1. Notification Manipulation
- Creating ambiguous red notification dots that compel checking
- Sending excessive email notifications about minimal activity
- Highlighting insignificant events as "notifications" to increase engagement
- Making notification settings complex and scattered across different menus
2. Feed Algorithm Manipulation
- Prioritizing emotionally triggering content to increase engagement
- Inserting "recommended" posts from unknown sources into the main feed
- Re-showing old posts to make the platform seem more active
- Making chronological feed difficult to access and maintain as default
3. Privacy Deception
- Complex, multi-layer privacy settings that default to maximum sharing
- Making privacy controls difficult to find and understand
- Presenting privacy options in ways that encourage more sharing
- Periodically resetting certain privacy settings after updates
4. Social Pressure Tactics
- Showing "seen" receipts on messages to create response pressure
- Displaying online status by default
- Notifying others when you're "typing"
- Making it obvious when you're ignoring friend requests
5. Data Collection Coercion
- Making certain platform features unusable without granting additional permissions
- Repeatedly requesting phone number verification for "security"
- Pushing facial recognition through photo tagging features
- Using dark patterns to encourage location sharing
6. Account Deletion Obstacles
- Hiding account deletion options behind multiple menus
- Emotional manipulation during deletion ("Your friends will miss you")
- Offering "deactivation" instead of deletion as the primary option
- Making the deletion process unnecessarily long (30+ days)
7. Messaging Platform Lock-in
- Making Messenger a separate mandatory app
- Hiding message requests from non-connections
- Creating friction for external communication methods
- Pushing users toward Messenger for all communication
8. Advertisement Manipulation
- Making sponsored posts look similar to regular posts
- Using user data and activity for ad targeting without clear disclosure
- Making ad preference controls difficult to find and use
- Presenting targeted ads as "suggested for you" to seem more organic
9. Feature Bundling
- Forcing Instagram integration
- Making WhatsApp sharing seem necessary
- Pushing users toward Facebook's browser for external links
- Integrating Marketplace to keep users within the ecosystem
10. Engagement Amplification
- "People you may know" suggestions based on subtle data collection
- Birthday notifications to drive obligatory interaction
- Memories and flashbacks to encourage resharing
- Creating FOMO through event and activity highlights
These patterns are particularly effective because they exploit fundamental human psychology:
- Social validation needs
- Fear of missing out (FOMO)
- Reciprocity obligations
- Loss aversion
- Habit formation through variable reward schedules
The impact of these patterns is especially concerning because:
1. Mental Health Effects
- Creating anxiety about missed notifications
- Fostering social comparison and inadequacy feelings
- Encouraging addictive checking behaviors
2. Privacy Implications
- Normalizing extensive data sharing
- Making privacy protection actively difficult
- Creating detailed user profiles without clear consent
3. Social Relationship Impact
- Quantifying friendships through metrics
- Creating artificial social obligations
- Reducing genuine interactions to digital signals
4. Time and Attention Costs
- Making it harder to maintain focused attention
- Creating endless scroll and engagement loops
- Difficulty in maintaining healthy usage boundaries