Smartphone addiction is hurting business

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Creonit studies digital product addiction and its impact on business. They interviewed product managers from Ozon, former Megafon, and S7 Airlines to find out how the habit of using apps is formed and why addiction can harm business. At the end of the article, Creonit Commercial Director Dmitry Vazhenin asked the experts to tell us which apps they cannot live without and how they fight digital addiction.

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What is addiction?
Addiction is an extreme form of habit, when a person iceland telegram number database experiences such a strong urge to do something that it affects their behavior. For example, checking instant messengers in the morning is a habit. But if you can’t get out of bed until you read all the new messages, that’s an addiction. In the context of digital products, it’s difficult to draw a line between a habit and an addiction, so let’s consider these concepts the same.


Factors influencing the formation of addiction
There are various biological and social factors that can explain the formation of addiction. Let's look at some of them.

The Habit Loop


Charles Duhigg in his book "The Power of Habit" described a three-stage habit formation scheme: signal, action, and reward. It was discovered by neurobiologists at the University of Massachusetts. The illustration above shows an example of how the habit loop works in a product.



Anastasia Chekmezova Product Owner ex-Megafon

Several players in the market promote themselves as very fast grocery delivery. This arouses the audience's interest and desire to check how something can be delivered in less than half an hour.

A person logs into the app and makes their first order. Their expectations are met - delivery is on time, and the goods are delivered in beautiful packaging.

The client got what he wanted. Plus, he was given a 10% discount on his next purchases for the first order, so that he would come back. Then the user takes action again - the next purchase.

Signal: promise to deliver goods in less than half an hour.

Action: Order out of curiosity to test the brand's promises.

Reward: expectations justified - delivery arrived on time.

When expectations are met, a person experiences pleasure. This provokes the production of several hormones and neurotransmitters, including dopamine. It is dopamine that forms and reinforces behavior patterns associated with positive experiences.



Before the next purchase, the signal will be different, for example, a push notification reminding about a discount that will soon "burn out". The person will perform the action again and receive a reward.

The nervous system remembers that such purchases bring pleasure. Dopamine reinforces the chain of actions “Open the application — Order — Receive” and makes it so that you want to do it again.

After a few rounds of repetition, the dopamine surge begins to occur not at the moment of receiving the reward, but when the signal appears.

For example, in the middle of cooking, you realize that you don't have any oil. You weren't planning to go to the store. The very thought of being able to order and quickly get what you want brings pleasure. This means that the habit has formed: the signal pushes you to take action.





Reward Prediction
There are studies that confirm that dopamine is produced twice as much if the probability of a reward is difficult to predict.





Veronika Pisarenko, S7 Airlines, Head of Loyalty Development

American neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky tested the Signal-Action-Reward formula on monkeys. He made them press buttons and gave them a treat for it. At first, the monkeys received a reward for every action, but then Sapolsky began to reward them 50% of the time. From that moment on, the amount of dopamine in anticipation of a treat began to double, because the reward became unpredictable.

Gamification in apps works on this principle. For example, banks issue random categories with increased cashback every month. Hoping to get a profitable category, a person goes into the app and uses gamification tools. If the option that comes up suits him, he will use the card of this particular bank to accumulate more cashback."



Fear of missing out
FOMO (fear of missing out) is a condition in which a person is afraid of missing out on something important and interesting. For example, a profitable purchase or new information.

Applications, especially social networks, messengers and games, use FOMO to create addiction in users. They do this through various mechanisms:

Notifications. Apps constantly send notifications about new messages, likes, comments, subscribers, and publications. This creates the feeling that something is constantly happening in the service. If a person does not open the notification, he will miss important news.

Limited time. This applies to promotions, discounts and bonuses that are valid for several days or hours. Such offers push customers to act urgently so as not to miss out on the benefit. For example, online cosmetics stores can send a notification about a 50% discount on hair care products, which is valid until midnight today.

