With its overabundance of colorful and eye-catching apps, it’s no surprise that we spend a quarter of our waking lives on our smartphone.
But you may not have noticed that these little icons, attractively arranged in grid-like stacks on our screens, are constantly competing for touches.
In fact, popular apps, from WhatsApp to X, Instagram and Spotify, have been deliberately designed to draw our fingers to them, psychologists reveal.
For example, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger are designed to look like buttons, and research shows that we love pressing buttons since childhood.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s
Meanwhile, Spotify has the appearance of a fingerprint reader and YouTube has a play icon right in the center, both instinctively attracting touches.
Dr. Anastasia Dedyukhina, digital well-being expert and director of the Consciously Digital InstituteHe said that attractive and attractive icons make us “more likely to tap and use the app.”
“In general, shapes like circles, rounded edges or shadows make app icons look like buttons, which makes people want to press them,” he told MailOnline.
Popular apps, from WhatsApp to X, Instagram and Spotify, have been deliberately designed to draw our fingers to them, psychologists reveal.
‘Facebook’s rounded “F” in a square looks like a button, making you want to tap it, while Amazon’s smiling arrow feels friendly and looks like a package handle, matching its delivery theme.
“On Instagram, the camera icon is reminiscent of old Polaroid cameras, which is nostalgic, and the bright colors make it look fun and exciting.”
Many app icons feature circles, such as Messenger, WhatsApp, and Spotify, tapping into an innate desire from childhood to touch dots, but others also have non-circular patterns.
After Elon Musk bought Twitter, he changed the app’s name and logo from a bird to an X, which may have been part of an internal strategy to draw our fingers.
Dr. Daria J. Kuss, professor of psychology at Nottingham Trent University, said many apps like X “use simple, recognizable symbols and icons that are familiar to us.”
“Smartphone apps are designed in such a way that they attract attention and stand out to ensure that users interact with them,” he told MailOnline.
Dr. Jay Olson, a postdoctoral researcher in the psychology department at McGill University in Canada, said changing app icons “can definitely influence behavior.”
“Some companies A/B test different app icons,” he told MailOnline.
X marks the spot: Elon Musk’s X has a large X marking the spot, like a helicopter landing pad for our fingertip. Changing the Twitter app (with a bird icon) to X (with an X icon) may have been a deliberate move to make it more accessible
“For example, they can test two different designs of an icon in the App Store and then stick with the one that generates the most downloads.”
WhatsApp is a good example of a clickable app because the circular voice button in the center has been made to look like a button.
Research suggests that we like to press buttons from childhood, even when we know we shouldn’t.
Professor Rachel Plotnick, a cultural theorist at Indiana University Bloomington, believes buttons “encourage consumerism” and are ubiquitous from a young age.
He pointed to Amazon Dash, a discontinued device that allowed users to reorder their favorite items with the press of a button, from Heineken beer to Tide washing powder.
“Social media is generally designed around a ‘buttoning’ mentality,” Professor Plotnick, author of ‘Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic and the Politics of Pushing’, told MailOnline.
‘We tap buttons to order products and order transportation, we press buttons to express our feelings (via emojis, thumbs, etc.) on posts and shared content, and we click buttons to fill out forms, apply for jobs, and communicate.
“Historically, pressing a button has long been associated with pleasure, instant gratification and rapid communication.
Research suggests we like to press buttons from childhood, even when we know we shouldn’t (file photo)
According to one expert, pushing buttons fuels consumerism. Pictured is Amazon Dash, which allows users to reorder their favorite items with the push of a button.
‘Everything that can be done with the “press of a button” is perceived as easy, automatic and desirable.
‘I bet social media companies like Facebook, WhatsApp, Spotify and YouTube are playing on this cultural fascination with buttons and our desire to push them.
“But this could make it much harder to stop using these platforms, even when we feel like we need a break.”
Research last month revealed that the average Brit spends four hours and 20 minutes a day on their phone – around a quarter of our waking life.
In total, women spend four hours and 36 minutes online per day, while men spend four hours and 3 minutes online per day, according to the Ofcom report.
Meanwhile, a 2022 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health linked compulsive smartphone use to “burnout.”
Burnout is defined as a state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that can occur when you experience prolonged stress and feel under constant pressure.
TV host Carol Vorderman recently said she turns off her smartphone for 12 hours a day to avoid “exhaustion” after a health scare.