How Technology Hacks the Brain

The fact that young people can lose themselves in the digital world does not come out of nowhere. Behind every app design lies a strategy. A strategy that does not only target attention, but also exhausts it. In this chapter, we examine how technology literally “hacks” our brains and why the adolescent brain, in particular, is so vulnerable to it.

The business model of distraction

Major tech companies such as Meta (Facebook, Instagram & WhatsApp), TikTok, and Google have built a business model around capturing attention⁵¹. What once started as convenient digital tools for communication or information has grown into platforms designed to hijack the brain.

Attention as currency
Our attention turns out to be big business. In the digital economy, it is not so much the product that matters, but the user. Or rather: their time and behaviour. Apps, social platforms, games, and websites are designed with one goal in mind: to capture someone’s interest⁵². The longer someone stays, the more ads can be shown and the more data the user leaves behind. Ka-ching!

As early as 1971, economist Herbert Simon stated: “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention”⁵³. The more information comes at us, the scarcer, and therefore the more valuable, our attention becomes. Tech companies have turned this simple truth into their revenue model. Data-driven advertising platforms such as Meta and Google sell personalised ads based on click behaviour, watch time, location, and interests. They make the most money when someone stays on their platform for long, uninterrupted periods of time.

How do they achieve that? By using psychological techniques and algorithms that know exactly what triggers someone’s attention. This is the result of millions of hours of data analysis and behavioural science research.

Think of techniques such as:

• Unpredictable rewards (such as likes or new videos that appear spontaneously)
• FOMO
• Social approval (likes, followers)
• Infinite feeds (that never “run out”)

  These techniques activate the dopamine system in the brain, to which the adolescent brain, as mentioned earlier, is particularly sensitive. The consequences of these design choices reach further than we long assumed. Attention is the product being sold to advertisers, and it is worth a lot of money.

These techniques activate the dopamine system in the brain, to which the adolescent brain, as mentioned earlier, is particularly sensitive. The consequences of these design choices reach further than we long assumed. Attention is the product being sold to advertisers, and it is worth a lot of money.

The battle for the scarce commodity                         
Attention is scarce. Multi-billion-dollar companies compete for it. In this attention economy, the winner is the one who can hold someone’s interest the longest. It is no coincidence that Tristan Harris, a former ethical design specialist at Google, spoke “the race to the bottom of the brainstem”, the race to the deepest instincts of our brains⁵⁴.

It sounds dramatic, but it is exactly what is happening. Apps, social networks, and platforms do not simply send notifications or offer fun videos. They are designed to tap directly into the oldest parts of the brain, areas that were active in our distant ancestors, long before smartphones existed. That part of the brain does not respond rationally, but instinctively. It watches for danger, seeks reward, and tries to conserve as much energy as possible.

A notification? The recipient may know it is probably just an app reminding them that someone liked a photo. But the instincts react as if something important or threatening is happening. That reflex runs deep. The same applies to the reward effects of likes or new followers. Dopamine is not so much the “happiness hormone” as it is the neurotransmitter that motivates someone to keep searching for more. Not coincidentally, this system works similarly with gambling or the use of addictive substances. Social media activate both motivation and reward circuits⁵⁵.

This is why companies such as Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat deliberately try to trigger those deep-rooted reflexes and reward mechanisms. They do not design their apps to make someone happy, but to stimulate instincts just enough, again and again, so users remain trapped in a loop of desire and irregular reward. As Harris put it in the documentary The Social Dilemma: “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product”⁵⁶.

The question is no longer whether technology distracts us, but how much time and mental space we lose to it.

This is the principle behind endless scrolling, or doomscrolling: maybe you will find something interesting, maybe you will not. Young people are trapped in the same logic as Skinner’s rats, only now with a smartphone instead of a lever.

Screen Time

The figures above come from the following reputable reports and studies: OECD PISA report “How’s Life for Children in the Digital Age?”¹¹; international survey data from Exploding Topics⁵⁹, Pew Research Center⁶⁰, and DataReportal⁶¹.