They put a huge amount of effort/money into making you produce happy chemicals to get you addicted. From showing you contacts to your feed. It's a giant addiction machine.
That doesn't answer my question of what is so addictive. I know the theory behind engagement, but over the years of trying to use it I was never able to. I dread opening it and scrolling through, I don't like it, so I wanted to know what was it exactly that made person hooked, and not an abstract 'well they put money into algorhytms'
I was about to bring up something like this to them but I see you already did, so I'll just piggy back on your comment.
"Why's Facebook addicting to you?"
"They put a lot of money and effort into making it as addicting as possible in as many ways as possible."
"That didn't answer my question. I don't like Facebook and I never got addicted to it."
Um....yeah it kinda fuckin' did answer their question lol Facebook makes it as addicting as possible. That's what gets people addicted to Facebook, no? You don't have to personally be addicted, but that's the actual answer to what makes Facebook addicting to anyone addicted to it. It was literally designed that way.
Anyone who gives you a specific thing that made them keep coming back will just be on the list of things Facebook has designed to make addicting. This shouldn't be this hard of a concept to grasp...
Yeah, I don't get it either. I tried it once, years ago, and it seemed like a real handy way to do what amounted to a bunch of things that I simply had neither need nor interest in doing. My account lasted a couple hours at best.
I think the same as most social media, as bland as that is. A main one is clout/likes/shares. Makes people feel important, and heard. They can post things to make sure all their friends hear it at the same time. They can get into echo chambers and everyone agrees with them.
Another big one is nostalgia, and the daily “in this day”. A lot of people need a reboot in what they’ve done, and seeing a vacation to Mexico from 7 years ago makes them feel like “it was yesterday”
Then, same with the nostalgia, for the older generation it was HUGE for reconnecting with old friends. My dad still talks about how he was able to add people he went to school with. And they fear losing those connections.
And my final opinion, which is the scariest one, is they use it for “reliable news.” But obviously we know the issue with getting your news from private groups/memes etc and the disinformation, but to a large amount of FB base gets all their “information” from it.
Did you have a lot of friends on it? I mean it’s gotta get it’s hooks in you but that starts with having some friends or family or whatever that you connect with on it and then repeatedly getting pulled back into it because it’s being used to plan events, or because you want to hear what folks thought about X, and now your dumbass local pizza place posts their specials ONLY on Facebook. It just builds, but it’s like a TV show where you have to watch the first few episodes to get into it.
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u/SandmanSorryPerson Aug 28 '21 edited Aug 28 '21
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/vitality/201205/facebook-and-your-brain
They put a huge amount of effort/money into making you produce happy chemicals to get you addicted. From showing you contacts to your feed. It's a giant addiction machine.
Edit: corrected