Digital addiction: how technology keeps us hooked

The World Health Organisation is to include “gaming disorder”, the inability to stop gaming, into the International Classification of Diseases. By doing so, the WHO is recognising the serious and growing problem of digital addiction. The problem has also been acknowledged by Google, which recently announced that it will begin focusing on “Digital Well-being”.

Although there is a growing recognition of the problem, users are still not aware of exactly how digital technology is designed to facilitate addiction. We’re part of a research team that focuses on digital addiction and here are some of the techniques and mechanisms that digital media use to keep you hooked.

Compulsive checking

Digital technologies, such as social networks, online shopping, and games, use a set of persuasive and motivational techniques to keep users returning. These include “scarcity” (a snap or status is only temporarily available, encouraging you to get online quickly); “social proof” (20,000 users retweeted an article so you should go online and read it); “personalisation” (your news feed is designed to filter and display news based on your interest); and “reciprocity” (invite more friends to get extra points, and once your friends are part of the network it becomes much more difficult for you or them to leave).

Some digital platforms use features normally associated with slot machinesSome digital platforms use features normally associated with slot machines

Technology is designed to utilise the basic human need to feel a sense of belonging and connection with others. So, a fear of missing out, commonly known as FoMO, is at the heart of many features of social media design.

Groups and forums in social media promote active participation. Notifications and “presence features” keep people notified of each others’ availability and activities in real-time so that some start to become compulsive checkers. This includes “two ticks” on instant messaging tools, such as Whatsapp. Users can see whether their message has been delivered and read. This creates pressure on each person to respond quickly to the other.

The concepts of reward and infotainment, material which is both entertaining and informative, are also crucial for “addictive” designs. In social networks, it is said that “no news is not good news”. So, their design strives always to provide content and prevent disappointment. The seconds of anticipation for the “pull to refresh” mechanism on smartphone apps, such as Twitter, is similar to pulling the lever of a slot machine and waiting for the win.

Most of the features mentioned above have roots in our non-tech world. Social networking sites have not created any new or fundamentally different styles of interaction between humans. Instead they have vastly amplified the speed and ease with which these interactions can occur, taking them to a higher speed, and scale.

Addiction and awareness

People using digital media do exhibit symptoms of behavioural addiction. These include salience, conflict, and mood modification when they check their online profiles regularly. Often people feel the need to engage with digital devices even if it is inappropriate or dangerous for them to do so. If disconnected or unable to interact as desired, they become preoccupied with missing opportunities to engage with their online social networks.

According to the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom, 15m UK internet users (around 34% of all internet users) have tried a “digital detox”. After being offline, 33% of participants reported feeling an increase in productivity, 27% felt a sense of liberation, and 25% enjoyed life more. But the report also highlighted that 16% of participants experienced the fear of missing out, 15% felt lost and 14% “cut-off”. These figures suggest that people want to spend less time online, but they may need help to do so.

At the moment, tools that enable people to be in control of their online experience, presence and online interaction remain very primitive. There seem to be unwritten expectations for users to adhere to social norms of cyberspace once they accept participation.

But unlike other mediums for addiction, such as alcohol, technology can play a role in making its usage more informed and conscious. It is possible to detect whether someone is using a phone or social network in an anxious, uncontrolled manner. Similar to online gambling, users should have available help if they wish. This could be a self-exclusion and lock-out scheme. Users can allow software to alert them when their usage pattern indicates risk.

The borderline between software which is legitimately immersive and software which can be seen as “exploitation-ware” remains an open question. Transparency of digital persuasion design and education about critical digital literacy could be potential solutions.

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By Raian Ali / Associate Professor in Computing and Informatics, Bournemouth University

Raian is an Associate Professor in Computing in the Department of Computing and Informatics, Faculty of Science & Technology, Bournemouth University, UK. He received his PhD in Software Engineering from University of Trento, Italy. He worked as a post-doctorate research fellow at the University of Trento and then Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research, University of Limerick, Ireland. His research is focused on the engineering of social technologies, i.e., the systematic design of software-based solutions for social requirements and the governed and responsible integration of such solutions into their usage environment.

Examples of particular topics of interest include the engineering of digital motivation solutions (Gamification, Persuasive Technology, Incentive Centred Design, etc.) within a business information system, the engineering of transparency requirements in enterprises as well as the design of systems which are receptive and responsive to the feedback of their users, preferably called citizens.

Raian has a keen interest in studying Digital Addiction which he defines as a problematic relationship with digital media characterized by properties such as being excessive, obsessive, compulsive, impulsive and hasty. He focuses on the principles, methods and tools needed to engineer addiction-aware technology able help people to predict, realize and combat addictive usage styles.

As a social responsibility for software and technology engineering, he is advocating a policy change in the production of digital media so that it helps people to make informed decisions about their usage. He would also like to see more public awareness of the potential reasons and side-effects of the obsessive usage of technology and ability for self-assessment exercises around it.

He has been a holder of a European FP7 Marie Curie Grant on the Engineering of Socially-Adaptive Systems (the SOCIAD Project 2013-2017) and is now leading the EROGamb project funded by GambleAware and Bournemouth University and meant to enable more intelligent and real-time behavioural awareness techniques to prevent and combat problem gambling. Raian is a founder and coordinator of the Engineering and Social Informatics Research Group (ESOTICS) at Bournemouth University.

By Emily Arden-Close / Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Bournemouth University

Emily Arden-Close is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Bournemouth University. She completed her PhD in Health Psychology Research and Professional Practice at the University of Southampton, followed by research posts at the Universities of Sheffield and Southampton, and a mixed academic post at the University of Southampton. She is a registered Health Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Emily's research focuses on assessing and improving health and quality of life in chronic illness, including developing digital interventions to improve health. She has worked on a Cancer Research UK funded grant looking at sperm banking before cancer treatment, and an Asthma Research UK funded grant which developed a breathing training intervention for patients with asthma, the results of which were published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Emily has expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research, and in design of questionnaires and randomised controlled trials. She brings to her work both awareness of behaviour change techniques and a person-based approach to involving users in the development of digital interventions.

Emily's work has been funded by Prostate Cancer UK and the NIHR National School for Primary Care Research. She is a co-applicant on the EROGamb project, funded by GambleAware and Bournemouth University. This aims to use intelligent and real-time behavioural awareness techniques to prevent and combat problem gambling, which has been classified a public health issue.

By John McAlaney / Principal Academic in Psychology, Bournemouth University

I am a Chartered Psychologist, Chartered Scientist and Senior Lecturer in Psychology. I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Stirling, my MSc at the University of Strathclyde and then my PhD at the University of West of Scotland in 2007. My PhD was on the topic of social psychology and substance use, looking particularly at misperceptions of peer norms. Following this I worked on an AERC funded post-doc position at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine before moving onto a lecturing post at the University of Bradford in 2008. I joined the Department of Psychology at Bournemouth University in 2014.

(Source: theconversation.com; June 12, 2018; https://tinyurl.com/yabagd8f)
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