📸😵‍💫 How Instagram Hypnotizes You: Pattern Interrupt

In hypnosis there's a concept called Pattern Interrupt, it's when you interrupt the thought pattern of the brain of someone.

How a Pattern Interrupts functions and what it does to the brain:

there's many ways to do that, one example is:
Someone you know sees you and greets you

• "Hey man!, how are you doing?"
  In this moment his brain already expects a specific range of responses, but you respond with something unexpected like:
• "Red"

This makes the asker go into a "....what..?" Mental state for a moment. This is a pattern interrupt.

During this moment the mind becomes more suggestible. As I explained in other Psychology posts, the brain is a Predictive Machine.
https://discord.com/channels/1384444671258001418/1490748619748544722
Since the rational mind is bugged because it didn't predict this answer, the subconscious mind becomes open for suggestions.

How Instagram uses Pattern Interrupts to hypnotize you and keep you scrolling for hours

I just realized Instagram is a constant pattern interrupt.
Have you ever gone into Instagram to do something and then when you go into the app you immediately forget what you were going to do?

It's by design. Instagram integrates pattern interrupts into the system to make you lose your train of thought.

You might have noticed sometimes you click on one video on your For you page and before it redirects you to get the actual video it will show you a 1 second clip of a hot girl.
That is a pattern interrupt.

Also when you open the app sometimes it will immediately perform a Pattern interrupt on you throwing a highly distractive video on your face before you even see the main page.

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Test it yourself right now

You can go ahead and test it right now, be very aware that they will try to Pattern interrupt you and do not lose awareness of your goal: testing the pattern interrupt invasive "popups".
If you get stuck in there you lost, if that happens you will probably forget why you even went there in the first place and you'll just react to whatever the algorithm throws at you.
Don't react, for the sake of the experiment.

Know your weaknesses

For me it's hot girls politics or some profound idea. But for you it might be something else. The power of the algorithm is it learns:

• what you like,
• what keeps you hooked,
• what captures your attention,
• what's important for you
• what scares you
  So they can easily choose what will work better to perform a Pattern Interrupt on you.

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References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnosis
Pattern interruption is a technique used to break habitual mental, emotional, or behavioral states by introducing something unexpected. Rooted in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), it shifts attention, increases engagement, and boosts memory retention by forcing the brain out of autopilot. Common uses include marketing, sales, and personal development.

Key Aspects of Pattern Interrupts:

• Purpose: To grab attention, stop scrolling (thumbstopping), and disrupt monotony in communication or thinking.
• Examples: Using surprising visuals, asking unexpected questions, changing tone of voice, shifting positions, or using humor.
• Sales/Marketing: In sales, this might be a unique email subject line, or in marketing, a sudden visual change to stop social media users from scrolling.
• Behavioral Change: Disrupts automatic routines (e.g., stopping a negative thought loop by yelling "Stop!" or abruptly shifting activity).
• Benefits: Increases engagement, improves memory recall, and sparks creativity.

Examples of Pattern Interrupts

• Video: Starting a video with a loud sound or unexpected visual.
• Meetings: Standing up during a virtual call or playing a quick game.
• Thought Patterns: Physically moving (e.g., taking a walk) to break a mental block.

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