Social media and addictive design features - and why teens brains are primed to respond #gambling

So teenagers brains are wired to find social media addictive. And here's why. So social media platforms use something called addictive design features. So anyone's going to find them really interesting to use, but teens brains are going to feel that pull more than most people. And here's the thing, it's happening because teens brains are preparing to be an adult. And there are some incredible changes that are happening. So they have to learn about what's good and what's bad. And socially acceptable. They have to learn about, you know, empathy and, you know, how to interact with other people. you know, they're testing boundaries. They they're learning how essentially how to navigate life and how to navigate the world and how to be a good person that people actually like to be around, right? And the brain does something that's really clever to make that process work really efficiently. So, their reward system in their brain becomes more responsive. So, things that are exciting feel really good, especially when those rewards come in the form of social approval. So, like if someone says something that they like about you or that's going to feel really good. And it also means that rejection feels especially painful. So you pretty quickly learn about what is good and also what offends other people. Now on top of that, the prefrontal cortex is still developing. So that means that inhibitory control is still developing. That just means basically that it's harder to say no to things as well. And that used to be something that happened relatively rarely in the scheme of things. Like how often does someone say something nice about you? Um you know that might happen maybe once a day. You get that feedback from people. Anyway, enter social media where you get social approval constantly in the form of likes. So, our brain never evolved with that kind of stimulation. So, of course, you got to be drawn in. And then these social media platforms use something called intermittent reward, which is basically a design principle used by gambling, right? To make sure that you're releasing dopamine and you're getting hooked on scrolling and seeing content that you like. So, if I likened it to using a slot machine, if scrolling and seeing videos that I like and seeing a video that I love suddenly is a bit like getting a dollar, and then $5 for a specially cool video, then to a teen's brain, it feels more like $2, and then $10 when their brain registers and sees a really cool video. Now, I realize the irony of me sharing this on one of those social media platforms, but I think it's a really good and important thing to remember is that if you're not paying for a service, you probably are the product on social media. Your attention is the commodity because the longer that you are on the platform, the more ads they can show you, which generates loads of revenue, right? And if you wanted to make these platforms more brain friendly, the platform wouldn't actually be that platform anymore. Because those principles of addictive design are inherently part of how that platform works. And then if you couple that with the fact that young brains are really adaptive and good at learning, it's really easy to develop good habits, but also bad habits.