You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hi, shortwavers. Emily Kwong here with NPR alum, now independent science journalist, Mike Lean, Doleaf.

Hi, Mike Lean. Hi, Emily. I hear you have a new book out now about the science behind screen time.

I do. It's called Dopamine Kids, and in one part of it, I explore why so many of us, including

myself, can't put down our darn phones. It's awful. Yeah, I pick up my phone to do one thing,

and suddenly I'm on social media for 20 minutes. I don't know how that happens. Yeah, for me,

Emily, it feels like there's this kind of super glue on the phone holding me there.

Turns out that feeling isn't accidental.

Many apps are designed to do this.

And this has kind of come to light in the courts, too.

There have been two landmark trials this year in which tech companies were found guilty of harming children through their apps,

and specifically the California case found Instagram owner Meta and Google's YouTube deliberately

designed their apps to be addictive for kids. Yeah, and the companies are appealing those

verdicts. But scientists have already spent more than a decade identifying the exact features

that tech companies use to keep us glued to apps for as long

as possible. So Emily, I have for you today the super glue recipe, as the anthropologist

Natasha Dalshaw puts it. Things that keep us, you know, spending more time, spending more

money, draining more of us and our energy and

ourselves, what might literally prevent flourishing? Yes, this is what social media addiction

and, like, obsession sounds like. But these features, they have a surprising history I hear. Yes,

they have deep roots in the gambling industry.

So today on the show, we are digging into the design of your favorite phone app

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