Mm, I don't know. For me the experience itself does feel (mildly) addictive. The urge to keep refreshing to see what's new, to click my notifications, to keep scrolling even if I'm not that engaged... I think it's fair to describe those as "hacking my brain's reward system"
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Perhaps the reason for the framing is to shift the responsibility? I see a lot of blaming of Twitter, FB, etc for UX "dark patterns" that keep you engaged to boost business metrics. OTOH, you wouldn't blame your boyfriend for being irresistible (or maybe you would, idk
).
Yes — I'm not saying Twitter *isn't* optimizing for user engagement, but it's silly to have this convo as though Twitter is a contentless dopamine drip. Why do we enjoy 
s from strangers? How do we get caught up in rage-bait? "Because our brains are hacked" isn't very helpful.
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Yes, it's a bit of an "applause light", isn't it? But the actual reasons vary, so maybe to be "hacked" is a way to refer to the general phenomenon without going into the details of how you're personally affected? It would be interesting for me to see those details, though.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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