Social pressure. Apps can show how many people are buying products, watching content, or playing a game. This way, users are led to believe that they need to do the same, otherwise they are socially excluded or out of fashion. Social pressure mechanics include the captions “This product has been bought 1000 times already” in online stores or displaying the number of views on videos on video hosting sites.

Comparison with others. Some apps create ratings, leaderboards, and show user achievements. This makes you want to improve your performance or outdo your competitors. For example, the pedometer in VK shows you how many kilometers your friends have walked every day and sends notifications that you can do just as well.

Artificial scarcity. Apps can create a sense of exclusivity for certain products, services, or content. For example, by showing them to a limited number of users or for a separate fee. This encourages people to get what is not available to the majority. Mobile games periodically launch unique holiday bundles with special objects and options that can be purchased.

All of these mechanisms also activate the reward system in the brain, which is associated with dopamine and forms addiction.



Why should businesses implement solutions that cause addiction?
This affects the growth of product metrics:

MAU is the number of unique users in the application per month.
DAU is the number of unique users in the application per day.
Retention — user retention.
LTV is the profit from a customer over the entire period of using the product.
Dependence on the app pushes customers to pay for new services and use other offers of the brand or ecosystem. Ultimately, this leads to growth in revenue, ROI, and other direct business metrics. But this is not always the case.



When Product Dependency Hurts Business Performance
Mini-games, unpredictable rewards, personalized notifications, and other mechanics do increase user activity — they make them visit the app more often and spend time there. But increased activity in the product does not mean that people will perform target actions — buy products, subscribe, and so on. Moreover, a digital product with built-in capabilities can prevent a person from making a purchase decision.



Anastasia Zavisha, Head of Paid Subscriptions and Brand Account Development, Ozon

Marketplaces with their mechanics can suck a person in. This also has a negative side for business. If a client spends a long time choosing from a huge number of products, he may eventually give up everything and buy nothing.

This is especially noticeable during sales seasons, when the main page of online stores has discount after discount. The client develops a kind of banner blindness - for him, all offers become the same. Products are profitable and unprofitable at the same time. This can affect the final conversion, because the client may never find a suitable product.

When I worked at Sber, my colleagues and I tried to solve this problem by unifying the interface. We thought through the design so that all cards would have the same formats and conditions.

We distinguished truly advantageous offers and displayed only them on the main page. Less advantageous ones were sent to other communication with the client, and not presented under the guise of a discount. We worked on visualization - we made the application less flashy within the framework of loyalty programs. All this helped users concentrate their attention and choose suitable products.



How Apps Give Users Back Control of Attention
Veronika Pisarenko, Head of Loyalty Development, S7 Airlines

If a product shows concern for customers and their needs, it increases loyalty. A good way to show concern is to show that you care when a user stays in the app longer than expected.

For example, TikTok has limited screen time for teens and turns off push notifications at night to avoid disrupting users' sleep.

The Yandex Global City game has a limited number of free moves per day. On the one hand, this can be seen as an attempt to introduce users to other ecosystem services through tasks.

For purchases they are given an additional amount of energy that can be spent in the game. On the other hand, partly it is a concern that does not allow customers to play all day. Sooner or later the energy will run out.

In my opinion, if you directly say: "That's it for today, it's time for you to do your own thing. Come back tomorrow, you'll have new moves and tasks" - the DAU (number of unique users per day) will grow.

People will get used to logging into the app every day to use their “bonus” attempts. This will have a positive effect on user retention throughout the entire marketing campaign.

Anastasia Chekmezova, Product Owner, ex-Megafon

This is not a direct way to regain control over attention, but it can make users leave the service. Some recommendation systems work on this principle: they show relevant and interesting content for some time, and if the person has been sitting for too long, they show less relevant content. Over time, the user gets bored and leaves. But then they come back for more.



What apps are product managers addicted to and how do they manage their habits?
Product managers launch and develop applications, so they know how dependency on them is formed. But knowledge of tools does not protect specialists from their own bad habits. We decided to find out what product managers are “sitting on” and asked them to highlight practices on how to manage their attention.



