Two decades ago, astronomers first observed that the universe was not just expanding, but expanding and accelerating. This contradicted their prediction: that the gravitational pull of all of the mass in the universe would slow and eventually cease its expansion. This would be followed by a so-called “Big Crunch,” where the inescapable pull of gravity would cause the universe to collapse back in on itself. If the universe’s expansion was not

Dark energy is perhaps best understood as the antidote to a black hole. Whereas the massive gravitational pull of a black hole drags everything towards it, dark energy is responsible for everything in the universe gradually moving farther away from everything else.

Further, since we know the universe is not just expanding, but expanding at an accelerating rate, we can safely assume dark energy is either stronger or more prevalent than physical matter (and thus, gravity). The latter turns out to be true: physical matter makes up roughly 5 percent of all matter in the universe, while dark energy makes up

This discovery was made in 1998. One year later, a majority of electronics companies agreed to make WiFi the worldwide standard for wireless internet. That year, the world took a massive step towards worldwide connectivity.

There is no causation here, just correlation. Still, we can draw a parallel between our monumental discovery of the universe’s accelerating expansion and mass polarization caused by the internet (now spilling over into the real world). To understand why the internet is responsible for this polarization, and the parallel between the cosmic and virtual world, it’s necessary to consider three things:

1. Why approval has more of an effect on decision-making than almost any other factor
2. How and why the variable reward schedule works, specifically in regard to social networks
3. What makes brands successful

Let’s take each in turn.

Approval’s effect on decision-making

Humans evolved in small groups, typically of no more than 150 people. Any more than that and we would’ve been unable to maintain familiar, stable relationships with people, and the bonds that held the community together would’ve broken down. In these groups, it was vital to have a method of identifying and expelling someone toxic to the rest of the group. Thus, out of these early groups emerged gossip, or conversation between members of the group about another member behind their back, as a mechanism to do so with as little friction as possible.

Gossip enabled groups to formulate common knowledge about individuals within them. It wasn’t just that everyone knew an individual needed to be expelled, but everyone knew that everyone else knew it. Thus, everyone could be counted on to act when the time came for expulsion.

The infinitesimally slim probability of approval at a global scale explains why social networks are so widely used: We’re addicted to variable rewards.

Since expulsion from the group meant almost certain death, it follows that those of us still around today are evolutionarily programmed to fit in with the crowd. Those who didn’t are dead and didn’t procreate, so there aren’t any of them left.

It follows that the possibility of external approval — or disapproval — has a profound effect on our decisions. The level of disapproval enabled by the internet feels as dramatic to us as death at the hands of the crowd. On the other hand, the pull of the possibility of approval is powerful enough to outweigh our fear of disapproval. In fact, the infinitesimally slim probability of approval at a global scale explains why social networks are so widely used: We’re addicted to variable rewards.

Why social networks are addictive: The variable reward schedule

The variable reward schedule is a system designed to unpredictably distribute rewards in response to an action. In a famous experiment led by behaviorist B.F. Skinner, there were two groups of mice. The first group received the same size treat each time they pressed the lever. The second group would press a lever and randomly receive either a large treat, a small treat, or nothing at all. While the mice in the control group showed no compulsive need to press the lever, the mice in the second group pressed it with a reckless fervor. Their lever was that of a slot machine: compulsively addictive because it was designed as a variable reward distributing mechanism.

Systems like this are addictive because they appeal to an evolutionary strength: pattern recognition. Consider the human brain as an algorithm digesting inputs and expelling outputs. (If “________,” then “________.”) A humanoid species running on an algorithm with the logic “if [random noise], then [run]” would have had a better chance of survival than a species whose logic was “if [random noise], then [who knows?].” It follows that humans are evolutionarily primed to seek patterns to the point of creating them where they do not exist; in fact, the very existence of our species in the current era is a result of having done so.

Social networks have succeeded because they variably distribute the most evolutionarily compelling reward possible: approval.

Casinos have understood this for generations, and many examples of addictive, deliberately unpredictable systems are found within their hazy confines: craps tables, slot machines, roulette. It is easy to see the parallel between these games and social media; in fact, the only real difference between social media and slot machines is that the former distributes approval, while the latter distributes money, or fiat approval.

Why brands succeed

Put simply, brands succeed because they make people believe they are being perceived in the way they want to be perceived. As long as there are people who want to believe they are being perceived a certain way, brands will exist to help.