The promise of success is what drives many people to wake up in the morning. Doing well in something, be that winning a game, writing a well-received article, or even getting a few likes on your Instagram, makes you feel good. Due to this good feeling, many people spend their lives looking for this satisfaction and gratification.
But why does winning feel so good? The answer is that many different chemical reactions happen when we achieve something, and it’s these chemicals that create a response of happiness and accomplishment. But here’s the problem, in a world where things are getting more and more competitive, finding success is getting even harder, meaning that a lot of people are being left without these elevating feelings for an extended period. This means that people have turned to other ways to get these chemical hits.
What are the chemicals
Whenever we win, or achieve, or do something good that receives praise, our testosterone levels are increased within our bodies. This, in turn, increases the chemical messenger dopamine, and it’s this dopamine hit that makes us feel rewarded, happy, and positive. Dopamine is known as a neurotransmitter and travels down our nervous system to send messages between nerve cells, spreading along four significant pathways in the brain. An increase in dopamine can help with a wide array of health aspects such as:
- Learning and motivation
- Heart rate
- Blood vessel function
- Kidney function
- Sleep
- Mood
- Pain processing
- Movement
As you can see, dopamine is really beneficial to our health and our mental wellbeing. That is why those who may not be getting it regularly in their work or social life may try other avenues to seek it out. Thankfully, there are plenty of viable and safe ways to get these little wins and give you a significant boost in mood and productivity.
Little Wins
A way people are using the internet to boost their mood is through online gaming. The added risk of pitting yourself against others or an unknown AI system can make it far more rewarding if you do win.
Bingo has emerged as a hot favorite in recent years within the gaming industry, and there are many online bingo sites available for people to try their luck. What is appealing about bingo is that it’s accessible and straightforward to play, with many games having a meager price of entry. It also provides a high number of dopamine hits as you not only receive one when you win a game but each ball you match with provides just a little kick. It has as a fun social element through chat rooms too, which can further your enjoyment, and all these elements combine to make it probably one of the better ways to obtain an artificial dopamine hit.
The internet has provided people with many tools to help them get that dopamine hit and feel validated once again. One of the main ways it can do that is through social media, as most websites and platforms are riddled with gratifying social triggers such as likes, shares, and comments, and other notifications which really help people feel good once they are received. This has only increased too since the advent of smartphones and vanity platforms such as Instagram, where now access to a dopamine hit is right at our fingertips, consistently throughout the day.
