So you think cigarettes are bad? |
A jury in Los Angeles may have done for social media what early lawsuits did for Big Tobacco. The jury of the recent landmark case K.G.M. vs. Meta and Google found the owners of Instagram and YouTube negligent for conduct that raises a question the country is grappling with: What if app designs do not merely entail potential hazards, but are created deliberately to be harmful?
Platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are engineered to exploit what Judson Brewer, a Brown University neuroscientist, psychiatrist and addiction researcher, calls the "strongest type of reinforcement learning known": intermittent reinforcement. Cigarettes provide a predictable satisfaction to a craving.
But unlike cigarettes, social media is constantly being redesigned to better capture and hold our attention. Documents from a 2024 lawsuit filed by Kentucky's attorney general against TikTok illustrate how TikTok carefully tracked engagement metrics to inform design features such as continuous autoplay and algorithmically tailored content.
As a clinical psychologist who assesses a person's technology habits, I often find that technology overuse is closely intertwined with mental health concerns as a symptom of underlying struggles and as a primary driver of psychological distress. I also find that individuals are often ashamed of their relationship with technology and have little to no success managing it without professional help.
And modern parents are generally not well-positioned to save teenagers from tech habits. Adults need to address their own compulsive phone use so they can better make the case to their children.
Breaking a habit requires operating on the same reinforcement learning processes that created it. Research shows that people can break compulsive habits by working with those reward systems, mindfully attending to urges and gradually becoming disenchanted with the reward itself.
Try to notice the pang of anxiety that often precedes a reach for the phone or tap of a social media app. Pay attention to what mindless scrolling actually feels like. Notice the "reward" you are receiving and reflect on whether it is a worthwhile one. If distraction from anxiety or momentary stimulation is the "reward" you believe you are getting, are you actually getting it? If so, for how long is it helpful?
The aim is to prove to yourself that the actual payoff does not match expectation. Anxiety does not always have to lead us to our phones. We can notice the anxiety and decide how to respond to it, or whether to respond to it at all.
Cigarette smoking did not decline sharply only because people suddenly became more sophisticated about treating addiction. It declined because it was treated as a public health issue, with widespread mandatory anti-tobacco messaging and government regulations concerning who could smoke and where.
We have similar options against social media. Our government could impose age restrictions. It also could set design limits, such as on autoplay or algorithmic amplification. Companies could also be required to disclose how they track and manipulate engagement metrics.