Americans Check Their Phones 96 Times a Day

Social media addiction hijacks your brain's dopamine system through variable reward schedules — the same mechanism that makes slot machines addictive. Here's what the research shows about how it works and how to break the cycle.

Phone addiction is a compulsive pattern of smartphone use driven by variable-ratio reinforcement — the same mechanism that makes slot machines hard to put down. Here's what the research says about symptoms, causes, and what actually works to break the cycle.