What is common between social apps and human habits
The article is for those, who think that there are no common things between a human habit [such as drinking coffee or smoking] and a socila app like TikTok or Instagram or Facebook.
We are having breakfast, we are feeling bored, we open facebook, we scroll, scroll, scroll and we see pics of friends, who liked and commented on our pics, we see what is happening in our city - boom 💥 we get a reward. Then in the afternoon we hit a difficult task in the office. We get frustrated and then we go out and smoke a cigarette - boom 💥 we get another reward.
How does a habit work
Habit is a human behavior which we have acquired. Habit is an action we carry out regularly and it is hard to give up.
Think of this for a moment: What we do when we enter a dark room - we switch on the light. We want to be able to see the walls, chairs, tables - the things that surround us. Or what we do when we wake up - we probably drink coffee, we want to feel more fresh. Or what we do in the morning after snoozing the mobile phone alarm - we scroll our facebook/instagram, we want to learn what we has happened, what did we miss.
In some sense our habits are series of automatic solutions and responses to situations we face regularly. But when we face some situations why we act based on our habits?
- First of all habits help our brain to decrese the level of activity and not spend much energy to react the repetitive situations.
- Secondly we enter some mental state of relief and feel satisfaction and reassurance, especially following the end of anxiety or distress.
“What we desire is not the action itself (e.g. smoking or eating or scrolling facebook feed). What we desire is the change of our mental state that will be delivered by the action”. — from Atomic Habits by James Clear
Our brain runs through the 4 steps when we are performing a habit (i.e. the action - smoking, facebook scrolling, eating…):
➡️ a cue 🔔 that triggers our brain to act. It might be boredom, frustration, notification sound, time, place, etc.
➡️ a craving 😊, which is the motivation that makes you to take an action, to do something.
➡️ a response 🎬, which is the habit, i.e. the action itself.
➡️ a reward 🎁, which you get after or during the action [or the very same “habit performance”].
In case of good habits the rewards provide benefits on their own - e.g. morning coffee gives some energy, exersising improves health, but the bad habits harm your body, health and are waste of time. But the habits also do one more important thing - habits deliver a state of relief and quick satisfaction, especially the bad ones.
Imagine this situation: we get angry on a collegue (the cue) and we go outside and light a cigarette. Under the hood we are not numbing our anger with a cigarette, and we are not even willing to inhale some shit into our lungs. In reality we are getting in the state of mental satisfaction (craving), which is delivered by our smoking habit (response). When we inhale a cigarette smoke we feel like “ahhhhh, finally…” (the reward).
Now what’s common between the human habit and a social app
We post in TikTok or Instagram or Facebook [and others] frequently not because we want to inform our friends and followers how cool we can dance, or what we are eating, or what a nice origami we just made. And when we receive a notification we grab our phones to satisfy our cravings for reading the content of the notifications and messages (the reward). We use social apps because of “hidden anticipation” of some reward as in the case of drinking morning coffee, smoking, etc. We are anticipating our friends to like, share, comment our pictures/posts - we are “expecting rewards” in those notifications.
Habits and social apps act the same way - the cue, the craving or motivation, then our response and [at the end] the final reward. And the longer and more regular we do the same things, they become automatic for us — they become habits.
“It is as hard to quit smoking as it is to click the Logout button”.
In a nutshell the one common thing between social apps and human habits (e.g. TikTok and smoking) is that using a social app is a habit by itself.
Honestly I don’t want to claim what is good and what is bad. As mentioned earlier some habits have benefits on their own, and some are harmful - and it is only you who needs to be mindful while developing some habits.
Why am I writing
Human beings, you and me as well also, are not pure rational agents, but rather complex mix of automatic and thoughtful reasoning. Interested in everything in the intersection of technology products and behavioral science, the psychology of decision-making. Exploring the consumer behavior and sharing what I have learnt.
