Overview
For my senior capstone in Engineering and Society at UVA, I investigated a question that sits at the intersection of technology design and human wellbeing: are smartphones inherently addictive, or are companies deliberately engineering applications to make them that way?
My research argues the latter. Drawing on the Political Economy of Attention framework, which treats user attention as a commodity companies actively extract, I conducted three case studies on specific app features that are pervasive in today's social media landscape: short-form video content, infinite scroll mechanisms, and recommendation algorithms. Rather than analyzing user behavior and its side effects (a well-trodden path that risks placing blame on users), I focused on the deliberate design choices behind these features and the cognitive and behavioral consequences they produce.
I also situated this analysis within a broader infrastructure argument: smartphones are a critical layer of modern digital infrastructure, and companies have embedded manipulative design patterns into that infrastructure for profit. Similar to other historically addictive commodities such as tobacco or alcohol, these new addictions are just delivered through a different medium.
Key Findings
Short-form video and infinite scroll work in tandem to eliminate natural stopping points, triggering rapid dopamine cycles and trapping users in a chronic stress loop.
Recommendation algorithms function as what researcher Nick Seaver calls "traps": systems that script user behavior through positive reinforcement, which can escalate into negative reinforcement (using apps to avoid discomfort rather than seek enjoyment).
The smartphone itself is not the root cause; the same apps are measurably less addictive on desktop because they haven't been optimized for full-screen, portable, always-on engagement the way their mobile versions have.
Final Paper: