We’ve all been there. You’re in a meeting, your phone buzzes with an Instagram notification, and suddenly your fingers itch to check it. But what’s actually happening inside your body during that moment of craving? A new study from Durham University has finally mapped the physiological rollercoaster we experience during those quick Instagram checks—and more importantly, what happens when we’re forced to resist the urge to scroll.
Checking social media has become engrained in the daily routines of billions worldwide. Despite the ubiquity of this behavior, surprisingly little was known about its immediate impact on our bodies and minds until now. Unlike previous research focusing on internet use broadly, this investigation zeroed in specifically on Instagram—one of the most visually-oriented and popular platforms among young adults.
Dr. Michael Wadsley and Dr. Niklas Ihssen’s study, titled “The psychophysiology of Instagram,” tracked what happens inside our bodies during typical Instagram sessions and subsequent periods when usage is halted. Their findings reveal a troubling pattern: brief Instagram engagement triggers reward-based arousal and deep attentional immersion, while stopping triggers stress responses—regardless of whether someone exhibits problematic social media habits or not.
In a commentary on The Conversation, Dr. Ihssen himself explains the significance: “What we found was that, relative to the news reading condition, scrolling away on Instagram led to a marked slowing of participants’ heart rate while, at the same time, increasing their sweating response.” He adds, “From other research we know that such a pattern of bodily responses shows that someone’s attention is fully absorbed by a highly significant or emotional stimulus in their environment – it’s a state of simultaneous excitement and deep immersion into something very meaningful to us.”
Instagram’s Insta-effects
The research team monitored heart rate, skin conductance (which measures emotional arousal through tiny changes in sweat gland activity), and subjective feelings across three 15-minute phases with 54 Instagram users. Participants first completed a baseline reading phase, followed by an Instagram browsing phase, and finally a phase where they were forced to stop using Instagram while receiving notifications.
During Instagram use, participants experienced a significant decrease in heart rate compared to baseline—a sign of deep attentional focus similar to what happens when we’re completely absorbed in a task. This heart rate slowdown occurred alongside increased skin conductance, indicating heightened pleasurable arousal—essentially, the reward center of the brain activating.
This combination reveals users enter a distinctive mental state characterized by profound immersive engagement while simultaneously experiencing heightened arousal—a potent mixture that likely contributes to social media’s powerful appeal.
“Importantly, from the control condition we knew that it was not just being on the phone or reading that caused this bodily response,” writes Dr. Ihssen. “So there seems to be something special about social media that can easily engross us.”
What Happens When We Stop Scrolling?
Perhaps most revealing was the body’s response when participants were forced to stop using Instagram, especially while receiving notifications they couldn’t check. Heart rates increased, skin conductance readings climbed even higher, and participants reported significant increases in stress, anxiety, and social media cravings.
“The most intriguing effect in our study happened when we interrupted participants at the end of their Instagram stint and asked them to go back to reading another news article,” Dr. Ihssen explains in his Conversation post. “Rather than snapping out of the excitement and returning to a calmer state, participants’ sweating response increased further, while heart rate also increased rather than slowed down further.”
These bodily changes paint a picture of what might be happening inside billions of people multiple times throughout their day: cycles of immersion, reward, and subsequent stress when usage stops. The fact that these responses occurred regardless of whether someone scored high or low on problematic social media use measures raises important questions about how these platforms affect us all.
What makes social media so compelling isn’t just its addictive design features but something more fundamental to human nature. “Our previous study shows that it is primarily the social aspect of social media that drives most people to use it so intensively,” writes Ihssen. “This also means that – in contrast to drugs – social media taps into basic human needs: we all want to belong and to be liked. So if we recognize the existence of ‘social media addiction’, we might also need to recognize a ‘friendship addiction.’”
Beyond ‘Addiction’: A Universal Response
With more parents, educators, doctors, and users themselves becoming aware of the impacts from social media “addiction,” this research offers valuable physiological evidence of its power. While stopping short of confirming social media addiction as a formal diagnosis (none currently exists), the study demonstrates that even brief social media sessions trigger measurable changes in our bodies similar to patterns seen in reward-seeking behaviors.
The discovery that Instagram usage creates a state comparable to what psychologists call “motivated attention”—a heightened focus toward emotionally significant information—helps explain why scrolling through Instagram can feel so absorbing. The platform delivers an endless stream of novel, emotionally significant, and personally relevant content—perfect for continuously capturing our attention.
The Stress-Relief Paradox
Interestingly, previous research found that using social media before or after stressful events can actually buffer physiological stress responses. The heart rate deceleration observed during Instagram use in this study helps explain this phenomenon—social media may temporarily induce a state of attentional immersion that counteracts stress-related physiological arousal.
However, this comes with a significant downside: when usage stops, users experience this powerful rebound of stress-related physiological activation and subjective distress. This creates a potentially problematic cycle—social media temporarily reduces stress, but stopping usage increases it, potentially driving people back to the platform for relief.
Most concerning are the implications for the billions of brief social media sessions occurring worldwide each day. If each session involves cycles of reward-driven immersion followed by stress when usage stops, we might be subjecting ourselves to numerous micro-cycles of physiological and psychological stress daily.
For the average Instagram user who checks the app ten times daily, this could mean ten daily cycles of immersion and withdrawal—each one potentially contributing to accumulated stress. Moreover, if each cycle reinforces the association between Instagram use and stress relief, it could strengthen habitual usage patterns over time.
Engineered for Engagement
The research methodology cleverly mimicked natural usage patterns by examining brief 15-minute windows—much closer to how people actually use these platforms in everyday life, with the average session lasting 10-20 minutes.
Even more ingenious was the cessation phase design, where participants received notifications on their phones but were prohibited from checking them—a common real-world scenario many people experience during meetings, classes, or other situations where checking social media is inappropriate or impossible.
A picture emerges of social media platforms expertly designed to exploit fundamental attentional and reward mechanisms in the human brain. The content—friends’ photos, entertaining videos, personally relevant information—naturally triggers attention and reward anticipation, creating a deeply immersive experience that temporarily reduces stress.
Source : https://studyfinds.org/what-happens-to-your-body-during-an-instagram-session/