(Pixabay photo)
NPR posted the following:
The surprising origin of 4 features that superglue kids — and adults — to screens
April 21, 2026
In two landmark cases, social media companies have been found liable for endangering and harming children. Meta and Google are appealing the verdicts and disputing the idea that their products are addictive. But over the course of more than a decade, scientists have identified key features of social media and other apps meant to hold children’s attention for as long as possible.
These features create a kind of superglue on the apps, says cultural anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll at New York University, who has pioneered research in this field. “They keep us spending more time on these apps and spending more money. They drain us of our energy and ourselves.” Understanding these features offers parents a rubric for evaluating how harmful an app or device may be for kids, Schüll says.
During the trial in California, the attorney bringing the case accused Meta and Google of designing their apps to behave like “digital casinos.” That’s an apt comparison, according to Schüll’s research, because major design elements of social media have surprising roots in the gambling industry.
Pulled into the “machine zone”
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the casino industry gradually and purposely created what many scientists consider to be the most addictive form of gambling: video slot machines. They are something like a giant app, played on a huge video screen with an ergonomic chair attached to it. …
They can play for 24 hours, even 48 hours straight. Some people even told Schüll that they wear adult diapers to the casino so they don’t have to stop gambling to use the restroom.
Thirty years ago, Schüll set out on a bold mission: to figure out how these games exert this magnetic effect. What features might literally prevent flourishing?
She spent 15 years dissecting the inner workings of video slot machines. …
Through her research, she uncovered four key features that, when combined together, help hold people on the gambling devices. These features trigger a trancelike or dissociative state, known as a “machine zone” or “dark flow,” in which people lose track of their sense of time and place. …
Here are four features that create that superglue:
Feature 1: solitude
“When the relationship is just between you and the machine, it removes social cues needed for stopping,” Schüll says. …
Feature 2: bottomlessness
Videos keep appearing on TikTok and YouTube. Photos, comments and likes keep popping up on Instagram. Apps have seemingly endless content for you to see, and it all shows or plays automatically.
“There’s no natural stopping point,” Schüll says. So you never feel finished or satisfied. …
Feature 3: speed
The faster people play video slots, the longer people gamble, Schüll found in her review of research performed by the gambling industry. Speed has a similar effect on social media and video-streaming apps, she says. The faster people can scroll, watch and then watch again, the harder it is for many to pull away from an app.
“The speed of the feedback can cause this sense that you merge with the screen. You don’t know where you begin and the machine ends,” Schüll says. “The speed really just pulls you into this flow.”
For social media, the speed at which we can find “new” material has jumped with several technological advancements, including the invention of higher-speed internet and infinite scroll.
Feature 4: teasing, or giving you almost what you want
The final ingredient is perhaps the most important, says Jonathan D. Morrow, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at the University of Michigan. It’s all about how apps select content for you.
Here’s how it typically works. First, the software uses AI to determine what you’re hoping to find or see. “Even if you don’t know what you want, the app knows. It’s very good at figuring that out,” Morrow says.
But then, he says, the app withholds that reward: “Apps don’t give it to you. They give you something close to that, and then a few clicks later, the algorithm gives you something even closer.” …
A recipe for overuse
When an app combines these four features — solitude, bottomlessness, speed and teasing — it creates a kind of recipe for overuse for nearly everyone, Schüll says. …
But the recipe is especially harmful for children, she adds: “It’s a cruel setup, especially when kids are concerned. Kids are obviously more vulnerable.” https://www.npr.org/2026/04/21/nx-s1-5776665/surprising-origin-features-superglue-kids-adults-to-screens
That fourth feature, teasing or giving you almost what you want is also a key factor in gambling and pornography as well.
Yet, people spend a lot of money on pornography. The Bible warns:
2 Why do you spend … your wages for what does not satisfy? (Isaiah 55:2)
It is more than non-satisfaction that comes from pornography (which basically was the major initial funding for the commercial internet), gambling, and being excessively glued to social media.
There are other problems.
In 2023, the US Surgeon General put out a report on teens and social media:
A Surgeon General’s Advisory is a public statement that calls the American people’s attention to an urgent public health issue and provides recommendations for how it should be addressed. Advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action.
This Advisory calls attention to the growing concerns about the effects of social media on youth mental health. It explores and describes the current evidence on the positive and negative impacts of social media on children and adolescents, some of the primary areas for mental health and well-being concerns, and opportunities for additional research to help understand the full scope and scale of social media’s impact. This document is not an exhaustive review of the literature. Rather, it was developed through a substantial review of the available evidence, primarily found via electronic searches of research articles published in English and resources suggested by a wide range of subject matter experts, with priority given to, but not limited to, meta-analyses and systematic literature reviews. It also offers actionable recommendations for the institutions that can shape online environments—policymakers and technology companies—as well as for what parents and caregivers, young people, and researchers can do. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-youth-mental-health-social-media-advisory.pdf
Yes, there are problems with many who are overly involved in what is called ‘social media.’
Despite the court ruling in California last month, some see the problem of addiction to social media increasing:
Social Media Algorithms Are Becoming Increasingly Dangerous
April 21, 2026
Social media algorithms are controlling how we communicate and interact, and their influence is only getting stronger. What once felt like a tool for connection has turned into a system that shapes our behavior, attention and even the way we think. The more we rely on these platforms, the less control we seem to have over how we spend our time and who we engage with.
