Essay

Dopamine Detox Claims and Brain Training

A critique of dopamine detox claims, poorly trained brains, social media habits, reward systems, and pop-neuroscience oversimplification.

Indexed essay June 3, 2025 By Devin Teichrow sciencedopamineneuroscienceaddictionsocial media

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By Devin Teichrow. Published June 3, 2025.

Overview

A critique of dopamine detox claims, poorly trained brains, social media habits, reward systems, and pop-neuroscience oversimplification.

Dopamine has become a scapegoat. Everything from addiction to short attention spans and social media’s grip on us are blamed on dopamine. Just open those same social media sites, search ‘dopamine’ and you’ll hear all about dopamine detoxes or how your phone is hijacking your neurotransmitters.

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