What Makes Social Media Addicting?

So there are a number of things that make social media addicting, but part of it is that the apps are gamified, right? They act as though a similar addiction to alcoholism or gambling, and it sets off a dopamine release that triggers this want for more. And what we’re seeing with social media companies, especially with targeting kids, is they realize that the longer they keep people on an app, the longer they keep you on their, on your iPhone or your iPad, the more addictive it becomes and the more valuable you are for their advertising. And the things that are more addictive are divisive content, sensational content, sexual content, and things that keep you in violence. And so it’s similar to a slot machine when you’re pulling the lever on the slot machine and you’re waiting for that to land and you’re wondering what is it going to land on and that anticipation is addicting. And sometimes what we found, to what we’re finding, is that delay when you’re scrolling through your feed is not because you have a slow Wi Fi connection or bad service, but it’s intentional to create that delay, to create that anticipation. Everybody likes feeling liked and especially when you are a young person, you’re growing, you’re figuring out kind of who you are, and trying to put out a certain version of yourself. And we found that a lot of these social media apps are very tricky because for younger users they especially are susceptible to feeling liked and this is their affirmation and how they get a lot of their self-esteem is when somebody hearts their post or clicks a like button for them it provides a lot of self-esteem to them. This is also a huge form of socialization for this group of individuals, especially adolescents, it allows them to feel connected to others, but unfortunately, even though certain things in the apps, seem very innocent, we have found, that the makers of the apps have intentionally created this addictive system to keep you on the apps as long as possible so that you hopefully make money for them. And it’s a real shame.