6 ms·
"You know when you open Instagram or Twitter and it takes a few moments to load updates? That's no accident. Again, the expectation is part of what makes interm
by smitherfield 9y ago
"You know when you open Instagram or Twitter and it takes a few moments to load updates? That's no accident. Again, the expectation is part of what makes intermittent variable rewards so addictive. This is because, without that three-second delay, Instagram wouldn't feel variable. There's no sense of will I win? because you'd know instantly. So the delay isn't the app loading. It's the cogs spinning on the slot machine."
Can anyone confirm if this is true or not? Do social media apps insert `sleep()` calls on startup for gamification reasons? I've only seen that for things like save dialogs, but I also don't work in social media.
- Houshalter 9y agoIt could happen by accident. They insert a new feature into the app which increases load times a lot. It A/B tests better. Not because the feature itself is good, but just because increased load times do better.
- meagher 9y agoThis seems especially devious if it's true. (I seriously doubt it is.)
- 659087 9y agoWhat makes you doubt it? We know these companies have people working to exploit psychological quirks/flaws to increase engagement. We also know that ethical concerns are somewhere below the bottom of the list of considerations when creating/implementing new "features". Given the things we know, I'd be more surprised if this wasn't true.
- quadrangle 9y agoOh the cute naivete of your innocent optimistic doubts… This sort of thing is well-known, so doubting this particular case is not a well-founded doubt.
- blauditore 9y agoHow is this "well-known"? Do you have a source?
- quadrangle 9y agoI don't mean this exact case, I mean stuff like intentional slowing down of results. People don't trust results that come too quickly. We like to feel that the computer worked hard for it. E.g. Airline prices or TurboTax results. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/why-some-apps-use-fake-progress-bars/517233/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/why-s...
- Splendor 9y agoI stopped reading the article at this point. This is a big claim to make without any proof.
- wooshy 9y agoI also stopped at this point. Seems like an absurd assertion with no evidence.
- tomtheengineer 9y agoA more detailed article: https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-scientists-who-make-apps-addictive https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-scientists-who-mak...