ATTENTION ENGINEERING AND PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGY:

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CONTROLS YOUR PSYCHOLOGY AGAINST YOU

In Partial Fulfillment of the

IRAH ANGELLIE B. DOROY

MRS. MICHALLE GUILLENA

JULY 14, 2021

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Abstract

This paper discusses how social media is controlling the user’s psychology which

touches on areas namely attention engineering and persuasive techniques used in social media

platforms. It will also show specific emphasis on the effects of this type of manipulation to the

users.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Attention Engineering behind Social Media Platforms

3. Persuasive Techniques Used

4. Effects of Manipulation to Users

5. Conclusion

6. References

Introduction

The rapid changes in technology over the past few decades have brought about the

digital revolution in the 21st century inducing drastic changes in billions of people’s lives.

Social media, defined as the social interaction between people through virtual networks, is one

of its most prominent creations and it continues to affect and shape the lives of the many. Its

impact has gone from simply being an entertainment platform to a fully integrated part of

almost all aspects of everyone’s daily life. While it has indeed a potential for good, given that

it provides easier access to news and information, introduced virtual communities and became

an outlet for creativity, social media has also been found harmful to the society.

As our dependence on technology increases, social media addiction has become a

global problem causing people to withdraw from their family and friends or lose interest in

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other activities and spend most of their time rather in the virtual world. In fact, as of January

2021, there were more than 3.96 billion social media users worldwide and 201 million of that

suffer from internet and social media addiction (Peterson, 2021). While most would argue that

the extent of social media’s negative consequences depends on the user himself, the way these

platforms were designed must also be taken into account. Everything that we do online is being

watched and tracked. Tristan Harris, the former Google Executive, stated that “Hundreds of

engineers are on the other side of the screen, learning exactly how your psychology works and

orchestrate you surreptitiously” (Weller, 2017). There is this called – ‘Attention Engineering

and Persuasive Technology’ happening behind the algorithms because social media platforms

are in a tight race for user’s attention and information. This will moreover explore how attention

engineering and persuasive techniques work in manipulating the social media user’s

psychology, where do the data and information from the users go and why has it become a type

of manipulation against the users themselves.

Attention Engineering behind Social Media Platforms

The emergence of social media platforms has increasingly replaced other means of

communication and expression. Some users even find these platforms relaxing and as a form

of escapism from the real world (Emotions and Social Media, 2017). Many get hook from its

features wherein you could easily create connections with other users, share and obtain

information or receive likes and comments. While it did significantly influence the people’s

way of socialization and interaction, it also has opened doors for new and improved ways of

marketing. When you are a social media user, you also are now a potential consumer of the

thousands of companies paying and sponsoring these social media sites. The more time you

spend on a social media network, the more information they can get from you. To do so, as

Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital and Former Facebook Executive said, “these

platforms must be designed to be addictive as possible to gain as much of the consumer’s

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attention and personal information” (Social Media Ripping Apart Society, 2017). And so today,

we are dealing with a new marketing strategy happening in social media sites: Attention

Engineering.

Attention engineering is the product of two recent historical developments: marketing

and the internet (Conger, 2019). Attention engineers uses psychological techniques – such as

creating dopamine feedback loops and fueling primal emotions – to retain platform user

attention as long as possible in order to maximize advertising revenue and information

collection (Conger, 2019). By studying exactly how your psychology works through the data,

feedbacks and information you provide online, or from the time range you spend on these social

media sites, the technologists and engineers can predict what you’re going to do and who you

are as a person including which things you like or hate and use that as a preference to

personalize what you see in your newsfeed to hold you in the site as long as possible.

Technologist Jaron Lanier puts it as “companies offering you shiny treats in exchange for

minutes of your attention and byte of your personal data which can then be packaged up and

sold” (Jones, 2017). All these social media platforms are competing for our attention and the

business model for these companies is to keep their users on their apps as much as possible. In

return, they profit from it because it’s our attention that is what’s being sold.

Persuasion Techniques Used

It is inherent in us that as humans, we are persuadable. And social media uses this innate

nature of humans to manipulate their users’ psychology through showing contents that will

persistently hook your attention and persuade you to stay in the site for more seconds, minutes,

and even hours. According to Tankovska (2021) of Statista, the most popular social networks

worldwide as of April 2021 ranked by the number of active users, are Facebook, YouTube,

Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat, among others. Each platform has its own unique feature which

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corresponds to a persuasion technique in disguise for them to hold you and extract as much as

data from you.

The simple auto play function of YouTube and video-suggestion tools are some of its

persuasion strategies. The content you like – whether it be vlogs, country music, or parodies –

will appear, and you will likely want to watch it (Conger, 2019). You click a video, then auto

plays the next, YouTube even tries to suggest new and unfamiliar videos just to send you on a

“trip”, until an hour or two has passed without you noticing or feeling it. Now in that period,

you catch upon several advertisements and companies were already able to collect data and

information from you which will be then sold again to the advertisers.

