That red circle with the number that keeps popping up… that teaser text that keeps creeping down the top of your phone… THAT is your new drug. It’s your dopamine rush. Your brain is telling you to keep looking at your phone. Every time you get an alert, you look at it and you’re instantly rewarded for it! And really, you did absolutely NOTHING. That dopamine rush that used to come as a result of doing something meaningful like exercising has been replaced with one where you just flick your thumb until you get your next notification/gratification — your next hit. A few weeks ago, I disabled all of that. It has been incredibly rewarding not to be tied to my phone that way, and I highly recommend it =)