Lore Oxford is a cultural theorist and strategist. She's also the author of Substack column 'Why tho?', where she writes about internet culture and the adoption of Web3.

Four in five Americans check their phones within 15 minutes of waking, and 79% keep that device on or near them for 22 hours each day. 

 As American author and entrepreneur Nir Eyal points out, these devices have the human race hooked. In his book 

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

 have most effectively changed the way people behave.

“Everything on the app store that's used regularly is changing consumer behaviour,” explained Eyal, when we sat down with him to find out more. And it's out of the app store, too. “There are tons of examples – my calendar changes the way I plan my life, my email directs my attention when I'm bored, and my Twitter has changed the way I connect with people,” he says. “Everything we use regularly has effectively formed a habit." 

 So what constitutes a good example of a habit-forming product?

“The crux of it is what I call the 'hook' model,” says Eyal. “Four steps that are repeated time and again in habit-forming technology: a trigger, an action, a reward and an investment.” And while he is quick to note that following this model doesn't guarantee success, he hasn’t found “any habit-forming technologies that 

“The trigger can be internal or external,” Eyal continues. “That's the thing that cues the action. The action is about the simplest of behaviours being carried out in anticipation of reward, and then the reward itself is the thing that scratches the user's itch and leaves them wanting more. Finally, the investmentis where the user puts some kind of work or effort into the product which increases the likelihood that the cycle will repeat.” 

Data suggests that a behaviour has to recur within a week's time or less for a habit to be formed

A great example of this, says Eyal, is fitness app 

 – which gamifies fitness with the intention of “making fitness a more fun, more addictive experience.” 

 In this example, the trigger could be anything from not making it up the stairs, to not quite fitting into 

dress – ultimately piquing the user's desire to lose weight or get healthy. In turn, the action is the exercise dictated by the app. Yet eventual weight loss and well-being isn't always a particularly motivating reward, since it can take such a long time to achieve it. As such, Fitocracy rewards people with unlockable achievements, points to level up and social reinforcement from other users on the in-app social network. With so many short-term rewards on offer, people are more likely to complete the fourth stage of the 'hook' model by investing more time and energy into the app. In turn, a habit is formed.

“Data suggests that a behaviour has to recur within a week's time or less for a habit to be formed,” explains Eyal. “Technologies that are able to influence user behaviour effectively are the ones that bring the rewards to the forefront.” 

 This thinking is apparent in other apps and products, too. Japanese finance app 

 was created with the intention of improving spending habits, by asking people to document everything they buy and input the price. But unlike most finance apps – which keep long-term records of spending – PhotoMoney can only document a week's worth of spending at a time, rewarding people on a weekly basis with a round-up of their spending and a clean slate. But what about bad habits?

Apps like Fitocracy help people form ‘healthy’ exercise habits

“The point is that habit-forming technologies are designed to improve your life,” says Eyal. 

 But in creating a product that's so helpful people want to use it every day – or even multiple times a day – finding a healthy balance isn't always easy. Even the most effective products can prove detrimental if overused.

Take Facebook, which Eyal believes is “probably the best example of an independent company that's changed habits of individuals around the world.” 

 In 2011, more than half of social media users described themselves as addicts, with studies showing that regular users are lonely and undergo significant emotional damage when they spend too long trawling newsfeeds. 

 Given that the broad medical definition of addiction is “persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be physically, psychologically, or socially harmful,” those who form habits around social media and similar products have as much potential to cause themselves harm as they do good. 

The thing that makes these products addictive also makes them awesome

“Habits usually occur based on some kind of negative emotion, or an itch that we want to scratch,” says Eyal, “and so whatever's closest in order to relieve that tension is what we'll turn to. If we're lonely we have the Twitter app, when we're uncertain we go to Google, and we have various solutions to all of these internal triggers in the palms of our hands.”But within the accessibility of these products lies the potential for abuse. “The thing that makes these products addictive also makes them awesome,” he continues. “You can't remove the potential for abuse from a video game, for example, because that's also the reason it sells in the first place.” 

Take the Mail Online, which – for all its celebrity gossip and unappealing aesthetic – is the world's most popular newspaper website, and won the top Grand Prix Award for Design Effectiveness in 2013. Since the redesign launched in 2008, annual revenue has increased 455%. 

 “This is web crack,” comments journalist Kelsey Campbell Dollaghan. 

 But some companies are responding by attempting to 

 the potential for misuse. Technical question and answer website 

 limits the amount of access users have with this in mind. “The current system is designed to reward continued participation,” says co-founder Jeff Atwood, “but not to the point that it creates obsession.” 

Has it now become acceptable to disengage from real-life social situations?

But when enough people adopt habits in the long term, these routines become norms – which in turn have broader implications on society. Globally, one in five people now own a smartphone – and subsequently a huge volume of apps with the potential to alter people's habits, routines and norms have emerged. 

