The Search for Real Dopamine

Welcome to Creatives Anonymous, a weekly newsletter that explores what it means to be a modern-day creative. It inspires, encourages, and empowers readers to take back their creative power.

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We need some real dopamine, and we need it real bad. 

I came across this graphic a while ago encapsulating the idea of “dopamine culture.”

At first glance, it appears that dopamine culture is just our attention spans getting shorter. While that’s true to some extent, I think it goes beyond that; the dopamine problem isn’t a matter of attention span but of value and meaning. 

This search for dopamine culminates in an era of hustle culture and the growing enshittification of content. We’re looking for something meaningful to capture our attention. 

We’re on a constant hamster wheel that’s going faster and faster, so we need to get dopamine hits in smaller and smaller increments. Whether scrolling for a few minutes on Instagram or watching a TikTok video, we’re yearning to feel something. 

Our brains have no breathing space between work, school, social commitments, home life, and other extracurriculars. We’re overworked and tired. We’re looking for a mental breather—some dopamine—and turning to our devices to find it.

But what we’re looking for isn’t in our devices.

I was talking to a friend recently who pointed out that our devices are just distractions that prevent us from thinking critically and expressing our ideas. It was one of the most profound things I’ve heard, but it rang true.  

If we put half as much time into cultivating our ideas as we do mindlessly scrolling, who knows what we’d be able to create and how we would change the world? Maybe the content on the internet would be better. Maybe we’d have more artists. Maybe we’d be innovating again. 

Perhaps one of my hottest takes is that I don’t think we’ve seen significant innovation in the last 30 years. Yes, we’ve seen many technological advancements, but I’m talking about the types of innovation that arguably changed the world and made it a better place. Innovations like assembly lines, penicillin, and electricity. The kind of innovation that technology didn’t rob us of or that algorithms didn’t ruin for us. 

We also get lost in our devices because we lose sight of our passions. 

In a culture that thrives on hustle culture and work, there’s no emphasis on having a life and interests outside of work. We don’t take creative risks because we’re afraid they won’t perform well with the algorithm. We can’t have hobbies without feeling pressured to monetize them. We get shamed for slowing down and taking time to enjoy life. 

That’s where we find real dopamine. 

Real dopamine comes from slowing down. It comes from disconnecting from technology and reconnecting with the world around us. It comes from stepping off the hamster wheel and giving our brains space to breathe. 

When we do so, we’re able to think. Not just make the split-second decisions we need to survive every day, but critically think and make connections. To imagine. To innovate. To create. It’s how we get our best ideas. 

Dopamine allows us to stretch our minds in new, creative ways, see things differently, and offer a different perspective. If we are to outlast AI and the algorithms, we must acquire this skill as creatives. 

Simply put, the more real dopamine we get, the more critically we think and the more creative we are. 

I think we’ve reached the tipping point and are starting to slowly see the pendulum swing away from a hyperconnected society and back towards a slower, more balanced one. I see more people rejecting the need to be more connected daily, favoring analog hobbies over digital ones, “dumb” phones over smart ones, and prioritizing slower living. All I have to say is that it’s about time.

So, do yourself and your creativity a favor and search for some real dopamine. 

CREATIVE CORNER

• 🎞️ What I’m Consuming: My friend was in a staged reading of a new play, The Park, that’s getting ready to open in the fall, so it was fun to go out and support some local theater.

• 💡 What I’m Loving: Podcast interviews—I did two last week and am itching to do more!

• 🎨 What I’m Working On: I plotted my new novel idea over the weekend. It was, dare I say, easy? I’ve also been spending a lot more time learning how to draw.

• 💭 Weekly Musing:

Thank you 💕

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