This was an area researched and explored in the essay, but after consideration of the word count and how much this relates to advertising, it was decided not to be included. This related to the subject of social media, but not advertising and as the word count is really low, needs to be cut out.
'Tristan Harris who in his essay ‘The Slot Machine in Your Pocket’ examines the link between the use of smart phones and social media.
“The average person checks their phone 150 times a day. Why do we do this? Are we making 150 conscious choices?.... But Apps also exploit our need for social approval….. When we pull our phone out of our pocket, we're playing a slot machine to see what notifications we have received. When we swipe down our finger to scroll the Instagram feed, we're playing a slot machine to see what photo comes next. When we "Pull to Refresh" our email, we're playing a slot machine to see what email we got. When we swipe faces on dating apps like Tinder, we're playing a slot machine to see if we got a match’
Here Harris is refereeing to the average smartphone user as the average person. In the essay, Tristan explores who the design of smartphone apps and social site keep their users ‘addicted’ via use slot machine style design techniques. Harris is firm in the idea that the design of the apps and social sites gives the users the same experience as slot machines, but via substituting the human need for social approvals the prize. Harris explores how the notifications are effectively the currency keeping the audience coming back for more.
Ofcom also reported that.
‘Some teenagers and adults in their early twenties, interviewed in our qualitative research, reported feeling ‘addicted’ to social networking sites’
As many of the users interacting with the media very often or even feel that they are addicted to these sites, this essay aims to explore how this revolution of the social media usage has affected the advertising industry. Along with how the growth in using social sites site has created a new platform for companies to use via studying past and current case studies. This idea of being addicted to social sites is also supported by research conducted by Nottingham Trent University, where the discovery and existence of ‘‘Facebook Addiction Disorder’ are discussed.
“it may be plausible to speak specifically of ‘Facebook Addiction Disorder’…because addiction criteria, such as neglect of personal life, mental preoccupation, escapism, mood modifying experiences, tolerance and concealing the addictive behavior, appear to be present in some people who use [social networks] excessively.”
If the side effects of addiction are present in those who use social media heavily, this implies that the subjects in question are addicted to the use of social media. The audience is not only addicted to this platform but is over posting and oversharing daily as Gary Vaynerchuk considers in his book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.
‘Currently, more than 500 million Tweets are composed each day on Twitter and 80 million photos are shared daily on Instagram. To add to it, more than 30 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month.’
If there is a large market that uses this media daily and is ‘addicted’ to their notifications and smartphones due to this then how has this affected advertising? How can and how has the industry take advantage of the medium as a new platform as to interact with large audiences daily? Andraw McStay explores how this growth in online advertising has now grown to accommodate this. '
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