Hooked

By  Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

Another book that helps us reduce the use of our smartphones unnecessarily, is the one authored by Nir Eyal entitled, “Hooked”.  It’s actually a book on how to build habit forming products. But we can use the same information to counter the attraction we have for these products so as not be enslaved with information and entertainment that we are bombarded daily nowadays in our smartphones.   Just how much people are hooked to their smartphones these days, a study of 150,000 people found that the average smartphone user unlocks their phone 110 times a day!  The author says, “79 percent of smartphone owners check their device within 15 minutes of waking up every morning.”

The following are the hook principles internet companies employ to get us hooked to apps:

Hook Principle #1:  Smartphone Apps Provide Immediate Relief

When you feel bored, a list of interesting tweets or Instagram photos is one‐click away.  When you feel uncertain, a list of Google search results is a few seconds away.  When you feel insignificant, you can tap the email icon on your phone to see a list of people who need you. We human beings have always felt bored, uncertain and insignificant, but thanks to our smartphones, we’ve never had a faster way to remedy these “negative” emotions.  Evan Williams, the co‐founder of Medium and Twitter, gives us a hint on the formula he and other technology companies use to make us addictive to technology, “Take a human desire, preferably one that has been around for a really long time… and use modern technology to relieve it.”

Hook Principle #2:  Smartphone Apps Offer Variable Rewards

Every time you pick up your phone, you’re in for a surprise. There is a constant stream of new content coming your way via email, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and a dozen other apps. In a list of new content, you’re bound to find an interesting idea or photo worth liking. The frequency and variability of pleasurable content inside apps keeps you hooked.

In the 1950s, psychologist B.F. Skinner put pigeons inside a box. Inside the box was a button and every time the pigeons pecked the button, they received a food pellet. The pigeons learned to peck the button when they were hungry and to stop when they were full.  Then Skinner adjusted the food pellet dispenser so that sometimes the pigeons pecked the button and received a food pellet and sometimes they received nothing. Making the reward variable made the pigeons go insane. One pigeon pecked the button more than two times a second for 16 hours straight! Sadly, human beings aren’t much different.

Hook Principle #3: Smartphone Apps Get Us to Make Small Investments

In the U.S. when researchers asked home-owners to put a large ugly sign that says “Drive Carefully” on their backyard only 17% said yes.  But when they asked another set of residents to put a small sticker on their windows that says, “Be a Safe Driver”, 76% accepted.  The interesting thing happened when the same residents were asked two weeks later.  The researchers asked if they could put the big ugly sign that was turned down previously on their home yard, and 53% accepted.  Humans by nature want to be consistent.  When you ask them for an inch you could gradually get from them a mile if they have made already a small investment.

Apps makers makes use of the small investment phenomenon to make us go back to their apps regularly.  When you open the Instagram app for the first time, Instagram asks you to add a friend. Instagram makes adding people easy because they give you popular suggestions and offer to scan your Facebook and Contact list. Instagram knows when you make the small investment needed to add one person to your Instagram account you are more likely to return to the app when they send you a notification.  The more often you return to an app, the more you invest in an app, and the more likely you are to form a mindless app checking habit.

To get unhooked from the bad habit of using our smartphone the author recommends the following to make it harder to check our phones: (1) Put a long password on your phone, so it takes time to unlock it. (2) Put your phone in a drawer under a stack of papers while you work. (3) Put your phone in another room when you go to sleep.  Furthermore, turn off all non‐essential app notifications. The only app notifications on your phone should only be the to‐do list reminders and calendar events. If an application can’t buzz, ding, or flash messages at you, that app is less likely to get you to use it.

When you understand how product developers design apps to hook you, and what you can do to unhook yourself, you are well on your way to reclaiming your ability to focus and being more productive.