Facebook’s design intentionally exploits variable-reward dopamine hits to maximize user time.

Evidence

There are some chinks in the armor. For example, in 2017 Napster cofounder and one-time Facebook president Sean Parker frankly admitted that Facebook was designed to consume the maximum possible amount of users’ time and consciousness. The idea was to send you “a little dopamine hit every once in a while”—a.k.a. “variable reinforcement—in the form of ‘likes’ and comments. The goal was to keep users glued to the hive, chasing those hits while leaving a stream of raw materials in their wake.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1437

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to B.F. Skinner’s variable-ratio reinforcement schedules and to the slot-machine psychology literature this chapter invokes. — connects to: Always-on social feeds feel addictive though causation cannot be isolated from other media. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 600; Facebook data employees work continuously to influence users’ moods and behavior — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 940; Facebook’s behavior modification operates covertly at scale with no social or legal controls — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 955 (+10 more)
• DEFINE: Defines ‘variable reinforcement’ as the psychological mechanism translated into social-media design.

Broader Connections

• Variable reinforcement explains why people compulsively check email #exemplifies (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 653
• Facebook exploits the psychological needs of young people during identity formation. #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1421
• Social media’s engineered feedback loops convert normal social comparison into compulsive anxiety #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1485
• Social media design decisions prioritize profit over user benefit or democratic ideals #expands (0.72) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 718