Social media platforms originally designed to help people connect with friends and share memories have now become a vital part of everyday life for most people. Thanks to the rapid expansion and popularity of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and similar platforms, people now spend more time online than ever before.

Beyond just communication, social media is a source of entertainment, validation, and even a means of earning income for people. Despite all its perks, there has been a significant increase in cases of addiction to social media in recent years.

Social media addiction doesn’t happen by accident; the companies behind these platforms design them for profit. Their goal is to keep users engaged for as long as possible. You can even calculate how much money you spend during endless scrolling on social media, losing both productive time and part of your budget without even realizing it. In this post, we will analyze how social media algorithms control user attention and fuel addiction.

Personalised Content

Have you ever wondered why it often feels like the posts you see on social media are customized just for you? That’s because they really are! Machine learning algorithms built into these platforms are designed to analyze every user interaction.

They track every post you like, share, and comment on, and they can tell how long you spend on each post. Based on this data, the algorithm curates a feed with content that aligns perfectly with your interests. 

If you frequently interact with content related to a specific topic, the algorithm will continue to recommend more content that fits your browsing profile. At the same time, if you follow certain accounts, the platform will suggest similar accounts, keeping your content streamlined.

How Personalisation Causes Addiction

This level of customisation is one of the major reasons social media feels so enjoyable for many. By showing users just what they want to see over and over again, these apps keep them in a loop. Note that personalization does not mean the platform is fixed on one type of content forever.

You will also see other content types and you get to find new content niches as well. This allows the algorithm to adjust to your preferences even if your interests change in the future, keeping you perpetually hooked.

Endless Scrolling

Three scientists, Brian Wansink, James E Painter, and Jill North, once carried out an experiment that tricked people into eating more soup by offering them a self-refilling bowl. The experiment found that the subjects ate 73 percent more soup than they would have eaten without even knowing it.

In 2006, Aza Raskin designed a simple app feature based on this principle. This resulted in one of the simplest but impactful features that allows people to endlessly consume social media content with the simple flick of their finger for as long as they want. Before this, web pages were paginated, and users had to reload new pages to get more content.

How Endless Scrolling Causes Addiction

Social media apps claim that endless scrolling just makes it easier for users to see what they want to watch. But it also has the potential to cause uncontrolled usage. Endless scrolling makes it difficult for your brain to catch up with your impulses.

You’re continuously fed more and more engaging content, so you keep scrolling for much longer than you intend to. In Raskin’s own words, “It’s as if social media companies are taking behavioral cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface.” This is what keeps people coming back for more.

Short Form Content

Research shows that the average human attention span shrank by up to 25 percent between 2000 and 2015. Currently, it stands at about 8 seconds, which is shorter than the attention of a goldfish.

Recognizing this, social media platforms now prioritize short-form content over long-form content. Apps like Instagram and TikTok push short-form content to users to encourage them to keep scrolling.

Effects of Short-Form Content on Addiction

Constantly consuming bite-sized information is like giving your brain little doses of dopamine continuously. This combination creates a feedback loop for the brain that makes it more likely to get hooked to social media content. In fact, most people now spend more than two hours daily scrolling through social media. Interestingly, it won’t even feel like a chore because it requires so little effort to consume.

Notifications

Have you ever picked up your phone to check your notifications even though you heard no audible alert? Most people do this unconsciously, and it’s one of the classic signs of addiction. Virtually all social media platforms have notifications designed to grab a user’s attention and encourage them to check their account. This is one of the leading causes of prolonged use of social media.

In the past, notifications were exclusively for messages. Now, social media apps send notifications for everything, including:

• Likes
• Comments
• Shares
• Friend requests (or suggestions)
• Posts
• And so on

Hearing the beep or vibration of your device triggers a dopamine release. This leads to instant pleasure and reinforces your behavior. Apps exploit this further by sending notifications intermittently at unpredictable intervals. This tricks the brain into randomly expecting notifications, which is why you sometimes catch yourself checking for more notifications even when there aren’t any.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

Algorithms are programmed to show users what’s trending. Virtually all platforms have a page or section of their site dedicated to trending content. These pages show the most recent and the most engaged social media posts.

This creates a sense of urgency, making it feel like you’re missing out if you’re not online. As a result, users feel pressured to stay connected and constantly engage with the most popular content.

The table below lists various psychological concepts leveraged by social media apps to get people hooked:

Conclusion

Like all addictions, the pervasive impacts of social media addiction aren’t obvious right away. Most people don’t even realise that they’re addicted, increasing their chances of falling even deeper into it. The first step to breaking free is to become aware, recognize how the algorithm works, and make conscious efforts to counteract its effects.

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