How study gram is really killing your studies.

For my older readers, Studygram is a species of Instagram that emphasizes the need to study by constantly posting pictures and videos of people studying. These posts do not remotely contain materials that a student actually has to read.

(Dear reader, the analogy I quoted has nothing to do with the actual message of this thought. However, this is my blog page, my train of thought and your opinion doesn’t matter. But have fun going through it. From your very rude Milin.)

Turns out this task is harder than I thought it would be. I used to have this false notion that my mind was a ceaseless source of ideas to write and contemplate. But I guess that happens only when professors are taking lectures or when I am attending a very important session that requires my complete focus.

Wait, I got distracted and my mind churned out a thought.

And that is Dopamine.

There was a time I used to suspect I was a victim of ADHD. Simply because I could not focus on one thing and I jumped from one thing to another so frequently. Then I realized, my suspicion was wrong because it was only in the academic sphere that I had this disorder. That is, if the task was purely physical like rearranging my wardrobe, washing my clothes, or making snowflakes out of A4 sheets, I could submit myself with complete integrity and sincerity and could even find pleasure in the monotony of physical labor, so much that I was conscious of the dedication I would put in every second. Every perfect cut for crafts, every perfect scrub and rinse for clothes.

But if it was reading the preface of a book, starting a new textbook on Calculus or even attending an outstanding course to upgrade my skills, I could find myself getting distracted. Maybe it is the lack of monotony. I think it is because before I finish an academic task, I visualize its ends and it leads to a sudden release of dopamine. That tiny dose of satisfaction and happiness I get before I finish the real task used to be so surreal that I never bothered to finish the actual task. Why would I do so when I reaped the satisfaction? In the very end, whether or not I had completed the task barely mattered. My mind was pleased.

Quoting this analogy is quite relevant nowadays because the same release of dopamine occurs in my brain in a different circumstance. Instagram/Studygram addiction to be very specific. I used to make this huge mistake of filling my Instagram feed with study gram posts and reels hoping that I would get motivated to learn after watching my entire feed filled with people setting the table to study, sharing study techniques, and everything, But the more I added, the less I studied. The pleasure of actually finishing an academic or intellectual task was already attained by seeing these reels and posts and it extinguished the passion and desire to, in reality, study.

That’s why now I have made sure my For You page is filled with Art, extracts from poems, and architecture.

And there the thought is left halfway.