I’ve started to notice it in small moments. When my phone buzzes, and I don’t check it, I get a weird sense of anxiety, like I’m missing something important. When I go out to dinner with friends, it’s almost expected that at least one person will have their phone out, scrolling while the rest of us are trying to have a conversation.
The algorithm allows users to be in their own personal bubble in a world catered just for its users. It studies users’ behavior and quickly learns what keeps a person’s attention. It also learns what users don’t like as well.
In a study by Columbia University, researchers found that engagement-based algorithms amplify emotionally charged and opposing content, reinforcing the same perspective and making users feel negatively toward opposing views.
At this point, it feels instinctual for people to pull out their phones whenever they experience any kind of boredom or discomfort. That is what makes it more concerning. It’s not a choice people are actively thinking about; it’s something that just happens.
“There’s a really cool concept in sociology called habitus. Like your set of practices that you get rewarded for or punished for, like in day-to-day life,” said Jose Marichal, professor of political science at California Lutheran University. “And increasingly, scrolling gives you the reward of being freed from boredom.”
Even though the algorithm may make users feel like they are the one in control, Marichal said we are now living in a world where the things we see online and the information we consume are structured by engagement-driven algorithms.
“It feels like it’s coming from you. It feels like you’re in charge, you’re in control,” Marichal said. “Even though it feels like you’re the one controlling it, it’s also figuring out not just what’s gonna keep you there, but also what things you might be interested in.” https://cluecho.com/32208/opinion/social-media-algorithms-are-becoming-increasingly-dangerous/
In a lot of ways, this is how Satan the devil works.
The Bible calls him the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4) and “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).
Satan blasts a hostility towards the way of peace and people, adults and children, consider this normal.
Satan and society push traditions that people are comfortable with, but that Jesus condemned (cf. Matthew 15:1-20).
Just like certain aspects of web design, gambling tricks, pornography, and algorithms, Satan’s ways often seem natural and normal.
We all need to be mindful of that.
So, what should be done?
Well, children and adults should:
- Limit their entertainment time on the internet.
- Never intentionally view pornography.
- Often have their mobile cellular phones turned off.
And biblically, consider the following from the Apostle Paul:
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints — 19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6:11-20)
And since the Apostle Paul died long ago, you should pray for the faithful leadership of the true Church of God to “boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel” and they “ought to speak.”
If your focus is too much on yourself, you will not be doing what God wants.
You will not be able to break Satan’s influence if you will not do what God says.
With God’s help you can change as the Apostle Paul taught:
13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
Related to this, we put out the following video:
‘How to Change Your Life in 5 Seconds’
Inc. magazine posted an article online titled ‘How to Change Your Life in 5 Seconds.’ In it, Mel Robbins explains how she developed a technique to be more productive. She observed that 95% of decision are based on emotion instead of logic, and how and why adding a five second countdown helped her life. She mentions that fear, anger, and other factors often interfere with our ability to be better people. In this video, Dr. Thiel quotes a lot from that article, including some of the science behind the technique. He also quotes Jesus as well as many passages from the Bible. He also teaches a 5 second statement to say and pray to use as a five second spiritual statement to help Christians change.
Here is a link to the video: ‘How to Change Your Life in 5 Seconds’.
You and your children can break the “superglue” of social media, gambling, and/or pornography if you obey the word of God, rely on Jesus, and support the work of God.
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
Gambling and Sin: Is it a Sin for Christians to Gamble? What does the Bible reveal? A related video is Gambling: A Covetous Sin?
Should the Church Still Try to Place its Top Priority on Proclaiming the Gospel or Did Herbert W. Armstrong Change that Priority for the Work? Some say the Church should mainly feed the flock now as that is what Herbert W. Armstrong reportedly said. Is that what he said? Is that what the Bible says? What did Paul and Herbert W. Armstrong expect from lower level leaders? Two related sermons are available The Work per HWA and the Bible and Priority of the Philadelphia Work.
Pornography: A scourge on society Is pornography harmless fun? Does the Bible teach anything about it? What are the views of some involved with it? A related sermons is titled: Pornography, False Comfort, and False Religion. Here a shorter YouTube video Pornography: Harmless Fun or a Scourge on Society?
Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word What is the ‘short work’ of Romans 9:28? Who is preparing for it? Will Philadelphian Christians instruct many in the end times? What about modern censoring, censorship, and shadow banning? Here is a link to a related video sermon titled: The Short Work. Here is a link to another: Preparing to Instruct Many.
The Final Phase of the Work What is the final phase of the work? Who will lead it? Do you have the courage to support it? Here are two related YouTube videos titled Final Phase of the Work: Need and Background and The Final Phase of the Work. The written article has been translated into Spanish La Fase Final de la Obra. And here is a link to a related Spanish language sermon: La obra corta y el Hambre de la Palabra de Dios.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. It is available in numerous languages at ccog.org. Here are links to four kingdom-related sermons: The Fantastic Gospel of the Kingdom of God!, The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.
Why is there a Philadelphian remnant of the true Christian Church of God? Did the old Worldwide Church of God essentially predict a Philadelphian remnant? Is a Philadelphian remnant needed for end-time prophecies to be fulfilled? Here is a link to a related sermon: The Philadelphia Remnant.