In year 3 of my studies I was asked to look into a specific type of psychological behavior. For this I looked into addiction and specifically social media addiction. Online addiction is one of the bigger addictions nowadays and affects a lot of young people in their day to day life. It makes them more insecure, leads to higher suicide rates in the US (according to the documentary the social dilemma. To spread awareness for this I made a game, meant for high schoolers, to show the effects of social media on your brain. The way social media affects your brain is almost the same as drugs-, alcohol- and other addictions. It tricks you into wanting more and because it’s a never-ending stop of the things you like you keep on going back for more.
In the beginning of the game people get explained how addiction works. I linked this to social media and how these apps and website trick you in using it. Social media mostly trick you by using the hook model, the media lets you upload something, you get likes and re-open the app to check up on those likes. People can see where in the brain a certain stimulus happens and how that affects you. By describing this and linking it to social media I wanted to further explain to people why it’s dangerous and how it affects your brain.
This game was made in a retro video game style. I handed this in, in combination with the cards , this way they both have a old timey look. This also helped with the unreal feeling of the game.
