Opinion
Social media addiction is about pleasures of the hunt
Summary
- The US surgeon general wants warning labels for this risk, but only human behavioural insights can give us a real solution. Thankfully, we have many scientific studies on addiction to learn from.
Vivek Murthy, surgeon general of the United States, recently proposed that all social media platforms should carry a warning that it could harm the mental health of teenagers. A similar proposal by the surgeon general that all cigarette packages carry a warning that smoking “may be hazardous to your health" is what kickstarted efforts to tackle this addiction. Will the surgeon general’s warning about social media addiction bear fruit?
The biggest problem with social media is that it is anything but social. British anthropologist Robin Dunbar was the first to do a comprehensive study of the social connections of humans. His study concluded that a human could have five intimate friends, 15 very good friends, 50 friends, 150 meaningful relationships and about 500 acquittances.
This study was done before the advent of social media and there was curiosity about how these numbers would pan out now that online platforms have changed our interactions. Dunbar found that social media has increased the number of weak ties, the count of acquittances and of those you recognize, but the number of deep personal connections has not increased.
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The worrisome statistic, though, is that close to 33% of today’s younger generation do not even have a single intimate friend. So this is possibly the loneliest generation ever in the history of mankind. Murthy, in a report, has described loneliness as an epidemic on par with tobacco use.
Loneliness is as bad for people as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. A lonely generation with their heads craned over smartphone screens, oblivious of the world around them, all alone in the big large world, is what social media has ended up creating as an online society.
As steps are taken to tackle social media addiction, one should expect pushback from the technology giants who own many of these digital platforms. As soon as warnings about the dangers of smoking began, several ‘scientific studies’ did appear to suggest that smoking is not as major a health problem as it was being made out to be. Similar studies trying to allay fears of social media addiction are bound to appear soon.
There is an irony that looms for those wanting to fight social media addiction. Today, social media is the most powerful media vehicle available to deliver any message, more so to address the younger generation. So any message about the addictive nature of social media will have to be communicated through social media itself.
Just imagine a teenager receiving a warning about the ill effects of social media while the person is fully immersed in some activity or the other on a social media platform. It seems similar to talking to a person about the dangers of smoking while enjoying a smoke.
In taking on smoking, alcohol or drug addictions, the satiability mechanism of the human body comes handy. For most people, after taking any of these addictive substances, there is some time gap before which they consume that particular substance again.
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But the brains behind social media platforms have perfected the art of making their product’s usage a continuous activity, without a break. The fact that the modern smartphone is an ‘always-on, always-with-you’ device has made that job a lot easier.
Those writing the algorithms that run such social media platforms would appear to have a very good understanding of the neuroscience of addictive behaviour. There are also learnings from studies on rats. Two sets of rats were involved in the following experiment.
One set of rats were given an assured reward of sugary water on pressing a lever. The other set were not given assured rewards. They got the sweet water on pressing the lever only once in a while.
The study showed that the first set of rats, the rodents that were given assured rewards, stopped pressing the lever after some time. But the second set of rats who received rewards intermittently, continued to press the lever.
Uncertain rewards sensitize reward pathways of the brain and promote continuous reward-seeking behaviour. This unexpectedness is integral to the way social media delivers its content. There is always an unexpectedness at the end of the next scroll of the smartphone screen.
According to brain studies, there are two chemically and psychologically distinct type of pleasures involved in an addiction. Psychiatrist Donald Klein has characterised them as the ‘pleasures of the hunt’ and ‘pleasures of the feast.’ While studying addiction, much of the focus has been on pleasures of the feast, the feelings felt after the consumption of an addictive substance.
The pleasures of the hunt are all about the high derived from desire, a sense of power and confidence in the chase for the addictive substance. The dopamine rush addicts get at this hunting stage is the real force that propels many an addiction.
Smartphone makers and social media platforms accentuate pleasures of the hunt by playing up anticipation among its users. Every ping sound of a smartphone that some message has landed in one’s inbox creates this sense of anticipation and the ensuing dopamine rush.
Also read: How a new tool identifies overuse of digital media
It might actually be a routine sales message from your credit card company. But then, the brain of the smartphone user is eagerly waiting for the next ping. It is a pleasure of the hunt.
No doubt, social media addiction should be tackled. But on closer inspection, it looks like we are dealing with a different brain game altogether.
