What is... "Dopaminergic Burnout"?
Is it a byproduct of our obsession with discernment and self-diagnosis, or a legitimate diagnosis of the modern age’s pervasive 'general malaise'?
A few weeks ago, I was talking with an old colleague of mine and dear friend Ana Ramirez Lee, and as we were catching up we were both commiserating about our short attention spans, our jobs, and of course the internet. I brought up this Grimes interview I had watched a few days prior, because the comments that rolled in in real time were all about how dumb she sounded and how this phrase ‘dopaminergic wasteland’ that she repeatedly used throughout the interview sounded farcical deeming it as just another “buzzword.”
Numerous things frustrated me when reading these comments. Firstly, I get its a laughable phrase. I get that everything now is forced into a diagnosis, a phrase, or a a new word to project meaning and discernment onto everyone. It’s a product of refinement culture, undoubtedly. The word/phrase/diagnosis then enters the lexicons of the masses. It might become a deflection strategy for some to weaponize their or someone else’s incompetence. For others it provides comfort or catastrophe to define everything like this, much akin to web mb-ing yourself into a state of oblivion. By forcing this habit of defining everything, the illusion of discernment has effectively been rendered the antidote itself or a substitute for one.
If you think I am glazing over the fact that Grimes is a woman and that her sentiments on the matter are rendered as merely “internet parlance” or inarticulate all together — yes. You are right. It probably is because she is a woman. It probably is also because she has a child with former SGE of DOGE! All of these points are trivial in the fact that “dopaminergic burnout” is in fact real, and it may be a fancy buzzword AND a byproduct of our obsession with discernment and self-diagnosis, but it is still a legitimate diagnosis of the modern age’s pervasive ‘general malaise.’
It’s hard to gauge how far deep I myself am in the ‘wasteland’ as someone who works in social media, even if I am cognizant of its long term effects. Even if I didn’t work predominantly online, I strongly believe I would still struggle with this. I mean I have. But as someone who works heavily inside the belly of the algorithm, I am forced to think about the machine itself. I can’t throw my life or job away because I can see the signs of burnout. Sometimes I can’t even mitigate my screen time because I either have something to do that necessitates this level of connectivity, but also because part of my job is to be as tapped in as possible. Any missed zeitgeist moment = lost revenue. My strident adherence to this is wavering, contingent on a slew of variables. Work is always my top priority. But sometimes my health has to supersede my work on this type of totem pole. I recently had to mute what seemed like 138398839482 keywords and click ‘uninterested’ on a myriad of tiktoks, youtube videos, IG posts etc. because the algorithm felt like it was shrinking me into a lilliputian sized version of myself, and everywhere I went my ‘kardashian kurse’ of my exes proliferating into stardom followed. This barely even worked, the posts kept coming up. Which goes to show you, even if you metaphorically pack your shit up & go full on Alexander Supertramp/Christopher McCandless mode…it’s not going to solve all your problems, it’ll leave you broke, emotional, and hinging on another hit of dopamine until you eat some fatal fucking berry and croak over in east jesus nowhere… I digress.
As deep as we have all been siphoned into the vortex of capitalism’s algorithmically engineered undertow, it feels naïve to imagine that some politician will suddenly go full lifeguard and haul us out of the very tsunami-like vehicle that we use every day for work, identity, and fulfillment. Two truths can exist at once: the system is degenerative and yet we participate in it, the platforms are dopaminergic traps and yet they are also the tools we rely on to survive.
As someone who works in social media, this trope is magnified to a borderline grotesque degree. The pressure to be so subscribed, so “dialed in,” to the current zeitgeist, emerging trends, meme cycles, discourse cycles, whatever cycles, is constant. And all of that is happening while you are also straddling the fine line of: do we go rogue, do we play it safe, how can this copy yield a higher CTR. The rise in AI dependency only makes this more absurd. The information we use to get answers in a more “efficient” way is the same information that often dilutes your organic reach while simultaneously probably rotting your brain. Taking time to manually finesse a sentence’s grammar or have an actual original thought is now treated like a rather unproductive yet antiquated luxury.
So much of what passes as “organic” media is not organic at all, not when everyone is relying on the same em dash adorned word salads churned out of some weekly updated OpenAI rollout. That homogenization does not only flatten your FYP or Instagram feed into a redundant blur, it actively depletes the brain cells of both the consumer and the strategist. These platforms, once a connective tissue with a few scattered ads, are now a predominantly sales-driven onslaught. Those photos of your mutual friends on their cozy weekend getaway. Click the link in their bio to book your own at the same hybrid Airbnb and branded wellness retreat. That hair dryer your friend used that made you second guess your Target one. Suddenly it is flying around your FYP with 30 different creators flashing their TikTok Shop. Six videos deep, you are convinced it is going to change your life for $49.99, and only $10 cheaper than the one you already bought.
