Psychology Expert Warns Against Phone Scrolling

Associate Professor of Psychology and Counseling Melissa DiMartino, Ph.D., is featured in a Parade article about the negative effects of spending too much time on your smartphone. DiMartino, who has researched the mental health impacts of smartphones in the college classroom, warns that smartphone addiction changes how the brain is wired, releasing the same neurochemicals triggered by hard drugs.

“Getting ‘likes’ and notifications from your phone releases dopamine, which makes us feel good, and in turn, we want to repeat these feel-good behaviors,” she explains. “When we don’t get likes or notifications, we feel depressed and lonely, which creates an adverse effect.”