The Surprising Origin of 4 Features That Superglue Kids and Adults to Screens
"Fnord666" writes:
In two landmark cases, social media companies have been found liable for endangering and harming children. Meta and Google are appealing the verdicts and disputing the idea that their products are addictive. But over the course of more than a decade, scientists have identified key features of social media and other apps meant to hold children's attention for as long as possible.
These features create a kind of superglue on the apps, says cultural anthropologist Natasha Dow Schull at New York University, who has pioneered research in this field. "They keep us spending more time on these apps and spending more money. They drain us of our energy and ourselves." Understanding these features offers parents a rubric for evaluating how harmful an app or device may be for kids, Schull says.
During the trial in California, the attorney bringing the case accused Meta and Google of designing their apps to behave like "digital casinos." That's an apt comparison, according to Schull's research, because major design elements of social media have surprising roots in the gambling industry.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the casino industry gradually and purposely created what many scientists consider to be the most addictive form of gambling: video slot machines. They are something like a giant app, played on a huge video screen with an ergonomic chair attached to it.
People struggling with gambling addiction often cite video slots as their game of choice, studies have found. Some people gamble on these machines for extraordinary periods of time, Schull found in her ethnographic fieldwork. They can play for 24 hours, even 48 hours straight. Some people even told Schull that they wear adult diapers to the casino so they don't have to stop gambling to use the restroom.
[...] Through her research, she uncovered four key features that, when combined together, help hold people on the gambling devices. These features trigger a trancelike or dissociative state, known as a "machine zone" or "dark flow," in which people lose track of their sense of time and place.
To Schull's surprise, around the early 2010s, the same features began to appear on phone and tablet apps, including social media, games and video-streaming platforms. "These are not normal products for kids like a pair of shoes or a toy," she says. "They create a relationship with kids."
Here are four features that create that superglue:
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