Manipulative Algorithms and Addictive Design on Social Media

Table Of Content

• Food “reward” and accumbens dopamine
• Editorial: Social media companies refuse to safeguard kids. It’s up to lawmakers now
• Is product design making us dumb?
• Opinion: My mother set herself on fire. Why do people choose to self-immolate?
• How can humane design be used to create more user-friendly products?
• Interface Design — UI/UX
• Screen-Free For A Day, Teens Try Life Without Phones

According to the 2024 Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) Topline Participation Report, pickleball has been the fastest-growing sport in America for three years straight, boasting 13.6 million players with no signs of slowing. That complex picture is less likely to get attention than Haidt’s claims because it doesn’t play as much into parental fears. After all, seeing kids absorbed in their phones, and hearing that their brains are being “rewired,” calls to mind an alien world-domination plot straight from a sci-fi film. All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication. Without the strong enforcement provisions in the Social Media Platform Duty to Children Act, some despair that the legislative effort was a waste of time. It’s worth noting the EU’s press release raises specific concerns about “the suspected absence of effective age verification mechanisms on TikTok”, which is an area the Commission’s first TikTok investigation is looking into.

Food “reward” and accumbens dopamine

For example, some alkaloids that give the plant a bitter taste cause avoidance by most species in the animal kingdom (44, 45). Nonetheless, many animal species including hominids, as well as prehistoric humans, ingested lesser amounts of toxic substances and obtained benefits for their own survival (45). This would explain the chewing of cocaine or tobacco leaves by aborigines in the Americas allowing them better physical fitness to cope with fatigue and a better chance to catch prey or find food (44). One could argue that, like our dependency on nutritive foods to survive, we were also partially dependent on certain toxic plants.

Editorial: Social media companies refuse to safeguard kids. It’s up to lawmakers now

This kind of design does not take into account the user's feelings and experiences, which is necessary for humane design. Lastly, many businesses make the mistake of thinking that humane design is only about making things look pretty or streamlined. However, appearance is only a small part of it; much more important are things like how easy it is to use your product, whether it causes any unnecessary stress or anxiety, etc. Simply put, if your design isn't actually helping users in some way, it's not humane - no matter how good it looks on the surface.

Is product design making us dumb?

Animals sensitized with one drug of abuse often show the same hyperactivity when a different drug is injected. This has been called cross-sensitization and occurs between different drugs of addiction (207). For example, rats sensitized to 9-delta-tetracannabinol displayed a sensitized behavior when morphine was injected (208). Equally, rats sensitized to cocaine are cross-sensitized to ethanol and vice-versa (209). Comparable to drugs of abuse, sugar dependent rats show cross-sensitization to drugs of abuse and the other way around.

Opinion: My mother set herself on fire. Why do people choose to self-immolate?

During prehistoric times, the excessive increase in body weight was dampened by physical activity needed in the search of food, moreover, excessive fat would mean, as a predator, lower chances of catching the prey and vice versa (29). So, even if copious quantities of food were eaten, there was a natural brake mediated by physical activity. This month, a bill to regulate social media services for children was rejected by California’s Senate Appropriations Committee without explanation. When I discuss these data in interviews the most common question is “Do you think that we have reached our saturation level and will soon stop looking at our smartphones as often? ” Sadly, my answer is that we have not reached the peak yet and I don’t see our obsessive/addictive usage abating any time soon.

Technology companies such as Facebook and Instagram have come under fire for their addictive interfaces in recent years. Critics argue that these companies use design tricks to keep users hooked on their platforms, often without their knowledge. While there is truth to this criticism, it’s essential to understand the history and trajectory of these companies to make an informed judgment. This article will explore the UI/UX design Big Tech uses and discuss the controversies surrounding them.

Tinder, Hinge 'deliberately' turn users into swiping addicts, lawsuit says - The Washington Post

Tinder, Hinge 'deliberately' turn users into swiping addicts, lawsuit says.

Posted: Mon, 19 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

That much is obvious to everybody, including the European Parliament who’ve assessed the nature and impact of addictive apps, websites, and platforms and determined that new rules must be put into place in order to combat digital addiction. The suggestion there that you need an ethicist, it suggests at least to me that they're concerned about the addictiveness of the products. In fact, Tristan himself has written about that, and that's exactly what he says. Platforms change the design and features of interaction to promote usability and engagement and reinforce user experience, so they continue to spend more time on the platform. Changes in the interface design are not just made to improve the look and feel of an app but also with the strategic purpose of keeping users engaged for more extended periods.

Interface Design — UI/UX

Examples include the usage of badges, which are virtual symbols you get by successfully completing missions or hitting milestones. For instance, if users meet their daily target of 10,000 steps, a fitness app may award them with a “10,000 steps” badge. These badges are frequently prominently displayed on a user’s profile, evidencing their accomplishments and elevating them in the app’s community. If you’re young, feeling vulnerable, or craving social affirmation, this thrill and disappointment can feel particularly distressing. If your posts aren’t ‘liked’ by others, the lack of validation might feel like social denunciation, as if nobody cares to hear what you have to say. Empowering design ensures products center on the value they provide to people over the revenue it can generate.

In addition to the clinical criteria, there are other behavioral and neurochemical attributes observed in animal experimentation that we will discuss below. Before we can make a case for sugar as an addictive substance, we must first define addiction, which is now referred to as substance use disorder (SUD). The current version of this manual known as the DSM-5 includes a section for SUD and it incorporates eleven criteria for diagnosis. In turn, these eleven criteria, by their characteristics, can be compiled into four broader groups (165) (see Table ​Table11).

Multiple studies support this concept of a direct correlation between physical inactivity, television watching hours, and obesity (8–10). A second theory is the availability and consumption of highly palatable foods, which has surged in the past few decades. Nestle reported the appearance of 11,000 new food products added to the supermarket shelves every year in 1998 (11), introducing countless new and attractive flavor combinations for food consumers. Investigations into the link between the “food environment” and obesity have led to the conclusion that ubiquitous access to relatively inexpensive and convenient “snack” foods have changed normal eating behavior, including less time spent preparing meals at home (12). Industrialization of the food supply has decreased the cost of energy dense foods by adding refined sugars, grains, and/or fats to their products (11). Consumption of these processed foods has increased in children (13) and toddlers (14).

Do I expect future findings on the adolescent brain to immediately quell parents’ fears on this issue? Brain imaging data is a fascinating way to explore interactions between psychology, neuroscience and social factors. Feel free to question whether social media is good for kids — but don’t misuse neuroscience to do so. It would bar platforms from sending notifications to children between 12 and 6 a.m. And require that social media platforms give parents the ability to change the settings on their kids’ accounts, such as turning off notifications and setting time limits on usage. Parents could allow kids to opt in to the algorithmic feed or turn off restrictions.

Lastly, it's important to think about the wider societal impact of designs and how they can be used to make positive change in the world. When businesses take these steps to create a more humane design culture, they are not only making their products or services better for users but also contributing to making the world a better place. It takes into account the user's emotional and physical needs when designing products, services, and experiences. This approach puts the user first, making sure that their needs are met in a way that is both efficient and effective.Humane design has its roots in human-centered design, which has been practiced for decades by designers across different disciplines. But what sets humane design apart is its focus on empathy and compassion as essential components of the design process. With this new perspective, designers can create solutions that not only meet users' needs but also address their emotional needs.One of the key principles of humane design is to always start with why.

For example, personal privacy and data protection rules could limit how much private data gets collected by social media companies. These rules could also restrict how the data can be accessed or used by advertisers and outside parties. Ultimately, the goal of personal privacy and data protection is to give individuals more control over their own private data.