Why We Can’t Stop Scrolling

We spend a lot of time on social media, scrolling through various feeds. For some of us, it can feel like we’re scrolling on autopilot, leading us to spend more time on social media than we’d like to… But there’s a reason behind why we scroll, and scroll, and scroll. Psychologists use something called a Skinner box to study behavior in animals. Some Skinner boxes feature a lever for an animal to push. Sometimes, food will be dispensed upon pushing the lever. Other times, nothing happens. So the animal learns to push the lever repeatedly until food is delivered. There’s something similar happening when we scroll through our news feeds. We’re looking for a reward as well, in the form of a funny or exciting post. Once we find this, it’s right back to scrolling in search of the next one. So next time you’re scrolling through social media, you can be aware of why you’re doing it! We hope you enjoy! Thanks for watching, and be sure to subscribe to our channel! Follow our other social media pages to stay up to date on all of our latest content! Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn