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Social media, also known as SNS (social networking systems), and other digital products seem to have a firm grasp on our society. I know, many of us are tired of hearing that technology is rotting our brains or that we should go on digital detoxes. But rather than ramble about everything people already know, I will explain how much people use this form of technology, why they use it they way they do, and most importantly, how companies have control over the users’ behavior.
Author Nancy Colier tells the New York Times that people now check their phone about 150 times a day, which is about every six minutes. She adds that 46% of smartphone users say that their devices are something “they couldn’t live without.” While our digital devices can be extremely useful to us, they can also distract us from taking the breaks our nervous system needs. “We’re wired and tired all the time,” she says, “even computers reboot, but we’re not doing it.” The fact is that these technologies are far too prevalent in our societies to just drop them cold turkey. According to the Pew Research Center, 77% of Americans use smartphones, 69% have social media, and 51% own a smart tablet of some sort. That report was released in the beginning of 2017, and the numbers have undoubtedly increased by now. Just to give you an idea of how fast technology and media use can increase, the number of Facebook users jumped 566% from 2007 to 2008.
So where does the bad stuff come in? With increased use of technology comes increased side effects. Internet Addiction Disorder is said to affect 8.2% of people in Western cultures, though some say this number could be as high as 38% (Christina Gregory, PhD). It affects the amount of grey and white matter in the prefrontal lobe, which is responsible for detail, attention, and prioritization of tasks, something we all seem to find difficult ever since smartphones popped up. While IAD isn’t an official diagnosis in the DSM-5, nomophobia is. Nomophobia, or no-mobile phobia, is a situational phobia in which people have a “fear of being out of mobile phone contact” because of losing connectedness and access to information.
While it’s easy to feel guilty about overindulging with digital devices, it’s not all up to our will. In fact, the fact that we think we have free will over how much we can control ourselves is actually a tactic that companies use when design addicting technologies, but that is something I will get into later. Jonathon Edwards once said that “we believe in free will because we know about our behavior but not about its causes.” For example, we are susceptible to variable ratio awards which is when a reward is given at unpredictable times. In anticipation of this reward, our brains release dopamine, the pleasure hormone, as noted by a psychologist on the podcast, Brain Coffee. As users scroll endlessly in search of a meme that will make them laugh, they are falling into what’s called rewards of the hunt, a variable reward system in which “the need to acquire physical objects is part of our brain’s operating system” (Eyal 2014). Another variable reward is rewards of the tribe, which explains that our brains are wired to seek rewards that make us feel accepted and attractive (Eyal 2014). So feeling good about getting likes on an Instagram posts isn’t just users being selfish, but it is the brain substituting a necessary real-life connectedness with an online one. Brain Coffee even hypothesizes that our brains may release oxytocin, the love hormone, when feeling important in the digital community. The last reward is rewards of the self which are fueled by “intrinsic motivation” to assign value and importance to ourselves. This doesn’t mean that we are all narcissistic egomaniacs, although narcissists and egocentrism do make users more vulnerable to developing to internet addiction (Kuss 2011).
In fact, there are multiple factors that may make us genetically predisposed to addiction. Having lower levels of serotonin and dopamine makes one more susceptible to habits that provide those hormones. Thus, people with depression and anxiety are more likely to experience internet addiction. Dr. Joseph F. Chandler explains that when one has anxiety, they are hypertuned to their surroundings. In that case, “slipping through time with something pleasurable can be very inviting.” This pleasurable thing may very well be a minute of escapism with our phones or games. A review of the online psychological literature on online social networking and addiction explains that extraverts may use SNS for social enhancement whereas introverts may use it for social compensation. Going back to what Ms. Colier said about rebooting our brains, it is true that we need breaks from technology. This is because our nervous system is on constant fight or flight mode otherwise. Psychologist Larry Rosen at CSU Dominguez Hills explains that when people are away from their phones, the brain releases cortisol which triggers the fight or flight response to danger. Users feel a compulsion to check their phone in order to get rid of that anxiety. We even sometimes feel “phantom vibrations,” the feeling that our phones are buzzing when they’re really not. These are just tingling neurons, but this shows how deep digital addiction can go.
Finally, how do companies take advantage of all this knowledge to get users hooked? Let’s start with variable ratios and rewards of the hunt. We see this all of the time with infinite scrolling versus pagination. Apps like Twitter and Facebook make it easy to keep scrolling through a vortex of endless content until users don’t know when to stop. Other platforms, like Google search, utilize pagination, which gives users a visual cue to click to see the next page of content (Vox). Similarly, you have been using visual cues such as links to hop from one medium to another while reading this essay. Often this is when we realize that we should probably get off of our phones: when you’ve come full circle back to Instagram for a third time. They also utilize the pull to refresh feature which (1) makes users feel like they have agency in reloading their feed and (2) mimics a slot machine maneuver, making users anticipate the fresh new content that may be rewarded. Novelty is an exciting stimulus. Twitter also uses this when opening the app and making users stare at a blue screen. No matter how fast or slow one’s connection is, the app is blue for a moment and then the white bird pulsates before revealing fresh new content. This moment is a critical period when the brain is releasing dopamine in anticipation. Users are highly unlikely to close an app during that time.
SNS apps in general do not function as traditional communities but rather as “networked individualism” so that each connection is self-perpetuated. So when rewards of the tribes comes into play, companies can easily bank on that fact that users will want more followers and more attention. This doesn’t only happen via likes and other messages from real humans, but from notifications in general. Originally, notifications were meant for people to use their phone less, but now, apps are always sending out notifications, simulating rewards of the tribe and making the users feel important (Vox). Furthermore, the color of notification bubbles is typically red because our eyes are attracted to warm colors. Apps even redesign logos to catch the user’s eye.
One particular app called “Two Dots” frequently changes the color of its icon to lead users to open the app. It even utilizes gamification by making the users open the app and play before a certain time (before time runs out). Gamification is another technique used to pull in users. Dr. Chandler explains how gamified platforms are designed to suppress your perception of time. Tinder even gamifies finding love by making you swipe in hopes that the next one might be the one. Apps like Duolingo and Snapchat gamify by utilizing streaks so that the user is invested in coming back to the app. People even compete or show off how long their snapchat streaks are, as if they are showing off high scores.
The point is: technology is addicting. But it’s not all the user’s fault. Sure, we all have a responsibility to moderate our technology and media use, but there are biological factors that companies capitalize on to make moderation as difficult as possible. Navigating social media has become easy and fast. Very fast. But what do we give up for this speed? You tell me.
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