Social media copies gambling methods 'to create psychological cravings' | Technology | ... - 3 views
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Social media platforms are using the same techniques as gambling firms to create psychological dependencies and ingrain their products in the lives of their users
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create psychological cravings and even invoke “phantom calls and notifications” where users sense the buzz of a smartphone, even when it isn’t really there.
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you get drawn into “ludic loops” or repeated cycles of uncertainty, anticipation and feedback — and the rewards are just enough to keep you going.
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“We have to start recognising the costs of time spent on social media. It’s not just a game – it affects us financially, physically and emotionally.”
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The pull-to-refresh and infinite scrolling mechanism on our news feeds are unnervingly similar to a slot machine
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“You pull a lever and immediately receive either an enticing reward (a match, a prize!) or nothing,”
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We cannot know when we will be rewarded, and more often than not we don’t find anything interesting or gratifying, much like gambling. But that’s precisely what keeps us coming back.
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“The rewards are what psychologists refer to as variable reinforcement schedules and is the key to social media users repeatedly checking their screens,”
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phone dependency, driven by high social-media usage, can lead us to think our phone is vibrating, or that we have received a message, even when we haven’t.
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“There are whole departments trying to design their systems to be as addictive as possible. They want you to be permanently online and by bombarding you with messages and stimuli try to redirect your attention back to their app or webpage.”
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Once a habit is formed something previously prompted by an external trigger, like a notification, email, or any sort of ring or ding, is no longer needed, Eyal remarked.It is replaced or supplemented with an internal trigger meaning that we form a mental association between wanting to use this product and seeking to serve an emotional need.