Have you ever wondered what keeps you coming back to a website, application or program? What creates the need to consume a product so often?
We know that in recent years our society has dedicated hours of the day to social networks such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you say you’ve never procrastinated by checking your feed, you’re probably lying.
From time to time, a new app appears to fight for people’s attention, and some manage to stay in the spotlight for years. But why and how are we attracted to these networks? We decided to put together some of the reasons that might explain the psychology behind addictive design.
1. User in the spotlight
Most people like to be noticed and express their own thoughts and opinions, which is exactly why social media revolves around talking about yourself. Whether through photos, videos or texts, we can expose everything about our lives: who we are, what we do, what we like.
When we show ourselves so openly for anyone to see, we expect to feel validated and welcomed. It’s natural for human beings to seek social approval, that’s what motivates them to expose themselves. When the user is placed as the focus of the product, they feel important and respected – and who doesn’t like to feel that way?
2. Possibility of reward
We’ve just pointed out that social approval is one of the main reasons why people use social networks so much. They want to feel that they are part of a group, that they are being accepted. And how is this given to them?
Likes are a very popular way of showing someone that you like what they’ve posted. They are adopted by most networks; there’s always that little like button to act as your seal of recognition. There are also retweets (Twitter’s own), shares and comments: these are all ways of rewarding someone for their efforts.
When you post a photo, for example, you don’t know how it will be received. This gives rise to anxiety about whether people will like it or not. This is where notifications have the role of inciting this curiosity even more: with each notification, you hope you’re gaining the validation you crave.
The uncertainty of the reward in the form of a like or comment or any other interaction makes the experience much more intriguing. We’re really excited about this possibility – if you knew you were sure to get a like, it wouldn’t be so much fun, it’s all about earning it!
3. Family atmosphere
We use the web to share special moments in our lives. Our trips, parties, meetings. We also use it to share our opinions on a given subject and to create connections with other people. All this ends up creating a space full of memories and we tend to become attached to that site and see it as a part of our history.
How many times have you thought about deleting Facebook but remembered all the photos and messages on there? Or remembered a friend you wouldn’t even have been in touch with if it hadn’t been for Facebook? What about Twitter, which practically documents your life for years, with details of how you were feeling at the time?
The feeling of familiarity and the emotional connection we create with social networks makes us continue to use them. It’s the feeling that we can always go back to look at memories that we wouldn’t be able to have otherwise. Implementing this link between user and product ensures that they can’t easily abandon it. Almost as if it were a digital album of your life, giving it up would be like abandoning a part of yourself.
4. Customization
People want to see what interests them. One of the most attractive aspects of using a digital product is being able to consume the topics that are relevant to you. Whether it’s Spotify, where you want to listen to the styles of music and artists you like, or Netflix, where you enter without knowing exactly what to watch and expect to be presented with a list of titles selected exclusively on the basis of the films and series you’ve watched.
On most social networks, you can follow as many profiles as you like. It’s a way of delimiting the content that will appear in your feed. Giving users this choice makes them feel in charge of their own account, allowing them to create a private universe, with all their tastes gathered in one place.
5. Specific mechanisms
Some features cause effects in the human brain that arouse users’ attention, leading them to use the product for longer.
We mentioned notifications above: they generate curiosity, which causes a certain urgency to know what they are about. The moment we see a notification, we immediately want to open it! And if we open it, we usually respond, which then leads to new notifications. Notice the vicious circle? What’s more, people don’t usually like to leave tasks unfinished, and the red notification symbol gives the idea that we have something to finish.
Another tool is infinite scrolling. People waste hours and hours scrolling because there is no specific end – only you can decide when to stop. So you feel like you have to keep seeing all the posts as they keep popping up incessantly.
Swiping down to refresh is also a mechanism that induces constant use. It’s the same logic behind infinite scrolling: you can swipe down several times to get updates all the time. It makes it easier for people to access what was posted last.
Addiction
While it’s important to keep people interested so that they use your product, one concern can’t be ignored: social media addiction. We’ve already covered what tricks are used to hold users’ attention, and now we need to reflect on the negative impacts of this psychological condition.
First of all, we need to understand what is classified as social media addiction. When someone spends most of their day on social media, extremely concerned about being logged in, posting or following what is being posted, to the point of damaging their personal and professional relationships, it is very likely that they have this condition. The Future Today Institute even included digital addiction as a relevant current issue in its 2021 Tech Trends Report, and we’ve translated it for you here.
The feeling is very similar to addiction to other chemical substances, and the symptoms are also similar. It’s possible to notice mood swings, withdrawal, conflicts and relapses. It works like dopamine or gambling: studies have shown that likes, retweets and shares, by giving the idea of reward, affect the brain in a way that causes what other drugs cause. It’s what we talked about before: these resources make us keep going back to the networks in search of social approval.
Many people turn to social media to try to find the validation they don’t have in real life, using it as a way of dealing with depression, anxiety, stress and loneliness. It turns out that the effect is exactly the opposite of what was intended: instead of being able to resolve their issues, they acquire even more problems by ignoring their real relationships, professional and school responsibilities, and their mental health.
What also happens as a result of the excessive use of networks is that people compare themselves with others. It’s easy to make your life look perfect on a cell phone or computer screen by carefully choosing what is shown, but the reality can be quite different. What this does is create unattainable standards, simply because they aren’t real, leading to more stress, anxiety and depression. In an attempt to reduce this problem, Instagram has even removed the number of likes.
Remember infinite scrolling? Its creator, Aza Raskin, says he regrets his invention, knowing that it contributed to people spending even more time on the internet. He founded an organization, the Center for Humane Technology, with the aim of reimagining how society relates to technology, seeking to minimize the negative impacts.
Another necessary concern when creating a product is not to fall into dark or harmful patterns. Darkpatterns.org provides a list of these patterns, which are tricks used to get the user to do things they didn’t intend to. Some examples are: disguised advertising, hidden costs, “friendly” spam, among others. On the site, there is even a space to share your experiences and report them.
From all this, you can see how developing an attractive product is a challenge for the designer. There is a responsibility to find the balance to ensure that the product is captivating and interesting, but does not induce a harmful relationship of addiction. The idea is to create a pleasurable and healthy experience for the user, to which they return by choice, not out of dependency.
