything is designated exactly for us to become addicted to it. i wish you the best on your journey and hopefully we can figure it out together!
The biggest things on my dopamine menu are painting and sketching, preferably with traditional media! I’d gotten so used to drawing with Procreate that I had legitimately forgotten how paint works. Other things include meditating, breathwork, crosswords, guitar, photography, and singing. I’m not very far into my social media detox journey, I’m just using the timers on my apps, setting a screen time goal, and adding a “disconnect” mode to my phone that ONLY lets me use offline apps and turns off my wifi. But making a list of alternatives was one of the first things I did! Loved seeing yours, we have a lot of similar ones aside from the ones I mentioned!
thank you for reading and for sharing yours!! i have been thinking about doing crosswords and sudokus for the longest time, i used to love them! i am glad you have so many artistic and creative things in your menu :)) wish you the best on your journey!
Oooh thank you so much for sharing this!! I always think of wanting to DO something like this, but it just ends up being a list and I find it needs to be a bit more structured so that way I can pull from certain categories and such and I feel like this is pretty much something along the lines of what I’m looking for!
this is amazing. it's amazing to see people actually realize the rot in our brain because of mindless scrolling. I too, have stopped watched social media except for long form content and sometimes find myself mindlessly scrolling through substack and youtube to fill that gap. thank you for this post! it has been informative and helpful.
glad to hear you like it and find it helpful!! sometimes i feel our brains are so used to this quick dopamine (scrolling, scrolling, scrolling) that they look for it even when we've quit social media. hope it gets better for us. thank you for reading 💌
aaaaa thank you sooo much for the mention!!! 🥹🥹 i love your menu and it’s so nice seeing everyone relate to it and interpret it in their own ways. amazing post! 💌
I love this concept! As someone who is trying to cut down social media, I definitely need to create my own Dopamine Menu to keep me going when I want to stay away from the screen of doom.
Enjoyed reading this week's article! It feels like catching up with a friend who is also trying to stay offline (with the irony of being connected online). The cafe date and the cat that cuddled up with you sounds like my perfect day, I need to find a cat cafe near me and do the same :)
this comment made me so happy :)) i am glad my articles make you feel like that. honestly, reading your comments also feels like catching up with friends who are trying to stay offline. as troy bolton (?) once said, we are all in this together hahhaha. i hope you can find a cat cafe (or a regular cafe with very nice owners and very nice pets) very very soon 💖
Oh my gosh! I’ve been wanting to make one of these but I didn’t have the language for it yet. You genius. Saved the menu to my phone for a later date. Thank you ❤️
I have read a lot of articles on dopamine detox but never one about a dopamine menu. I always read those articles and thought that is great but none of the tips seem to help me. I think that this will really help! Thank you so much! :)
Ohhh how I loveeee this beautiful article ❤️🥰
I also started a one month social media detox and I must tell you that we have similar experiences. My aim was to fix my attention span because I realised that I couldn't even sit down to finish a book! Which was what I loved doing(reading)
It's hard tho but it's definitely worth it.
You've earned a new subscriber 👩❤️👩
thank you for reading and thank you for your words! i wish you the best on your digital detox. i honestly had the same problem, but now i am reading so much more!! i hope it's the same for you :) turning off my phone while reading so i don't get distracted really helps
Hi, sorry for intruding but just saw your comment and as someone who also tried to read more for my attention span I'd suggest reading before bed!
It's one of the few moments when I can't do any work because I'm supposed to wind down for sleep, so I picked up a book, and coincidentally it also fixed my sleep schedule as I wasn't exposed to screen lights that usually kept me awake☺️
It might be easier if you include reading as part of your sleeping/before bed routine to commit to it first, then slowly increase your reading frequency to moments during the day
No I don't mind 💕
Thank you so much for the suggestion!!
This is such an inspiring article. I’ve never heard of a dopamine menu before, so thanks for exposing me to this idea!
