Kathmandu, Sept. 19 -- Five years ago, when I started using Instagram, the "likes" I got on my posts meant something to me. For a 17-year-old, getting these "likes" meant constant doses of instant gratification. And I was so hooked to this form of social approval that my dopamine rushed if I received more likes on my posts.

The fixation reached such a level that I even downloaded applications to increase likes on my posts (even if it was from bots) and spent time researching how I could be Instagram-famous and how I could look cool on the platform so more and more people would follow me.

This was how Instagram made me obsessed with likes. And depicting similar stories of how social media platforms are responsible for making people hooke...