# Addictive Motivational Scaffolds and the Structure of Social Media

## TL;DR

The paper introduces addictive motivational scaffolds to explain how social media and other activities can become addictive through specific structural features.

## Contribution

The novel concept of addictive motivational scaffolds is introduced to better understand and analyze behavioral addiction.

## Key findings

- Four addictive motivational scaffolds are identified: quantified metrics, reward uncertainty, short time-horizon to reward, and physically salient features.
- Applying the concept to social media reveals structural aspects of its addictiveness that are often overlooked.
- The framework offers a new philosophical perspective on addiction through the lens of 4E cognition and psychiatric externalism.

## Abstract

In this paper, I propose an account of behavioral addiction in terms of what I call addictive motivational scaffolds (AMSs). Taking inspiration from recent work concerning psychiatric externalism and addiction, I propose and describe the concept of motivational scaffolding: external structure that enhances, supports, or regulates motivational processes in the mind-brain. I then argue that some motivational scaffolds are likely difference-makers in that they make an activity more addictive. The paper proceeds in three main parts. First, I describe the concept of a motivational scaffold and how it builds on recent literature in 4E cognition/psychiatric externalist accounts of addiction. Using gambling and gaming as paradigm cases of addictive activities, I then identify and empirically justify four addictive motivational scaffolds (AMSs): (1) quantified metrics, (2) reward uncertainty, (3) short time-horizon to reward, and (4) physically salient features. Finally, I apply my account to social media to showcase its philosophical usefulness: analyzing behavioral addiction in terms of AMSs uniquely elucidates the more structural aspects of the addictiveness of social media, which are undertheorized.