Social Networks Cause User Addiction

Companies behind social networks intentionally create addiction in their users to achieve maximum financial profit, admitted former Mozilla and Jawbone employee Aza Raskin, reveals BBC.

Raskin created the infinite scrolling feature in 2006, eliminating the need to switch to the next page, a feature used by almost all applications. He emphasizes that because of this feature, users look at their smartphones significantly longer than necessary, and he feels guilty because his intention was not to create addicts.

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In contrast, he points out, many creators have deliberately designed features that create addiction. Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook employee, notes that social networks are similar to gambling, and therefore, after leaving the company in 2012, he tried to stop using Facebook, which was as difficult for him as quitting cigarettes. However, during the year and five months he spent at Facebook, he recognized that others felt the same problems.

Lea Pearlman, co-creator of the Like button on Facebook, admitted that she became addicted to the social network due to a sense of greater self-worth thanks to the number of likes. Research shows that there is a connection between excessive use of social networks and depression, loneliness, and a range of other mental health issues.

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Teenagers in the United Kingdom spend an average of about 18 hours a week on their phones, mostly using social networks.

Last year, Sean Parker, one of the founders of Facebook, publicly admitted that the company’s goal is for its users to spend as much time as possible on the social network, and that the network is based on the vulnerabilities of human psychology.

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Recent reports show that Facebook is working on features that would allow users to see how much time they have spent on the social network in the past seven days, and enables them to set a daily time limit for how long they want to spend using the network.