The influence of persuasive software features to the addictiveness of YouTube

Abstract

Social media applications dominate the internet. Although these applications can have many benefits for their users, they do not exist without downsides. It has become a common experience for many users to end up scrolling through pages of content for excessive durations of time and finding it difficult to quit. As a result, concerns have been raised about social media causing a type of behavioral addiction.

Much of the existing research on this phenomenon has focused on user-related factors, and not much attention has been given to the role of the software design of these platforms. In this paper, the software features of the social video sharing application YouTube were investigated through the lens of persuasive technology. In particular, this study explored potential connections between YouTube feature use and addiction-like symptoms, while distinguishing them from positive, yet highly engaging user experience.

An online survey regarding YouTube use was sent to the mailing list of university students and received 543 total responses. Data from the survey was analyzed using quantitative methods. As a result, it was found that while addiction to YouTube is quite rare, many users experience at least some components of disorderly use. It was also found that most YouTube features have very little connection to addiction-like outcomes, with the exception of YouTube Shorts, for which a modest correlation was found. The findings of this study suggest that the persuasive effects of short-form, algorithmically recommended content warrant further study.