The Loop That Runs Itself: How Bad Habits Form and What They Cost

1Before you read

1. Name one habit, good or bad, that you perform without thinking about it. When did it start?
2. The title says the loop "runs itself". What do you think the loop is?

2Reading: The Loop That Runs Itself

1 At ten o'clock every night, Gatete promises himself that he will put his phone away and go to sleep. At half past one he is still scrolling. He is neither stupid nor lazy; in class he is one of the sharpest students in his S6 combination. He is caught in a loop, and a loop, once it is running, is remarkably hard to stop by willpower alone.

2 Researchers who study behaviour often describe a habit as a cycle with three parts. A cue (a time, a place, a feeling or a person) triggers a routine, and the routine delivers a reward. Repeat the cycle often enough and the brain stops treating it as a decision at all. That is precisely what makes habits useful: nobody wants to deliberate every morning over how to brush their teeth. The same efficiency, however, makes a harmful habit extraordinarily durable. Gatete's cue is the moment he lies down; the routine is the scrolling; the reward is a small, steady supply of novelty that the quiet room cannot match.

3 Adolescence raises the stakes. According to the World Health Organization, young people's brains go on developing until their mid-twenties, and people who begin using substances early run a higher risk of dependence in adult life. A habit formed at sixteen is not only harder to break than one formed at thirty; it is built into a brain that is still under construction.

4 Consider nicotine. The WHO points out that the vast majority of people who use tobacco today started as adolescents, and that nicotine is highly addictive. E-cigarettes, sometimes marketed as a harmless alternative, are particularly risky for young users. What begins as a single cigarette accepted to avoid looking awkward can harden into a need that must be paid for every day, in money and in health.

5 Alcohol and drugs follow the same pattern, with higher stakes still. The WHO associates their use in childhood and adolescence with changes in the brain that can lead to behavioural, emotional, social and academic problems later in life. In Rwanda, drug abuse carries a further cost: it is a crime, and the Rwanda Investigation Bureau has a unit whose job is to investigate it. A habit that starts as an experiment can therefore end by taking away a young person's health, savings, education and freedom.

6 Not every bad habit is dramatic. Putting off revision until the night before, skipping breakfast, copying a friend's homework, the late-night scrolling with which this article began: none of these makes headlines. Yet their effects accumulate like interest on a debt. An hour of sleep lost each night becomes a week of lost concentration by the end of the month; a copied assignment becomes a gap in understanding that appears, without warning, in the national examination.

7 If willpower alone is weak, what works? The loop itself suggests three answers. First, change the cue: a phone that charges in another room cannot be picked up at midnight. Second, replace the routine with one that delivers a similar reward; a walk or a conversation can relieve boredom as effectively as a cigarette. Third, recruit allies. A friend who knows your goal, a parent, a teacher or a school counsellor turns a private struggle into a shared project. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. It is strategy.

8 Gatete now leaves his phone charging in the sitting room. The first week, he admits, was miserable; by the third he was asleep before eleven. "The habit didn't disappear," he says. "I just stopped feeding it."

Gatete is an imagined student. The health facts come from the World Health Organization; the fact about drug crime comes from the Rwanda Investigation Bureau.

3The habit loop

4Comprehension

1. What does Gatete promise himself, and what actually happens? (paragraph 1)
2. Name the three parts of the habit cycle and give Gatete's example of each.
3. According to paragraph 2, why are habits useful?
4. Give two facts from the World Health Organization that the writer uses in paragraphs 3 and 4.
5. Why does the writer call the teenage brain "still under construction"?
6. In paragraph 5, what extra cost of drug abuse does the writer mention for Rwanda?
7. Explain the comparison "their effects accumulate like interest on a debt" (paragraph 6).
8. The writer says that asking for help "is strategy". What does he or she mean, and how does paragraph 7 support it?
9. Is the ending, with Gatete's quotation, an effective way to close the article? Give reasons.

Show answersHide answers

1. He promises to put his phone away and sleep at ten o'clock, but at half past one he is still scrolling.
2. Cue: lying down; routine: scrolling; reward: a steady supply of novelty.
3. They save us from having to decide every time: routine actions such as brushing our teeth become automatic.
4. Any two: young people's brains develop until their mid-twenties; early substance use raises the risk of dependence in adult life; most tobacco users started as adolescents; nicotine is highly addictive; e-cigarettes are particularly risky for young users.
5. Because, according to the WHO, it goes on developing until the mid-twenties, so a habit formed at sixteen is built into a brain that is not yet finished.
6. It is a crime, investigated by a unit of the Rwanda Investigation Bureau, so it can cost a young person his or her freedom.
7. Small losses build up and grow over time, as unpaid interest makes a debt grow: one lost hour a night becomes a week of lost concentration in a month.
8. Asking for help is a deliberate, clever plan, not a failure. Paragraph 7 shows that willpower alone is weak and that allies (friends, parents, teachers, counsellors) make the struggle shared and therefore easier.
9. A good answer takes a position and supports it, for example: effective, because it returns to the opening story, shows that the first method (changing the cue) really works, and the quotation "I just stopped feeding it" sums up the idea of changing the loop in a memorable way.

5Vocabulary in context