People are spending more time on smartphones and social media. Overuse of social media could lead to negative consequences for health, work and relationships. As brands have moved from using the mere-exposure effect to experiential marketing, more consumers have been hooked into frequent use. The thousands of whispers have been multiplied by billions into a deafening roar of smartphones and social media.
Consumers can stay in touch with the people and brands they love, meeting new ones along the way. Marketers can reach consumers in their home, at work, in the car and anywhere they happen to take their devices—which, for many, is everywhere. As technology has made communication easy and life convenient, it has placed a two-by-five-inch glowing screen at the center of both. Globally, the average adult spends two hours per day on social media networks , Social Media Week reports, up from 15 minutes per day in Even if this latter number remained static, that would mean a lifetime average of five years and four months on social media—a number surely higher in the U.
In this ecosystem, demand for a new kind of rehabilitation has emerged. Facilities, such as reSTART Life in Washington state and Paradigm Malibu in California, have popped up across the country to treat social media and technology addiction in children and adults.
Humans are social animals who ache for connection with others. Social media interactions are positive reinforcement, he says, bringing favorable effects and drawing users back again and again.
Enduring Principles , says users are hooked on this social feedback, longing for the dopamine high it creates. An example of network individualism at work is someone posting for emotional support on Facebook when a loved one is sick; those friends who respond may not be lifelong friends, but they may give an on-demand bandage for an emotional wound.
Social media seems to walk the line between a way to socialize, an annoying habit and an addiction. To find the ethical line, we must first look at how social media can adversely affect people. The Dark Side It would be fallacious to say social media or smartphones are a net negative for society, as many studies have shown the power and positivity of human connection on these platforms.
However, as Aristotle said in The Nicomachean Ethics: Thus, there are shared traits between the digital world and drugs, but it may be unfair to say a social network like Facebook or Twitter is tantamount to a drug like cocaine or alcohol, as posited by recent news headlines covering this study.
Become a Certified Digital Marketer Today! Increase your marketability, grow professionally and feel accomplished with your new AMA Digital Marketing Certification! Take the free practice exam and prove your expertise. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than eight people are killed and 1, are injured each day from an accident involving a driver distracted by screens. For scale, this is just less than one-third of the number of people killed or injured from accidents involving alcohol.
Companies want consumers to be clicking from page to page, to be interrupted and distracted. Products by brands such as Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Google are almost irresistibly entertaining on their own.
Then, factor in brand-sponsored commentary, games, videos, posts, contests, images, virtual-reality simulations, notifications and messages—all optimized by personalized consumer data—and you have something far more transfixing than any TV show or movie. But does this level of consumer absorption make the product addictive or simply a habit? How to Build Habit-Forming Products , says a habit—which can be good or bad—is an action performed with little or no conscious thought.
Addiction, on the other hand, is always bad and defined by Eyal as a persistent and compulsive dependency that actively harms the user. Similarly, Roberts sees behavioral addiction as any action a person continues to perform despite negative consequences.
Where they differ shows their biggest disagreement: A matter for marketers, then, is what role brands are playing in the increased consumption of social media. Are brands simply practicing good marketing or are they taking advantage of their advanced knowledge of what makes the average human brain tick?
Could the virtue of good marketing—which as Aristotle noted lies in power—turn into a vice? The theory works like this: The more a brand exposes itself to consumers on TV, in magazines, in newspapers or on billboards, the more consumers grow familiar with the brand. Exposure and familiarity mean increased sales.
Consider how rarely you see billboards or ads for Snapchat or Facebook. How do brands win monopoly of the mind? Eyal breaks down the four basic steps of the hook model: The hook for rewards becomes more enticing on a variable schedule instead of a fixed schedule; Eyal says this is the same psychology at work as pulling the handle of a slot machine.
The best example of this may be the social media newsfeed, which users continuously scroll through and pull down to refresh. What pulls the hook model together is investment, the final step of experiential marketing, which Eyal says can only be done by interactive products. Michael Quinn, author of Ethics for the Information Age and dean of the College of Science and Engineering at Seattle University, says data collection and privacy is the biggest issue in digital ethics today.
These individual profiles are, in turn, used to appeal and sell the experience to consumers by social media platforms, third-party aggregators and brands. However, not every brand sets out to be a peddler of an addictive product. Even so, he says companies like Apple and Google now have an ethical responsibility to reduce intermittent variable rewards in exchange for a less addictive reward system through better, more humane design. The Difference and the Line For Eyal, the ethical line between habit and addiction is rather dark.
He believes marketers must be allowed to make good products that hook consumers, especially with innovative technology. Brands in the digital realm know who the addicts are because of the data they collect. In his introduction to marketing classes, Roberts tells students that marketing is all about behavior modification, or getting people to do what you want them to do. After all, the understanding of the human brain has never been better. And maybe that needs to be rethought.
In the end, Roberts believes marketers must act ethically, and consumers must take responsibility for their own actions, habits and addictions. The thought brings him back to another Marketing talking point: Let the buyer beware.
There are six signs of behavioral addiction—which can include technology, sex or gambling—according to Roberts. A behavior becomes deeply ingrained within a routine. Smartphones lie next to the bed, social media is swiped daily. Users get a feeling of giddiness or anticipation with each notification, comment or buzz.
People feel an increasing need to have a bigger dose, i. Stress, anxiety, sadness or panic are the touchstones of separation from a behavioral addiction; technology is no exception. Does smartphone use cause arguments with friends or lovers? Are you texting and driving? Have you ever unsuccessfully attempted to stop or cut back on use of technology?
Are you addicted to smartphones or social media? Marketers are also investing a lot of time at work in social media, according to Social Media Examiner.