Scrolling reels, farming likes: Why is social media so addictive?

Sometimes a post gets ten likes, sometimes a hundred. That unpredictability is precisely what makes our brain come back, hoping for the next hit, fuelling its addiction to mindless scrolling.

In Short

• Dopamine-driven reward loops keep users hooked unpredictably
• Features like infinite scroll and algorithms enhance addiction
• Teen brains vulnerable due to impulse control and peer pressure

Social media giants like Meta (formerly Facebook) deliberately designed their platforms to hook young users and keep them glued to their screens.

That was the conclusion a jury reached in a landmark US case weeks ago, making it the first time a court has held social media companies legally responsible for addiction.

The verdict reignited a question that scientists, parents, and mental health professionals have been wrestling with for years. The question that grows relevant with each passing day.

Why exactly is scrolling through Instagram or watching YouTube so hard to stop?

The answer, it turns out, has less to do with willpower and more to do with engineering.

HOW DOES SOCIAL MEDIA KEEP US GLUED TO SCREENS?

Every major social media platform is built around a handful of features that exploit how the human brain works.

The most powerful of these is the reward loop. The loop starts when an action triggers the release of dopamine in our brains, causing us to feel pleasure and other positive emotions. This drives the brain to repeat the action to get more pleasure and on and on and on.

When you post something and receive a like, your brain releases dopamine, the same chemical associated with pleasure and reward.

The problem is that likes arrive unpredictably.

Sometimes a post gets ten likes, sometimes a hundred. That unpredictability is precisely what makes it so compelling. The brain keeps coming back, hoping for the next hit.

Platforms amplify this through features like infinite scroll, algorithms that serve curated content, short video clips or reels, and push notifications. All of these are designed to eliminate any natural stopping point.

There is no bottom of the page. There is no “you’re done for today.” Every pause is filled with something new.

Algorithms make this worse by learning what holds your attention longest and feeding you more of it. And worse, it feeds this content regardless of whether it's good for you.

ARE TEENAGERS MORE PRONE TO SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION?

Due to ongoing development and lack of complete control, social media pose a higher risk to teenagers.

The teenage brain is still developing, particularly the parts responsible for impulse control and decision-making.

At the same time, adolescence is when the need for social approval and peer comparison is at its most intense. Social media sits at the exact intersection of both.

Research tracking over 8,000 children aged 11 and 12 found that those showing signs of social media addiction, including obsessively thinking about platforms and struggling to log off, had higher rates of depression, ADHD, and poor sleep a year later, compared to children without those signs.

Crucially, the minimum age for most of these platforms is 13, yet a large number of 11 and 12-year-olds were found to have active accounts.

It's a problem brewing every day, across continents and rather silently.

But the verdict has offered a light at the end of the tunnel, by pointing the finger on the million-dollar companies responsible for facilitating this addiction.

But, whether that changes how platforms are designed and how these platforms oversee who signs up for these addictive services is the question that now matters most.

- Ends