Knowing this fact, it is not surprising to see its widespread use as a psychological trick to hack your brain. FOMOĥ6% of social media users suffer from FOMO or the fear of missing out. It is the thrill of not knowing that keeps you hooked on the app in hopes of something new. Every time you pull the lever, you could win a jackpot or nothing at all. This is exactly what slot machines in casinos do. This reward is given to you at various times, constantly keeping you on the edge, not knowing when the reward is coming. The core concept is simple ‘Any action you take within the app entails a reward. The variable-ratio schedule or commonly known as the slot machine effect is a psychological trick integrated into the mobile application design and development phase to build systems optimized for addition. Take a deeper look, and the ominous truth reveals itself. On the surface, mobile apps and gambling might seem two of the most distant things. So, when your social media app sends you a notification informing you that your friend is online, it wants you to engage with that friend and spend more time on the platform. They are a method to directly reach the user out of the app, and pull them back in, by promising them a reward. Different social media apps use push notifications differently, but the fundamentals remain the same. Now push notifications have mutated into the most potent weapon, social media apps have. Ironically, push notification was first invented to limit the screen time of users using mobile phones. They are the oldest trick in the book, so why are they still used? Because they work like a charm whenever deployed to grab the attention of the user. We will understand what goes into the mobile application design and development process that makes modern-day mobile apps so addictive. This is done for us to be more gullible and enables mobile apps to subjugate us into using the app’s services more. We are going to take a look at how our beloved mobile apps have been using psychological tricks to take advantage of our primal instinct. Today we are going to look at a rather ominous side of the word hack. Be it the breach of confidential information, or the simple life hacks that make your life better. “Hack” can mean a lot of things in the modern context.
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