Mobile phones are no longer neutral objects. They are designed to grab our attention, hold it, and subtly shape it.

As a result, more and more adults and children report being addicted to their phones (1). But looking deeper, smartphone addiction is not a weakness of the individual, but a consequence of psychological mechanisms exploited by big tech companies. Effective techniques that we, driven by our evolutionary psychology, are barely able to resist. How do these processes work, and what happens to our attention when cunningly programmed technology takes over the space where inner focus, peace, and mutual contact once lived?

Attention as a fundamental resource

Attention is a scarce form of energy, a limited resource that you can only direct at one thing at a time and can also lose. Attention might even be the most fundamental resource for shaping our lives and society.

That is why we often say: "Your attention creates your life."

Smartphones compete directly with all other areas of our lives to which we can pay attention. Take our inner world, for example; instead of directing our awareness toward our thoughts, feelings, or bodily sensations, smartphones and screens constantly pull it outward. After all, the platforms are built in such a way that every second of attention is usable. They measure, optimize, and steer toward maximum engagement. Not to support you, but to harvest your attention, so to speak. Research shows that major platforms continuously adjust their algorithms to keep people engaged for as long as possible. Meta, TikTok, and YouTube optimize their recommendation systems based on these measurable interactions, such as watch time, likes, scrolling behavior, and pauses. This means that the longer your attention is held, the more valuable you are to the business model. The amount advertisers pay is directly linked to the time you spend on the platform. And as it turns out, the most effective way to keep people engaged is through short videos that play continuously one after another. A model pioneered by TikTok, but now also seen in Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. The result is that we are increasingly glued to screens, leaving less time and energy for introspection and deeper connection with one another in our society.

Why is the smartphone so addictive?

It is well known by now: every notification, swipe, or update triggers the release of dopamine. Dopamine is often thought of as the happiness chemical, but in reality, it is primarily the chemical of anticipation. It tells the brain that a reward might be coming. Our interactive touchscreens exploit this system endlessly. The rewards found under our thumbs are small and variable: sometimes there is a boring message, sometimes a like, sometimes something funny, sometimes something great, and sometimes... there is absolutely nothing. As it turns out: it is precisely this unpredictability that makes it addictive.

In the 1940s, behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner discovered something remarkable during his experiments on rats.

When the animals in his so-called Skinner box were given two small levers—one that always provided a reward, and one that only sometimes provided a reward—they quickly grew bored with the first lever. But the rats kept compulsively pressing the second one. The unpredictable chance of a reward kept them constantly engaged. You can imagine how this mechanism motivated both humans and animals millennia ago to keep hunting or gathering food. But in an artificial setup like the Skinner box, where the reward can be won with minimal effort, a compulsive feedback loop emerges. Today, you could view our smartphones as a pocket-sized version of the Skinner box, programmed with a reward that can appear at any moment. And as it turns out: we humans are not so different from Skinner's rats.

Social and emotional triggers

In addition to these neurological processes, there is another subtle factor at play. Social media provide a continuous stream of social information. Likes, visibility, status, validation. Psychologically, these systems tap into some of our deepest needs: to be seen, to belong, and to understand our social standing. Simply put, they can make us feel less alone. They offer easy fulfillment of that need, but rarely true satisfaction. We keep returning for a desire that is never fully satisfied, and certainly not in the way our evolutionary biology expects. To make this example tangible, think of the difference between receiving a hug emoji versus experiencing a real-life embrace. In the millions of years of evolution preceding the smartphone, our social needs were not met through a small rectangular screen, but through meaningful interactions with other embodied humans. People with body language, micro-expressions, a unique scent, and all the other countless aspects of physical interaction.

Furthermore, the body also plays a supporting role in navigating the digital world. Except for minimal movement of our fingers and eyes, the rest of our body usually remains still when we interact with screens. As a result, our body gets fewer opportunities to send us signals. Interoception, the ability to sense what is happening inside your body, is suppressed when you sit still and pay no attention to your body. Prolonged sitting, lack of postural variety, constant visual focus, and a relentless stream of external stimuli all lead to reduced interoception and thus a diminished capacity to pay attention to what is happening within you. You feel thirst later. You feel fatigue later. You feel external stimuli more intensely. But you feel yourself less. Attention is clearly a phenomenon that is inextricably linked to the body.

Finally, the way technology fragments our consciousness is also a major factor that makes us even more vulnerable to the tricks of smartphone addiction. Constant stimuli create a pattern of micro-interruptions. Scientific research (2) shows that this leads to:

• less depth of attention

• a decrease in self-regulation

• a sense of restlessness

• greater difficulty recovering concentration

Psychologically speaking, we are dealing with an unstable state of attention. You are never fully here, but also never fully there. You might have noticed this in yourself or others. Due to this semi-conscious state, you are also extra vulnerable to the clever techniques of tech companies aiming to monetize your attention.

The illusion of freedom of choice

As mentioned earlier, a common misconception is that screen addiction is primarily a matter of a lack of self-discipline. Because, as we have discussed, it actually revolves around deliberate choices in the design of our apps. Platforms use behavioral psychology, neuromarketing, and data analysis to find the exact patterns that keep us clicking, scrolling, and returning. As users, we experience a kind of apparent freedom—"after all, we are the ones clicking, right?"—while in reality, we operate within systems designed precisely to direct and addict our attention.

Therefore, as far as we are concerned, screen addiction is not the fault of the individual, but primarily of user interface designers. We know that our attention is incredibly fragile, and we know exactly how it can be exploited through addictive design. This has been proven by the vast number of studies on how our attention works. Based on this knowledge, we can objectively determine that software can be more or less addictive depending on how it is designed.

That is why we believe regulation is necessary. Even if you read this article today and now understand more about smartphone addiction, tomorrow you will still spend more time on your smartphone than you want to. I too, as the author of this article and founder of the Attention for Attention foundation (stichting Aandacht voor Aandacht), still struggle with my own screen addiction. After all, it does not matter if you understand how it works, because evolutionary psychology is clearly no match for the addictive techniques applied by big tech.

The Right to Freedom of Attention

Hopefully, it is now clear; our attention is so vulnerable that it deserves to be protected. This is not because we are weak, but simply because we are human. Since attention is the resource with which we shape everything in life, and software can be designed to make our attention unfree, it is only natural to question those design choices. Because attention is essential to the personal and collective freedom of every human being, user interfaces and software choices that compromise this freedom are, in our eyes, unethical and inhumane.

The time is therefore ripe for a new human right: "The Universal Right to Freedom of Attention." This is a new ethic that ensures our minds are supported rather than undermined by technology, and where attention is no longer viewed as a commodity, but as something precious to be cherished. Appropriate regulation is not a limitation on innovation, but rather an invitation for more humane technology.

As a society, we stand at a crossroads. We can continue to accept that our attention is systematically eroded, or we can choose systems that help us be present with what matters to us. It starts with awareness, but it only ends when we design regulations in a way that respects our human vulnerability. Our goal is therefore to have the Right to Freedom of Attention included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by 2030.