Sometimes I ask questions such as "Why Can't I Stop Pressing My Phones?", "Why am I so addicted to certain apps?", "Why can't I stop playing certain games?" and a lot I can't think of right now as to why I can't stop pressing my phones or glued to its screen.
So I decided to find out and I realised how apps developers, social networks and game makers have manipulated the human brain through behavioural psychology: they trigger our minds into performing some actions which in turn lead to more and more actions.
The Power of Push Notifications
Do you ever wonder sometimes when you have decided not to open a certain app like Instagram, Twitter , Facebook and the likes and you get something like "Dwayne likes your recent post", "View Caryl comments on your profile", these kind of notifications trigger our dopamine system and we quickly react. That app you have decided not to open, you find yourself opening it and end up wasting your precious time again. They are killing millennials like me by abusing our behavioural psychology through apps.
According to the Centre of Humane Technology
“Constantly forced to outperform their competitors, they must use increasingly persuasive techniques to keep us glued. They point AI-driven news feeds, content, and notifications at our minds, continually learning how to hook us more deeply — from our own behavior.”
This certainly shows how they are constantly tricking our brains. Another way they manipulate our minds is the "Pull to refresh" thing. Sometimes I often find myself pulling to refresh to see recent posts just as if my mind has been programmed to. Checking random posts often with no value added and that's how we the millenials spend our time everyday glued to phone screens.
Also millenials have been tricked into believing our best friends are in social media and that we need to constantly live up to the expectations of putting our everyday activities on the internet, we want to impress and be impressed. We believe fake lives we see on social media and plan our lives around such glamorous lifestyles
And when we can't live up to such lifestyles, we are anxious and depressed. Just recently this week I experienced a friend posting another friend I know things online as his own.He is trying to live the life he can't afford. The side effects are what we pay for our addiction and unconsciousness.
But there should be some way out of this and it is self discipline by:
-Putting off push notifications for a week and then after that, put on notifications for apps that only make us productive.
-Ensuring that apps that only matter are on the front screens and other ones are pushed back.
-Using apps to kill apps and manage our own time to get hold of our lives back.
-Learning to live life putting social media distractions out.
Until when we are able to control our brains and minds, we won't stop being glued to the screens.