Anastasia Zavisha, Head of Paid Subscriptions and Brand Account Development, Ozon

I am very dependent on social networks. I notice that even when I am stuck in a traffic jam in my car, I open my feed every 10 minutes, even if nothing important is happening. It is important for me to just make sure that I have not missed anything.

How to fight addiction

At one point I learned that the average person touches their phone 100-150 times a day. It horrified me, and I started watching myself.

I change bad habits to good ones - I replace entertaining content with educational content. Instead of just mindlessly browsing the feed, I try to listen to podcasts while driving to work or home: about history, psychology, business, personal life. I consume content that gives me insights.



Veronika Pisarenko, Head of Loyalty Development, S7 Airlines

I am addicted to Telegram and a banned social network.

In my case, the addiction was formed due to the social factor. There I can communicate with friends or just watch from the side how they are doing. Especially since many have left Russia and are abroad.

I have a lot of professional content on Telegram: product and business channels, work chats. FOMO kicks in here — I'm afraid of missing out on something important and constantly monitor what's going on.

How to fight addiction

I set myself time limits per day on social networks where I can get stuck for a long time, and on apps with entertainment content.

I try to log into the banned social network only when I can't do anything else. For example, when I'm riding the subway.

When an app starts to drag you in, it’s important to be able to catch yourself in the moment and ask goal-setting questions:

Why am I doing this?
What does this give me?
Is this really something you want to spend your time on right now?
Can I find something more useful to do?
When I "catch" myself like this, I immediately find more important or useful things to do. For example, read a book, take a course, study English. This way you switch over faster and return to real tasks.

I also try to follow the Premack principle. If the probability of behavior "B" is higher than the probability of behavior "A", then behavior "A" will become more likely if "B" follows it.

I reward myself by sitting on social networks for useful and important things. Especially for things that I have been putting off for a long time.



Anastasia Chekmezova, Product Owner, ex-Megafon

I catch myself going to Wildberries every day. I don't even understand why. I don't buy anything, I just look at the latest.

Music apps are also an addiction. I go for a walk with the dog and automatically put in my headphones. Although at this time I could turn on an audiobook or watch an important course.

How to fight addiction

I consciously limit myself — I give myself a certain time when I can visit social networks. For example, I try not to do this during working hours. I turn off all notifications, and I also practice a closed folder on my smartphone. I dump applications there so as not to accidentally get into them.

There is another good practice - "The Pomodoro Method". You set time periods for yourself. For example, I have 25 minutes to work and 5 minutes for a break. During the break, I can allow myself to look at what people write to me on social networks.

I am also developing a habit of not messaging on social networks - only in messengers. There are too many distractions in social media that can "drag you in". Sometimes, you are waiting for a message from someone in Direct, you go to a forbidden social network and automatically start scrolling through the feed.



What is the meaning of all this?
Trying to form a habit of using an app is not a conspiracy of big corporations, but a desire to integrate into the client's life. Most often, this has good intentions - to make people's lives easier and to eliminate their pain.

Habit-forming mechanics have a negative side - users find it more difficult to perform target actions. A large number of offers and functions disorient them.

Implementing tools that help users focus their attention is a good practice that will increase their loyalty. A customer will stay in touch with a company longer if they feel that they are taken care of.



What features will help the user concentrate?
Notifications that he has been sitting in the service for a long time. Perhaps show statistics of the time spent.
Limiting screen time for children and teenagers.
The ability to independently set screen time restrictions in the service.
Suggestion to disable notifications at night.
Limiting the number of moves in gamification tools per day.
Limiting flashy elements in the interface - red price tags, animations with discounts, advertising banners, and so on.
Reminders to switch to other tasks and come back later.
Remember that a lot depends on the tone in which you convey your concern to users. Simply silently limiting someone's screen time without their consent will push them away.