By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE
Published: 08:28 EST, 7 December 2024 | Updated: 08:32 EST, 7 December 2024
With their overabundance of colourful, eye-catching apps, it comes as little surprise that we spend a quarter of our waking lives on our smartphone.
But you may not have haven't noticed that these little icons – fetchingly arranged in grid-like stacks on our displays – are constantly competing for taps.
In fact, popular apps, from WhatsApp to X, Instagram and Spotify have been deliberately designed to draw our fingers to them, psychologists reveal.
For example, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger are made to look like buttons, which research shows we love pressing buttons right from childhood.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk's X, which got a new name and logo last year, has a big X marking the spot, like a helicopter landing pad for our fingertip.
Meanwhile, Spotify kind of has the appearance of a fingerprint reader and YouTube has a the play icon right in the centre – both instinctively luring taps.
Dr Anastasia Dedyukhina, a digital wellbeing expert and director of the Consciously Digital Institute, said engaging, attractive icons make us 'more likely to tap and use the app'.
'Overall, shapes like circles, rounded edges, or shading make app icons feel like buttons, which makes people want to press them,' she told MailOnline.
Popular apps, from WhatsApp to X, Instagram and Spotify have been deliberately designed to draw our fingers to them, psychologists reveal
'Facebook's rounded “F” in a square looks like a button, making you want to tap it, while Amazon's smiley arrow feels friendly and looks like a handle on a package, matching their delivery theme.
'On Instagram, the camera icon reminds people of old Polaroid cameras, which feels nostalgic, and the bright colors make it look fun and exciting.'
Many app icons feature circles, such as Messenger, WhatsApp and Spotify, which taps into a innate desire since infanthood to touch spots, but others have non-circular patterns too.
After Elon Musk purchased Twitter, he renamed it and changed the app's logo from a bird to an X, which may have been part of an internal strategy to draw our fingers.
Dr Daria J Kuss, professor in psychology at Nottingham Trent University, said many apps such as X 'use simple and recognisable symbols and icons which are familiar to us'.
'Smartphone apps are designed in such a way to grab attention and stand out to ensure that users engage with it,' she told MailOnline.
Dr Jay Olson, a postdoctoral scholar at McGill University's department of psychology in Canada, said changing app icons 'can definitely influence behaviour'.
'Some companies do A/B testing of different app icons,' he told MailOnline.
Twitter was launched in 2006, with posts or 'tweets' akin to chirps from birds
Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 before changing the app name and logo to X
Why do we like pushing buttons?
Research suggests we like pushing buttons from childhood, even when we know we're not supposed to.
In the late 1800s, it was found children would push buttons - like honking horns and ringing doorbells - especially when their parents didn’t want them to.
It's thought pleasurable tactile sensations are gained from the touch of a button.
But by pressing them repeatedly in our daily lives, we've been conditioned to expect buttons to give is what we want.
This may explain why we get so frustrated when buttons do not work.
'For example, they may test two different designs of an icon in the App Store and then keep whichever one leads to the most downloads.'
WhatsApp is a good example of a highly clickable app because the circular speech button in the centre has been made to look like a button.
Research suggests we like pushing buttons from childhood, even when we know we're not supposed to.
Professor Rachel Plotnick, a cultural theorist at Indiana University Bloomington, thinks buttons 'encourage consumerism' and are ubiquitous from an early age.
She pointed to Amazon Dash, a discontinued gadget from that let users re-order their favourite items with the push of a button, from Heineken beer to Tide laundry powder.
'Social media is generally designed around a “buttonization” mentality,' Professor Plotnick – author of 'Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic and the Politics of Pushing' – told MailOnline.
'We tap buttons to order products and call for a ride, we press buttons to express our feelings (through emojis, thumbs, etc., ) about posts and shared content and we click buttons to complete forms and apply for jobs and to communicate.
'Historically, button-pushing has long been associated with pleasure, instant gratification, and rapid communication.
Research suggests we like pushing buttons from childhood, even when we know we're not supposed to (file photo)
Button-pushing fuels consumerism according to one expert. Pictured, Amazon Dash which let users re-order their favourite items with the push of a button
'Anything that can be done with “just the push of a button” is perceived as easy, automatic, and desirable.
'I’d wager that social media companies like Facebook, WhatsApp, Spotify, and YouTube are all playing on this cultural fascination with buttons and our desire to push them.
'But this might make it that much more difficult to stop using these platforms, even when we feel like we need a break.'
Research last month revealed the average Briton spends four hours and 20 minutes on their phone per day – around a quarter of our waking lives.
In total, women spend four hours and 36 minutes online per day, while men spend four hours and 3 minutes online per day, the Ofcom report found.
Meanwhile, a 2022 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health linked compulsive use of a smartphone with 'burnout'.
Burnout is defined as a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion that can occur when you experience long-term stress and feel under constant pressure.
TV presenter Carol Vorderman recently said she turns her smartphone off for 12 hours a day to help her avoid 'burnout' following a health scare.