A push notification is a message that appears on a mobile device such as a text, sports score, limited-time deal, or an e-mail announcing when a computer network will be down for a scheduled maintenance.
Similarly, variable reward systems keep users compulsively checking their phones due to the possibility of social approval awaiting them.
He points to the increase in depression and suicide rates among teens and young adults since the early 2000s and Haidy states that this trend starts the year social media was made available on cell phones.
Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google and co-founder of the Center for Human Technology states that there is a "disinformation-for-profit business model" and companies profit by allowing "unregulated messages to reach anyone for the best price".
This is always used to drive larger profits, whether that means that companies use notifications to simply promote their newest product, or if they subtly try to get you back onto the app in order to take more of your time.