How the Network Effect Keeps Us Addicted
This article, titled “Can’t Put Down Your Device? That’s By Design” talks about how social media apps keep users addicted due to the Network Effect. When the Network Effect is present, the value of a product increases as the amount of users increases. According to this article, the more users that join Instagram, the more addicting it becomes. After all, more users produce more posts, which gives people more content to scroll through. Furthermore, if a person’s friends are all on Instagram, then they feel more compelled to stay on these sites due to a fear of missing out. Other platforms, such as Netflix and Facebook, also keep their users addicted with tactics targeting their FOMO and never-ending content. Netflix automatically takes the user to the next episode and Facebook automatically gives the user more content, so that their feed never ends.
Network Effect is an interesting phenomenon in which the winner takes all. Among products with Network Effect, one product will usually dominate the market. This is because once one product attracts a large amount of users, all other competing products become less desirable. Therefore, it is very unlikely that more than one product will succeed in a market of network effect products.
I think it is interesting how current social media sites are designed to make users addicted, when they could just as easily be designed to emphasize quality over quantity. Of course, the network effect all depends on quantity. It would be cool to see a social media platform that encourages forming meaningful relationships rather than just contacting with as many people as possible.