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How Technology Gets Us Hooked
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How Technology Gets Us Hooked

From a young age, humans love to press buttons that light up and make a noise. The thrill of positive feedback lies at the heart of addiction to gambling, games, and social media

Adam Alter
The Guardian, 2017
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Recommendation

Why does the little like button below your latest Facebook post make you keep checking your profile? Because you never know how many likes you’ll get. Unpredictable feedback motivates people, says Adam Alter, a professor of psychology and marketing at New York University. He explains that as opposed to substance addictions, behavioral addictions hijack human traits that are in and of themselves desirable, such as the drive to improve and to grow. However, addictive technologies may employ these traits toward destructive ends, such as getting you to spend long hours playing video games or waste money on slot machines. getAbstract recommends Alter’s essay on the psychology behind addictive technologies to educators, social activists and any one tempted to check their Facebook feed before reading on. 

Take-Aways

  • In his 1971 pigeon experiment, psychologist Michael Zeiler found that randomly dispersed rewards motivated pigeons to peck at a button two times more often than predictable feedback.
  • Similarly, humans get easily hooked on unpredictable feedback – such as the number of likes someone receives after posting a picture on Facebook.
  • Celebratory sound and light effects at casino slot machines provide rewards that keep gamblers playing even when they are on losing streaks.

About the Author

Adam Alter is an associate professor of marketing and psychology at New York University’s Stern School of Business and the author of Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked.

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