Sometimes when you're using media, it's hard to stop. Lots of people even say they feel "addicted" to their phones or the apps and games they use. But is digital media actually designed to get you hooked? Let's think about how digital media does -- and does not -- help us find healthy media balance.
How do we get hooked?
Netflix and YouTube, likes and comments on social media apps, and goals and levels in online gaming increase people's use of these tools. These design features can sometimes lead us to form unhealthy habits like checking our phones obsessively and spending more time online than we'd like.
Our brains are wired to build habits. We have habits for our daily routines, like the way we brush our teeth or the things we do to get ready for school. Tech designers understand the power of habits. Their job is to get you to use their devices or tools as a habit, without even thinking about it. This makes them successful and makes them more money. This is called addictive design, which refers to features or aspects of a device or app that are intended to hook the user into frequent use.
Ask yourself: How does social media use addictive design?
Do they use feedback loops to get and keep your attention? Likes, dislikes, comments, the ability to share and view pictures, streaks, videos w/ auto play, livestreaming. These are all forms of feedback loops.
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW - Think about our media choices and the habits we form while using them is important. Good habits help us build healthy and happy lives. Bad habits can make our lives more difficult.
Addictive design is used to create many kinds of media, there is a movement to develop media using humane design. Humane design prioritizes what is good for us. It includes technology that is designed to be useful and really add value to our lives. Humane design encourages tech designers to design tools that really add value to our lives, not just get us to use the app more. Note that some apps and games can have elements of both humane design and addictive design: Some features might be helpful, and others might be a hindrance.
Making Healthy Media Choices
Much of the digital media we use incorporates addictive design, which gets us to use it more but doesn't really benefit our lives. We can make choices to use media that incorporates humane design to get the best out of media in our lives.
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