eli5: Why is social media so addicting?
In: 5
To the best of my understanding…
Humans are basically the same animal as tens of thousands of years ago. Your brain is wired to “reward” you for things that would normally be critical for your survival, reproduction etc.
Social media is very new and the incentives for the platforms are to keep you hooked as much as possible because attention spent on the platform means more money. So basically everything is done in such a way that it will try to hack that primitive brain of yours. Notifications, likes, shares, infinite scroll, engagement in the comments and so on trigger those rewards from your brain.
As long as the platforms have new posts, news, videos to keep you engaged (and maybe enraged), you will keep refreshing because there’s always something new to capture your attention.
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