YouTube & Social Media Addiction
- Fb status, WhatsApp status, Instagram posts and tweets seem to satisfy esteem needs and love & belongingness need.
- Seeing pictures of happy people enjoying their lives, which creates sadness and jealousy because your life doesn’t seem as grand
- Lack of “likes” to your post, resulting in feelings of disappointment and decreased self-esteem
- Political posts that you don’t agree with leads to continuous conversations
- “Feeling like you can never keep up with what everyone else has” and “Being directly attacked about a message or picture you posted” can happen
- Your Brain LOVES Social Media Notifications: Whenever you see a notification on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media sites, your brain releases a small amount of dopamine. This makes you feel better on a chemical level. Each time you see a text on your phone or a comment notification, your brain gets excited – similar to what your pet experiences when he or she hears a treat bag open up. This is what triggers the addiction and why it is so easy to fall into.
- Social Media Gives You A Sense Of Self-Worth: When you see someone liking your picture or replying to a comment you made, you naturally feel better about yourself. In theory, this makes you feel like you have a greater sense of self-worth. Note the term “theory.” What is actually happening is that you’re relying on your phone and computer for social interaction instead of engaging with your peers in person. At the end of the day, you may feel like you have no friends at all because the only time you interact with them is online. This will lower your self-esteem instead of raising it.
- YouTube platform is estimated to be second only to Google in web traffic, and 70% of what users watch is fed to them through recommendations.
- YouTube first compiles a shortlist of several hundred videos by finding ones that match the topic and other features of the one you are watching. Then it ranks the list according to the user’s preferences, which it learns by feeding all your clicks, likes, and other interactions into a machine-learning algorithm.
- YouTube premium is introduced to have an ad-free experience.
- Smart TV /Android TV introduction leads more usage of YouTube.
Psychologists in the building of video games/social media
Game designers with the help of psychologists have been refining their techniques for decades to build ever more engaging and enjoyable experiences that drive specific player behavior. Their techniques are rooted in a deep understanding of player psychology and have built an incredible set of mechanics that they repeatably leverage to design addicting games. They look at the psychological variables such as Motivation, Player Types – Personality( Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, Killers) Achievement and Envy.