When did going for a walk become a hot girl walk, and a day in bed become bedrotting? Or when did a simple list of little things that make us happy turn into something called a dopamine menu? The internet seems incapable of letting anything simply exist. Everything has to become a concept. Last year, one of those concepts was the dopamine menu, and for some reason, I keep coming back to this one.

The term dopamine is often used as shorthand for quick hits of pleasure or instant gratification. Scientifically, though, it's a neurotransmitter that plays a central role in motivation, reward, learning and memory. We release dopamine when we listen to music, exercise, spend time with other people, eat, drink and experience something enjoyable. We also release it every time we reach for our phones.

So what actually is a dopamine menu?

Nothing more complicated than a list of things that make you feel good, but framed as a way to interrupt the automatic urge to start doomscrolling on your phone. Some might find that a little sad. That we've reached a point where ordinary life has to be packaged as an internet concept before it feels interesting enough to compete with our social media feeds.

Because our feeds compete for our attention in a way nothing else ever has. I mean, do we even wait anymore? Do we sit on the train and notice the people around us while waiting for our stop? Or has every tiny pause become another opportunity to check our screens? Maybe this isn't just a question of screen time, but of attention. What are we training our brains to notice?

That's why I think this habit of giving ordinary things names might serve a bigger purpose than simply creating another microtrend. They encourage us to notice the details that make everyday life more fun, to appreciate the little things, and perhaps even rediscover the forgotten the art of noticing. 

"Maybe this isn't just a question of screen time, but of attention. What are we training our brains to notice?"

Personally, I love the idea of a dopamine menu. Not because it's revolutionary, but because it helps shift our attention back to the moments that make up our lives. Maybe it reminds us that a good day doesn't have to be extraordinary to feel meaningful. After all, social media has a way of making everyone else's life seem bigger, brighter, and somehow more interesting than our own.

I've come to realize that my own dopamine menu is really long. About 2% of it might be an overflowing iced coffee in the morning, decorating my apartment with old fashion magazines, keeping my jewellery in little crystal bowls, journaling, doing my makeup, going for a run, painting, buying fresh flowers or, even better, picking a few by the side of the road. Spending time with people I love! On hard days, I think those things matter most. I mean, sometimes it's even my cat or a long conversation that saves the day.

Years from now, it probably won't be the scrolling on our phones we'll remember, but that long, and sometimes maybe even difficult, conversation. An evening swim or something we saw on our walk.

Maybe ordinary things need new names sometimes to remind us to notice them. And if something as simple as a dopamine menu makes us pause for a second and choose reality over another hour of scrolling, then perhaps it's doing something far more valuable than becoming another internet buzzword.

So may our summers be filled with longer dopamine menus!

Author Lovisa Hellqvist