It’s Not You. Social Media Apps Are Designed to Be Addictive
Just as I’m writing this article, it was only seconds ago that I was receiving my daily dosage of Instagram binge.
As a full-timer on social media, I slave away for hours liking posts and scrolling through my newsfeed. In a digital age, social media forms a significant portion of our lives.
If you’re like me, at some point you would have looked up from your phone and wondered where the past hour had gone.
Fret not because this is a common social ‘syndrome’ that many of us exhibit. In 2019, the average person spent about two hours and 24 minutes per day on social media. This statistic is an alarming increase of 62.5% since 2012.
With these statistics, why are we unconsciously sabotaging ourselves to be victims of the addiction that social media brings?
It turns out that social media apps are specifically designed to reel you in for a good ride.
The Great Minds in Silicon Valley
Tech gurus in Silicon Valley created the classic app-business model where applications are free to use in exchange for the user’s data. To prolong users’ attention for as long as possible, applications are developed based on this intent.
As the database of users’ data increases, so does the means for more data to be harvested. In turn, this gives tech giants to harness the ability to micro-target (e.g. personalised advertisements) its users and raise revenues.
How then, are elements built into social media apps that keep us coming back for more and more?
Infinite Scrolling Mechanism
Social media apps are designed to be immersive, which produces a positive state of mind. By integrating the concept of flow onto social media platforms, social media apps aim to achieve time distortion.
The endless scrolling feature is one technique used to induce a feeling of addiction while using the app. For instance, on Facebook, the user can scroll down endlessly to surface older posts. This loop continues where earlier posts pile on top of the other.
The mere act of endlessly scrolling down gets users more immersed without allowing them to come to a natural halt. Hence, it inhibits them from considering the option of quitting or switching to another app.
Over time, this behaviour gets enhanced due to rewards that are attractive to the user, including posts such as a beautiful picture of a sunset or a humorous video.
The same principle that slot machines utilise to keep a player hooked in front of the screen is also observed in social media apps. Such a principle is called intermittent conditioning. In the context of slot machines, players are rewarded with cash (positive reinforcement) after an unpredictable number of plays (behaviour). Therefore, they are likely to continue pulling the lever of the slot machine in hopes that they will win in the next round.
Consider the “pull to refresh” feature whenever users drag and release the screen. Not only is this motion similar to pulling the lever on a slot machine, but users are also attracted to the unpredictability of the types of posts that will appear.
On YouTube, the same phenomenon is at work when ‘autoplay’ is the default. Without hassling its users to click on the play button, the next video begins at the end of every video, and viewers are automatically glued to the screen again, making it hard to stop watching.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
Social media apps tap into our social anxieties and impulses, generating what’s called the FOMO effect. App users are under the impression that reciprocation must be performed when someone has done something for them. It is the anxiety we experience when we realise that our friends are having fun without us.
A sense of urgency is thus, instilled upon us where we believe that our social anxieties are relieved when we get ourselves involved in what we’re missing out. Consequently, FOMO spurs greater usage of social media apps.
WhatsApp is a great example that nudges users to communicate fast due to its ‘double tick’ function. Two blue ticks indicate that the message has been read by the recipient and places social pressure on them to reply.
The ‘like’ function on Instagram, the ‘retweet’ button on Twitter, and ‘thumbs up’ feature on Facebook are concepts that tap into our ancient evolutionary drive to be on the constant lookout for signs of social acceptance. In palaeolithic times, humans’ survival depended on social connections. An individual who is ostracised by the tribe inherently faced lowered hunting ability and access to resources, threatening his/her chances of survival.
Avoiding such social exclusion is what drives our behaviour to look for social cues and establish social connections.
Reaction buttons such as upvotes, retweets, or likes activate similar pathways in our brains to financial rewards. Similar to WhatsApp, users are more likely to like others’ posts on Instagram when they’ve liked ours. We perceive and associate a higher number of likes with a higher level of social acceptance. A simple design to include such reaction buttons hooks us even more to our phones, prolonging the time we spent on social media.
Personalised Newsfeeds
Social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube utilise machine learning algorithms to understand what its users like (thumbs up button) but also how long they hover over a post. All these are interpreted as users exhibiting their interests in a specific area.
This method of data collection allows social media to analyse and make predictions off its data by customising news feeds based on what users personally find interesting. Since the newsfeed first appears whenever users tap into social media apps, users are immediately presented with a plethora of posts and sponsored ads of the best information, specially ‘curated’ for them. In this way, users are easily carried away in the app.
Can We Change?
Social media has replaced the traditional method of seeking and maintaining social connections in real-time. The fabric of our society thrives on instantaneous messaging and call times. It has become a significant part of our identities we find it hard to dispose of.
Albeit we’re aware that excessive uses of social media can lead to anxiety, loneliness, sleep deprivation, and in extreme cases, depression, the attention-based business model of social media platforms continues to be at the expense of our wellbeing.
That being said, will we continue being a slave to social media or will we see to a day where we’re able to optimise our time on social media apps?
Thank you for reading!
