‘The ‘engineering of addiction’ explained — 3 ways Meta and YouTube have harmed young users, according to the landmark case
On Wednesday, a Los Angeles jury found that Meta and Google were liable for designing deliberately addictive products and failing to warn users of the nature of their products.
This is huge news, a historic verdict that will shed light on hundreds of cases to come. Although the plaintiff, a 20-year-old identified only as KGM, was awarded $6 million in damages, it is the verdict itself that is most damaging, as it opens the door to many more lawsuits against tech companies.
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KGM’s lawyers, in their closing remarks, said: “How do you get a child to never hang up the phone? It’s called dependency engineering. They designed it, they put these features on the phones. They are Trojan horses: they look wonderful and great…but you invite them in and they take over.”
Why is it so difficult to put down our phone? Are social media and scrolling really as addictive as substances like nicotine and tobacco? Should we protect our children from technology, or is this a content issue that needs to be monitored by parents, rather than an app design issue? I’ll detail the scientific research behind the verdict below.
While I think it’s pretty obvious to any phone user that social media apps are addictive, there are other concerns about the effects of heavy use of digital devices on children’s brain development.
A literature review by Italian pediatricians linked digital addiction in children with depression, diet and psychological problems, as well as “sleep, addiction, anxiety, sex-related problems, behavioral problems, body image, physical activity, online care, vision, headaches and dental care.” KGM was six years old when she first became addicted to social media, according to her testimony.
German, Swedish and Dutch researchers also linked “high social media use” among adolescents to “a statistically significant change in the developmental trajectory of cerebellar volumes,” a part of the brain associated with emotional control. This could literally influence the physical development of the brain.
Another report states: “Frequent use of social media may be associated with distinct changes in brain development in the amygdala (important for emotional learning and behavior) and prefrontal cortex (important for impulse control, emotional regulation, and moderation of social behavior), and could increase sensitivity to social rewards and punishments.”
However, it should be noted that none of these findings are yet conclusive.
Below are three ways Meta and Google could have designed their platforms to encourage addictive behaviors, backed by science and quotes from the trial.
1. The dopamine cycle
In a Guardian report, Meta employees in 2020 allegedly said “oh my god, IG is a drug” in an email exchange, while a colleague responded: “Lol, I mean, all social media. We’re basically dealers.”
They are not entirely wrong. The basis of addiction lies in the hijacking of the “mesolimbic system,” the part of the brain responsible for associating certain behaviors with rewards, both natural (food, sex, play) and artificial (drugs like alcohol and nicotine, and notifications). Once the reward is obtained, dopamine is released.
A study on adolescent addiction linked activation of the mesolimbic pathway to social media use, stating that children are “often victims of a relentless ‘dopamine cycle’ created in a ‘want’ loop induced by endless feeds of social media, ‘seeking and anticipating rewards’ in the form of photo tagging, likes and comments, the latter of which are the triggers that continue to reinstate ‘want’ behavior.”
“Overactivation of the dopamine system in these individuals may further increase the risk of addictive behaviors or pathological changes leading to decreased pleasure from natural rewards.” Essentially, all you want to do is keep scrolling, just like an addict searching for a never-ending fix, because natural rewards no longer provide the same pleasure as scrolling.
According to CNN, KGM attorney Mark Lanier said in his opening statement: “This case is about two of the richest corporations creating addiction in children’s brains,” Lanier said in his opening statement. “The swipe, for a kid like Kaley, that move is a slot machine handle. But every time she swipes, it’s not for money, but for mental stimulation.”
2. The infinite scroll
Now that a swipe is a pleasure-creating tool, the next crucial tool in the addiction-creating arsenal of social media is infinite scrolling: the ability to swipe forever, continuing to activate and hijack the mesolimbic pathway for as long as the user desires. Likewise, auto-playing videos on platforms like YouTube and Netflix helps eliminate barriers and pauses, encouraging viewers to continue watching.
KGM’s lawyers point to infinite-scrolling feeds and auto-playing videos as features designed to keep people on apps, maintain their attention and encourage addictive behavior. But that’s okay, because the inventor of the scrolling feed, Aza Raskin, apologized when he unleashed this horror on the world.
3. Negative content encouraged by algorithms
Have you ever heard of “happy scrolling”? Of course not. “Doomscrolling,” on the other hand, is named that for a reason. Negativity is more addictive than positive content: a 2024 report from the University of Cambridge stated that “it has long been recognized that news-related social media posts that use negative language are reposted more, which in turn rewards users who create negative content with greater exposure.”
Combine that with the infinite-scrolling feed and addictive, casino-like nature of social media platforms, and you get doom scrolling, a constant stream of bad news, infuriating user-created content, and messages that you’ll never be enough unless you do. This, where to buy that, or look like This.
KGM used Instagram filters on “almost all” of his photos and “did not experience the negative feelings associated with his body dysmorphia diagnosis before he began using social media and filters,” according to an Al Jazeera court report.
The same scientific report cited above on brain development also states that “during early adolescence, when identities and feelings of self-worth are being formed, brain development is particularly sensitive to social pressures, peer opinions, and peer comparison.”
The main thing? Children are easily impressionable, and while negativity online is more rewarding than positivity, unlimited access to an endless stream of content designed to make users feel worse in order to increase engagement will distort their worldview. According to the jury, in this case, the responsibility lies with the designers of the algorithm.
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