Do you ever wonder why you keep coming back for your phone, and your desire to check notifications compels you to reach out for it every time?
Something about our phones makes us so attached to them, and whenever we don’t have them around, we worry about all the things we could be missing out on, like messages and emails.
Why does it feel so rewarding to see that growing number of reactions and comments to your recent post?
I think I am going crazy, or am I? Are you?
From How ‘Gamification’ of Everything Is Manipulating You (and How to Recognize It):
Nir Eyal is an investor and author who spent his career in video games and advertising. In his book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, he lays out the simple reason companies use gamification tactics: They want you to get hooked on their products. It’s not “addiction” in a clinical sense, but it’s close. It’s conscious manipulation designed to get you to connect an endorphin rush with the use of a product.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with making consuming a product or doing a job “fun,” but when marketers and employers are hacking our pleasure centers in ways we don’t fully recognize, that’s manipulation, and that’s not really a game.
No, I am not addicted to my phone, but it’s close.
It feels like I am playing a game I don’t know what the rules are anymore.
Who checks their online banks late at night anyway?
Why do we keep searching for something to do on our phones when we could have used the same time doing things that promote growth and well-being, like reading a book and spending moments with the people we care about?
jessa 