Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are “brain candy”
Harvard neuroscience researchers have just confirmed what many of us have suspected all along: social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are “brain candy” for Internet users. Every status update, every tweet, every pin is a micro-jolt delivered squarely to the pleasure centers of our brains. We get approximately the same type of pleasure from talking about ourselves on social media as we do from having sex. As Facebook bulks up to take on new challengers after its much-anticipated IPO next week, is it possible that the battle for future dominance on the Internet will actually take place inside our heads?
Emotions, visualizations and new ways to stimulate our senses suddenly matter more than ever on the Internet as companies figure out how to turn us all into Pavlovian subjects lusting after the next viral meme. Getting the neuroscience right, quite simply, is the key to future billion-dollar valuations. Viewed from this perspective, Zuckerberg’s recent billion-dollar grab for Instagram suddenly makes sense. It’s not just that Instagram is a hugely popular mobile network with millions of users, it’s that the company has figured out how retro filters and beautiful light effects actually trigger associations and memories deep within our unconscious minds.
via Big Think – Dominic Basulto
The Latest Global News: Brain Candy