IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020 - 67

At the most basic level, a good product or service
should be appealing, even to the point of being addictive, and SM is no exception. In any company that is
committed to delivering the best product, employees
will work hard to make the product or service more
attractive to customers. Food manufacturers constantly
research how to make their products more enjoyable,
devising a chemical and sensorial "bliss point" in snack
foods that make consumers unable to stop eating [39].
Media companies across the spectrum, from books to
video and music, look for memes that will grab the reader's, viewer's or listener's attention and make them want
to consume more of that medium [40]. As [7] puts it "a
good customer is an addicted one."
Where regulation has tried to limit consumption (for
example by forcing manufacturers of packaged food to
list serving sizes and nutritional information), both manufacturers and consumers have worked hard to circumvent or ignore such limits. Manufacturers routinely sell
food in packages listing a ridiculously large number of
ridiculously small serving sizes; some consumers happily eat an entire such package as a single serving. Netflix
users freed from the tyranny of weekly episodes are
happy to binge-watch entire seasons of a show in one
sitting, even if that sitting stretches over the better part
of a weekend (or week).
To be fair, the fact that online games and SM platforms are so addictive has served many socially beneficial purposes, aside from the original goal of providing
entertainment or social connection. For teens, especially those living in areas plagued by violent gangs or war,
using SM is a safer alternative to spending time in public
places, and the healthy social interactions on SM are
beneficial for connecting with others and enjoying life
[17]. A study at the Nationwide Children's Hospital in
Columbus Ohio showed that using virtual reality games
to distract patients suffering from chronic pain can help
manage pain with reduced levels of medication [7].
Beyond product improvement efforts, the second reason why addictive design is likely to continue and to
increase is the pressure of competition. The company
that delivers the most addictive and attractive product
or service gains market share. A company that chooses
to deliberately limit the addictive nature of its products
or services will lose market share to competitors that do
not have such scruples. As mentioned earlier in the context of the U.K. age verification law for pornography
online, when legislation sets limits for legitimate companies, it allows unscrupulous rivals operating outside the
jurisdiction of the law to take advantage of the reduced
competition. If the U.S. government were to regulate
Facebook, any limits on use or reductions in appeal of
the Facebook platform might push users to use an alternative SM site operating outside U.S. jurisdiction.
MARCH 2020

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Finally, the third reason why designing for addiction
will continue to increase is because using SM feels good
and satisfies a consumer need (more accurately, a strong
want). The market pull is a key part of why SM is addictive in the first place. At the deepest level, SM is a reflection of two very strong human drives: the desire to
connect with others and the desire to show one's social
status, both arising from the social nature of humanity.
Given the long evolutionary history and the strength of
these two human drives, it is unlikely that SM addiction
can be addressed without wholesale changes to human
nature itself.

Combination of Approaches Needed
Having reviewed the facts, it might be apparent that SM
addiction is a problem, yet not one to be easily solved,
and certainly not one to be solved with legislation
alone. Historically, we have not succeeded well in fighting addiction. The 1919 U.S. National Prohibition Act is
a classic example of a failed attempt to control alcohol
abuse. More recently, the ongoing war on drugs has
fueled many wars, as well as the development of many
novel designer drugs, but has failed to keep illegal
drugs off the street. SM is likely to be no different. To
make an impact, a combination of approaches will be
needed, including legal, technological, and educational. On the other hand, even the best combination of
available means might not solve the SM addiction
problems completely.
A case in point is the tobacco industry, showing how a
product designed to create addiction will persist despite
regulations limiting its consumption, despite efforts to
educate users and potential users about its danger,
despite strong price signals designed to reduce consumption (taxes), and despite societal pressures destined to
lower consumption. Clearly, reducing SM addiction will
require just as many and as varied efforts, possibly with
similarly slow results. Fighting addiction is an ongoing
battle that involves all of the means available. What
appears to be working for tobacco is simply the passage
of time, which tends to change cultural norms and make
once popular addictions less popular to new generations.
Of course, the legislative limits to smoking are helping,
but they might be the effect, rather than the cause of
decreased social acceptance of smoking. Rather than
legislative limits driving the change in popularity of
smoking, it might be that the change of popularity is
prompting legislation to formalize the change.
Fighting SM addiction will take all four types of measures identified by Goltz [7]: education and awareness
campaigns, technological measures to limit SM overuse, a public health approach, and regulatory limits via
liability legislation. Legislation alone is not likely to succeed, as failed experiments with regulating tobacco and

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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020

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