Congrats on one month, by the way. That’s a big feat! I agree with you that it’s very tempting to switch over to a flip phone (I’ve been very un-seriously considering it for years now), but it just seems impossible. It would involve getting a bunch of analog things (such as a device to listen to music with on walks, a map, a wrist watch, etc etc). Smartphones are great tools. Our relationship with them, however, can be tricky. I feel like if there was a way to delete the App Store (and thus prevent myself from ever downloading social media or third party apps), it would be easier to maintain a healthy relationship with my phone. Or maybe I just need better self control lol.
thank you so much and thank you for reading! i am glad it was helpful :)). i also agree with you —i've been thinking about doing one flip phone day a week, but we'll see. one of my best friends keeps going back and forth from flip phone to smartphone —she loves her 'flip phone eras', but she also admits that it's so hard to navigate the modern world without the internet. sometimes, she has problems even accessing her bank account. i agree with the app store thing —many things would be easier to resist then. however, i don't think it's a self-control thing, since everything is designated exactly for us to become addicted to it. i wish you the best on your journey and hopefully we can figure it out together!
The biggest things on my dopamine menu are painting and sketching, preferably with traditional media! I’d gotten so used to drawing with Procreate that I had legitimately forgotten how paint works. Other things include meditating, breathwork, crosswords, guitar, photography, and singing. I’m not very far into my social media detox journey, I’m just using the timers on my apps, setting a screen time goal, and adding a “disconnect” mode to my phone that ONLY lets me use offline apps and turns off my wifi. But making a list of alternatives was one of the first things I did! Loved seeing yours, we have a lot of similar ones aside from the ones I mentioned!
thank you for reading and for sharing yours!! i have been thinking about doing crosswords and sudokus for the longest time, i used to love them! i am glad you have so many artistic and creative things in your menu :)) wish you the best on your journey!
Oooh thank you so much for sharing this!! I always think of wanting to DO something like this, but it just ends up being a list and I find it needs to be a bit more structured so that way I can pull from certain categories and such and I feel like this is pretty much something along the lines of what I’m looking for!
I hope it helps you continue your detox journey!
thank you so much!! i hope this structure helps you somehow. it has definitely been helping me!! :)
this is amazing. it's amazing to see people actually realize the rot in our brain because of mindless scrolling. I too, have stopped watched social media except for long form content and sometimes find myself mindlessly scrolling through substack and youtube to fill that gap. thank you for this post! it has been informative and helpful.
glad to hear you like it and find it helpful!! sometimes i feel our brains are so used to this quick dopamine (scrolling, scrolling, scrolling) that they look for it even when we've quit social media. hope it gets better for us. thank you for reading 💌
This is such a fun way to go about this!
It’s challenging but possible to create a healthy relationship to it all.
Thank for sharing this & your menu, very beautiful! ✨
thank you so much for reading and i am glad you liked it!! 💌
aaaaa thank you sooo much for the mention!!! 🥹🥹 i love your menu and it’s so nice seeing everyone relate to it and interpret it in their own ways. amazing post! 💌
thank you so much!! your post was one of the first things i read on substack and i truly enjoyed it. it inspired me a lot 💖
can’t describe how much your comment means to me 🥹🫶
love the idea of a dopamine menu!! will definitely be creating one for myself!!
yayy i am glad!! hope it helps :))
I love this concept! As someone who is trying to cut down social media, I definitely need to create my own Dopamine Menu to keep me going when I want to stay away from the screen of doom.
i am glad you liked it!! i hope creating a dopamine menu helps you build a healthier relationship with social media :))
Enjoyed reading this week's article! It feels like catching up with a friend who is also trying to stay offline (with the irony of being connected online). The cafe date and the cat that cuddled up with you sounds like my perfect day, I need to find a cat cafe near me and do the same :)
this comment made me so happy :)) i am glad my articles make you feel like that. honestly, reading your comments also feels like catching up with friends who are trying to stay offline. as troy bolton (?) once said, we are all in this together hahhaha. i hope you can find a cat cafe (or a regular cafe with very nice owners and very nice pets) very very soon 💖
LOL Troy Bolton, HSM throwback!! Thank you :))
Thank you for this very lovely article 🤗. I really enjoyed the ideas you shared. I haven't heard about a dopamine menu but I like this concept
thank you for reading!! i hope it was helpful somehow 💖
Oh my gosh! I’ve been wanting to make one of these but I didn’t have the language for it yet. You genius. Saved the menu to my phone for a later date. Thank you ❤️
loved this!! need to work on my dopamine menus again, they're so helpful :)
Such a lovely idea!
i’m definitely making this menu!!
I have read a lot of articles on dopamine detox but never one about a dopamine menu. I always read those articles and thought that is great but none of the tips seem to help me. I think that this will really help! Thank you so much! :)