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Thread: Study: Social Media Turns Us Into Hungry Rats Basically

  1. #1

    Study: Social Media Turns Us Into Hungry Rats Basically

    We're all stuck in a digital "Skinner Box," researchers say

    As if the way social media dominates every facet of our lives wasn’t evident enough: A new study found that people pursue “likes” on platforms like Facebook and Instagram much in the same way rats pursue food.

    An international team of scientists analyzed more than one million social media posts from more than 4,000 users across a variety of social media sites, according to New York University. They discovered a direct correlation between how frequently people post and how often they receive likes.

    It’s simple: People post more on social media when they have a high rate of likes, and they post less frequently when they receive less likes.

    In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers found that our behavior on social media reflects the food reward-based behavior seen in rats. More specifically, social media platforms are like a digital “Skinner Box” — a tool scientists use by placing a rat (or other small animal) into a box, and then, reward them with food when the rats take specific actions (like pressing a lever).

    So yeah, we’re pretty much just a bunch of hungry rats in a box. Pushing a lever. For food/likes. Though depressing, it does shed light on some fascinating implications of how different species learn.

    “These results establish that social media engagement follows basic, cross-species principles of reward learning,” said David Amodio, professor at New York University and co-author of the study.

    Researchers also hope that their study can help us develop healthier online behavior and combat the harmful effects of social media addiction.

    “These findings may help us understand why social media comes to dominate daily life for many people and provide clues, borrowed from research on reward learning and addiction, to how troubling online engagement may be engaged,” Amodio explained.

    If nothing else, it’s a good reminder of the harmful effects social media can have on our emotional and mental health—and how maybe we should all leave our digital Skinner Boxes behind once in a while.
    https://futurism.com/neoscope/study-...rats-basically
    Last edited by Marenco; 03-02-2021 at 12:03 AM.
    ''There were four million people in the American Colonies and we had Jefferson and Franklin. Now we have over 300 million and the two top guys are Trump and Biden. What can you draw from this? Darwin was wrong.'' ~ Mort Sahl



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  3. #2
    Good thing I'm not the kind of person that fishes for likes.
    "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration is minding my own business."

    Calvin Coolidge

  4. #3
    It also shows what happens when these sites give you a merit badge for voting.
    "And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

    "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Globalist View Post
    Good thing I'm not the kind of person that fishes for likes.
    You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Anti Globalist again.

    All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.
    -Albert Camus

  6. #5
    Bigger Box.. but I see it.

    Cities are worse.
    Big Cities are Skinner's Experiment on Steroids.
    Liberty is lost through complacency and a subservient mindset. When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long.
    Ron Paul 2004

    Registered Ron Paul supporter # 2202
    It's all about Freedom

  7. #6
    Hungary rats or bucket-o-crabs?



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