 Alarm clocks are becoming obsolete (with three quarters of young people using their smartphones instead), 

 settle arguments with a quick Google on their smartphone – rather than hashing it out – and the rise of messaging apps like WhatsApp and WeChat have made voicemail 

Not to mention the always-connected mentality that has become the norm. “Somehow, it has become socially acceptable to digitally masturbate in each other’s company,” says Eyal. “You might say, 'but I’m taking notes or responding to an important request!' No you’re not, you are digitally dicking around.” 

 Eyal uses what he refers to as the 'digital hat rack' to explain how mass adoption of new technologies can cause rifts in the way people treat each other.

Somehow, it has become socially acceptable to digitally masturbate in each other’s company

In the early 1900s, Eyal explains, many people wore hats, which were removed and placed on a hat rack when entering a building or meeting as a sign of respect. Over time, this etiquette evolved as more and more people wore hats. In contrast, smartphones “have evolved so quickly that we haven't had time to create these supporting rules,” he says, “but I have no doubt they're coming. I think it's great we're becoming more critical and discerning over the right place and time to use these devices.” 

In turn, companies are emerging to help break the habits that are detrimental, forming newer, healthier ones in their place. With so much emphasis being placed on people's physical need to always be near their smartphones, one complaint many state is that documenting live music on smartphones makes the experience less pleasurable for others – creating an unattractive sea of glowing screens in the crowd. 

 is a service that works with bands to record live shows in real-time, both on audio and video, and then allows fans to download polished recordings within minutes of the track being played. They can leave their phones in their bags, instead getting into the habit of downloading the show afterwards.

The ‘swipe’ has become a mentally-ingrained ‘natural’ movement

“Anytime the interface changes, the cards are shuffled,” says Eyal. “We've moved from the personal computer to the laptop to the mobile device – and every time, new companies are born which cater to the same behaviours but on these new platforms. The hook reforms, the triggers change.” In turn, he draws attention to the next horizon for technology: 

. And in particular, the smart watch. “I don't think it'll be as big as the smartphone or mobile devices,” he concedes, “but several multibillion dollar companies will be born from that interface and what happens when people interact with technology on their wrist.” 

A great example of this is the overwhelming success of dating app Tinder. While its popularity can be attributed to a number of factors, the action which has been normalised and commodified is the interface itself: the swipe. The simplistic, minimum-effort gesture has long since transcended app-based dating – it's so effortless that it's actually habit-enabling, and apps and products are being designed around it. Find the perfect playmate for your pet by swiping right on 

 or get the best out of your newsfeed by swiping left on all the uninteresting articles on 

That's what the future looks like: products that change and adapt based on what I do to it as the user

And while, by Eyal's own admission, not all products require people to form habits around them – particularly one-off purchases – 

 means that the one-off purchase is less common than ever. An increasing number of products hit their maximum potential when people use them regularly and habits are formed around them. The success of smart home-enabling technology 

 – which lets people draught a beer from the comfort of their own home – and Amazon's digital shopping list 

 can all be put down to the fact that creators left these products open to modification.

“Take Facebook," says Eyal. “There's no such thing as ‘one’ Facebook. My Facebook is totally different from your Facebook, and mine probably wouldn't be that interesting to you.” Yet Facebook isn't a bespoke suit – it's not 

to each individual – but rather becomes more personal the more a person uses it and pours themselves into it. “That's what the future looks like: products that change and adapt based on what I do to it as the user," Eyal concludes. “In turn, habit-forming will become increasingly important.” 

is an American author and entrepreneur whose extensive experience in research and consulting enabled him to write Hooked

as a manual for creating effective habit-forming products. He has taught at Stanford Graduate School of Business and has written about business, psychology and technology for a number of publications including The Atlantic, Psychology Today and Harvard Business Review.

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Communications

Technology

'Always connected: how smartphones and social keep up engaged', IDC Research

Interview with Nir Eyal conducted by author

'About us', Fitocracy

'Social media is addictive', Guardian Liberty Voice

'Addicted to Facebook? Study shows users are lonelier', Fox News

'Addiction', Merriam Webster

'Daily Mail website wins top design effectiveness award', Design Week

'Four lessons from the web's most ruthlessly addictive site', Fast Company

'Revisiting the rep cap (yes, again)', StackOverflow

'One in every five people in the world own a smartphone, one in every 17 own a tablet', Business Insider

'86% of US adults use phones to settle arguments, solve problems and meet friends', GeekWire

'Tech is making meetings worse, it's time for digital hat racks', TechCrunch

Four in five Americans check their phones within 15 minutes of waking, and 79% keep that device on or near them for 22 hours each day. As author and entrepreneur Nir Eyal points out, these devices have the human race hooked - but why? We sat down with him to find out more.

Millennials won't leave anything at the tone

Swipe your way to career success

Hooking up with Tinder

PhotoMoney: snap your spending in Japan

Soundhalo: redressing the live experience

Unfinished business: why the prosumer matters

Why Twitter is just a digital high school

Me & the machines: wearable technology