Facebook also uses algorithms based on your media use, cookies, browser history, and

myriad other factors. With that, they present you with the most engaging content at the best

possible time. (Conger, 2019). The updated Facebook also now has an auto-play feature with

sound on which pull users in the site even longer, because before you even realize whether the

content title has anything to do with you, that auto-play feature triggers your curiosity and so,

you end up watching it anyway. Another strategy used is the application of the reward systems

through features: like, react, share/retweet and comment, which you can also see in Instagram

and Twitter. This triggers dopamine, the same chemical released when you take alcohol or

illegal drugs that send signals of pleasure. According to Seiter (2016), “dopamine is

stimulated by unpredictability, by small bits of information, and by reward cues—pretty

much the exact conditions of social media”. That is why social media addictive behaviors

were becoming rampant as well because that addiction is driven by dopamine. When you

have a resurgence of likes, you feel rewarded, and so you use and post to Facebook more.

Meanwhile Snapchat, for most users is not only nifty for taking selfies but is more

intended to chat or message people from far places. It has this unique feature of showing

the number of days or months of how long you were talking or communicating straightly .
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And you may not realize it, but it’s actually giving you something you don’t want to lose.

If you and this friend were talking for 100 straight days already, not being able to talk for

a day will cut off that consistent connection which will result to a feeling of loss.

These are just some of the simple features manipulating your psychology

unconsciously just to hold you longer in the platform. As Harris said, “Social media has its

own goals and it has its own means of pursuing them by using your own psychology against

you” (Brandon, 2020). In other words, it’s feeding you information you think you need and

want but, is just eliciting action and clicks to fuel advertising (Brandon, 2020).

Effects of Manipulation to Users

others alter your perceptions and reduce your mental efficacy. People are more likely to

consume hyperbolic news, skewed information, misinformation, and disinformation as result

of these algorithms and techniques (Conger, 2019). Users get easily fed and loaded with

information and contents that already confirm or favor their beliefs for these tools already know

you because again, the longer you stay on it, the more data they get, and so the better they .

We’re stuck on our own echo chambers because we are projected mostly with news and

opinions that reflect and reinforce our own. With this, it’s so easy to get misinformed. Aside

from that, when users get dopamine rush from the reactions, comments, and fame they get

online, there is an increase in the frequency of habitually checking their phones, holding them

longer in these platforms while slowly ripping them apart from reality. Making them believe

that their image in social media is who they really are, and because by design, social media

rewards us from showing our best lives, users tend to be great at filtering their real life status

and hide struggles or flaws. It controls us, the way we think who we are and the way we respond

to what we see. As Lanier says in the film ‘The Social Dilemma’ on Netflix, “We've created

an entire global generation of people who were raised within a context where the very meaning

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of communication, the very meaning of culture is manipulation, we've put deceit and

sneakiness at the absolute center of everything we do.” (Hagan & Mosly, 2020).

Conclusion

As the number of social media addicts and misinformation cases continue to rise, it

brought worrisome concern to many whether the social media platforms’ designs are still

healthy. Businesses and advertisers realized that there is a significant increase in their revenue

and profit through selling ad space and user information, and so the purpose of these platforms

completely evolved from being an entertainment site to a marketing medium, which then

involves attention engineering and persuasive techniques. This is in order to hold the users in

the site longer to extract as much as data from them. However, this kind of manipulation has

been found to affect the users even worse because users are getting more and more attached to

the virtual world because they are consistently shown with contents that appear to be what they

want or need. Spending too much in these social media platforms slowly rips them apart from

the reality which must be given an utmost priority and an immediate action. A complete

renascence of model and design must be imposed, as soon as possible.

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References:

Brandon, J. (2020). Why ‘The Social Dilemma’ on Netflix Is Such An Important Film. Retrieved
from https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbbrandon/2020/09/17/why-the-social-
dilemma-on-netflix-is-such-an-important-film/?sh=33b085434e68

Conger, J. Z. (2019). Over the Horizon Multi-Domain Operations & Strategy. Attention
Engineering: What it is, How it is Used, and Why Warfighters Need it. Retrieved
from https://othjournal.com/2019/01/09/attention-engineering-what-it-is-how-it-
is-used-and-why-warfighters-need-it/

Jones, J. (2017). The Case for Deleting Media Accounts & Doing Valuable “Deep Work”
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accounts.html.

Hagan, A. & Mosley, A. (2020). ‘The Social Dilemma’ Director Says The Internet Is
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https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/09/18/social-dilemma-director.

Peterson, M. (2021). 10 Shocking Social Media Addiction Statistics of 2021. Retrieved from
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Seiter, C. (2016). The Psychology of Social Media: Why We Like, Comment, and Share
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Tankovska, H. (2021). Global Social Networks ranked by number of users 2021. Most popular
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Weller, C. (2017). A former Google executive reveals the tricks tech companies use to grab
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