Digital Hedonism
Yeah, it has gotten pretty bad. Even when I try to stay aware and moderate myself, I am still subconsciously attracted to my phone.
The thing is, even if you know why the internet works and go into it with a certain mindset, there are larger subconscious processes that can and are exploited to drive more usage.
So, the point of this blog is to look into why the internet is so powerful and how you “could” use it more intentionally. To do so, I will be taking a look into Dark Patterns (UI/UX) and Psychology.
Dark Patterns
If you haven’t heard of this term before, after you read about the examples, it will become much clearer. The general idea is that “dark patterns” are specific design choices in an application that works by targeting and exploiting psychological concepts. I want to first highlight the “dark patterns” and then go deeper into their psychological/cognitive foundations in the next section.
- The Autoscroll: TikTok, IG Reels, and Youtube Reels. Why? It prevents the user from disengaging from the platform.
- Gamification: Incentives that drive behavior like continued usage of the platform even if it isn’t helpful.
- Social Gratification: The corollary to gamification when it is applied through likes and shares. Is a video even good without likes?
Psychological Levers
All of those patterns above prey on the same thing: “short-term dopamine rewards without agency.” The fun thing with social media apps is that they take advantage of both types of conditioning: “Pavlovian (anticipation-based)” and “Skinnerian (reward-based).”
Tiktok, for example, uses Pavlovian-based conditioning to instill the drive to engage with content and crave more content. It also uses Skinnerian-based conditioning by allowing for continual access to rewards; think of each swipe to a new video as a positive electric shock.
What is dangerous here is that the two forms of conditioning easily synergize and consistently utilize each other to trap the user further. The even more dubious part of this is how there is a feedback loop exploiting cognitive biases for continuing user engagement. I mean, Autoscroll would be useless if it was just purely random content being recommended, wouldn’t it?
Still, even if you know the systematic patterns, the decision to engage with them can not be easily made without losing yourself.
Citations
Anderson, E.L., Steen, E., & Stavropoulos, V. (2017). Internet use and Problematic Internet Use: a systematic review of longitudinal research trends in adolescence and emergent adulthood. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 22, 430-454.
Gray, C.M., Kou, Y., Battles, B., Hoggatt, J., & Toombs, A. (2018). The Dark (Patterns) Side of UX Design. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Nguyen, C.T. (2018). ECHO CHAMBERS AND EPISTEMIC BUBBLES. Episteme, 17, 141-161.
Jones, F., & Skinner, B.F. (2016). The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis.
Rescorla, R., & Wagner, A.R. (1972). A theory of Pavlovian conditioning: Variations in the effectiveness of reinforcement and nonreinforcement.