The problem is not just the impulse purchase. It is the cascade that follows. Suddenly you are not only unfulfilled with the hair dryer you did not need, you are also spiraling about why your friend group cannot afford a group trip, why your couch feels lumpy, why the world feels bleak. You close TikTok and find yourself scrolling Airbnb for fantasy trips to Montreal that probably will not make it out of the group chat because everyone’s rent is too damn high. These emotional spikes of envy, comparison, longing, and dissatisfaction are now normalized and for the most part inflated. They are heightened and deeply desensitized versions of very human feelings, stretched and distorted by the sheer surveillance we have into the way everyone else lives.
And when the dopamine runs out from last week’s Target run or the sweet mundane moments with your friends at home, you are still choosing 15 hours of screen time over the very simplicity you claim to crave. This is the core conundrum: we are all very unfulfilled and devoid of true reward-derived dopamine because the rewards themselves have been recalibrated.
Recently I came across a case study titled “Hijacked by the Feed: Social Media Neuroengineering-Induced Digital Anhedonia,” written by Shaheen E. Lakhan, which articulated this shift with eerie precision:
And then the part that really clocked me:
“Individuals who are not clinically depressed but no longer derive pleasure from everyday activities. A selective blunting of reward responses to analog stimuli following chronic digital overexposure. Feeling ‘bored’ by in-person events or hobbies and ‘flat’ in the absence of screen-based stimulation.”
(***Sidebar: This really reminds me of that inane feeling you get when you’re having fun around your family or friends, but the urge to vape or check your phone or mindlessly tap through people’s stories becomes so pervasive you can’t not give in.)
With the simultaneous rise of self-diagnosis, meme culture around “autism,” and politicians weaponizing fear mongering with poorly researched claims and falsities surrounding OTC drugs, these conversations get flattened into spectacle. Sweeping declarations are turned into misinformation that not only further divides communities but siphons us further into the swinging pendulum of ethical consumption. When I stumbled upon the concept of anhedonia, it felt less like a psychiatric diagnosis and more like a symptom of a societal health crisis. While everyone is seemingly anxious or depressed, I think a large portion of people are actually experiencing dopaminergic burnout, functioning well enough on paper but moving through life in a prolonged anhedonic state.
This state does not appear overnight. It creeps quietly, just like the internet’s fully realized capitalist engine crept up on all of us. As reports increase of individuals struggling with heavy allostatic loads, the cumulative wear and tear from chronic stress, we are watching entire groups of people stuck in echo chambers of AI hallucinations, clickbait, brain cell depleting memes, political discourse, and pop culture meltdowns. All of these further move the needle on class inequity driven strategies that have been implemented for the long haul. It is a cycle that feels both unavoidable and unsustainable, yet so many people from one percenters to formerly broke TikTok creators continue to profit and reap the benefits of this very precariously engineered way of living.
As someone raised on the internet who has no desire to go full wannabe luddite or adopt some Unabomber adjacent fantasy of off-grid purity, I really do not think the solution is a mass device funeral. As I said to Ana Ramirez Lee, it is unproductive to imagine that by burning it all down and throwing our phones into a turbulent river or vat of toxic waste we will somehow return to a pre-digital Eden that will save us. Instead, the work is in examining the mechanisms and culture around these dopaminergic leeches themselves, whether it is your media diet, your compulsions, or the slow creep of anhedonia and not wanting to get off your couch to get a coffee with a friend. All of these things might seem like a product of brain rot or some sugar-coated yet contentious internet parlance, but it is imperative that we at least try to understand how to protect our curiosity, our sincerity, and our ethics in a world engineered to erode all three. I would love to write more about the value of curiosity in 2026 but I’ll hold back today as I am sure some of you are itching to get back to your TikTok scrolling.
But before I leave you, I want to remind you that there is stealth in success. Which is why the implementation of these brain-numbing forces has bludgeoned our implicit reactions to things, our behavioral patterns, and ultimately the way we live our lives to such a degree.
To critique is not to eliminate, it is to mitigate the level of dust that has accumulated on our brains, and we cannot possibly clean the brains of the masses with just concession. Plus, concession doesn’t always mean condemnation. I think absolutisms are too black and white. Everything is grey now. Incrementalists will have to win this war, but it takes participants to create real resistance. There is also camaraderie in joining forces and resistance. Which might mean good things for those who feel lonelier than ever. It takes much more than sheer desire to create action so with that…In 2026, I hope and (as many predict) that we at least try to “tidy up.” Whether that’s making more time to create analog art, read a tangible book….”brick”-ing your phone if you caved into that already, doing something unassuming that involves physical body movement? Idk something. Even if it is buying a brick. (I don’t judge, I bought a Hatch alarm clock recently and it did utterly nothing to improve my life.) But generally speaking, I am trying to stop buying random gadgets and crap to solve a problem that has to do with my behavioral patterns. If we’re going to be stuck in a “dopaminergic wasteland,” I’d at least prefer for my house to not be a squalor filled wasteland as well.
That is all folks. I’ll be trying to write more this year and not archive everything out of fear people are perceiving me. Maybe I’ll try to stop making references to the Unabomber while I am at it.
Ta ta for now.