Answer: Variable time between "rewards"

That's certainly true for Candy Crush, too.

http://pandawhale.com/post/27710/candy-crush-and-the-addictive-properties-of-casual-gaming

Reminds me of the ancient diablo 2 vs diablo 3 post:

http://pandawhale.com/post/3242/why-diablo-3-is-less-addictive-than-diablo-2-a-scientific-explanation-alex-cureleas-dev-log

Check out the pretty graphs.

Matt, thanks, I went back and re read that article. It is excellent.

As is this one on Angry Birds addictive qualities:

http://pandawhale.com/post/359/why-angry-birds-is-so-addictive

By the way, it is the high engagement on devices that makes mobile ads work so well. 

Eric is correct. Our neurology can only express or receive chemical signals in positive numbers, meaning unidirectional rate sensitivity.  And when we express or receive emotional pulse cascades of pleasure or pain tied to any experience or stimulus, they are either damped or amped by the experience of that regular or random frequency:

rhythmic pulses dampen rate sensitivity and inure us to chemical signals

arrhythmic pulses amp up rate sensitivity and addict us to chemical signals

So if you want to piss someone off, then agitate them randomly;

If you want to delight someone, then as they say--random acts of kindness

Any emotional polarity amps chemical sensitivity to signal when delivered randomly, wherever experienced across our ascribed emotional pain or pleasure continuum

Inversely, if you want to soothe and calm then be rhythmic with your signal...think of babies, works like a charm.

Next time I will try thinking of babies. Thanks Rob.

The worst part of smartphones is they create a culture of distraction.

http://pandawhale.com/post/2111/joe-kraus-on-how-we-are-creating-a-culture-of-distraction-and-the-repercussions

I think our culture and physiology of distraction has always been among us... 

...but somehow the pervasiveness of smartphone technology has made it ok for everyone to be rude now in almost every social setting.

Remember how it all began with these douchebags, if you'll pardon my French:

Now everybody is talking loud and posturing in public as if the world depended on their call...so far that's the most unfortunate part.  

But I'm not totally pissy about it, 'cause we can be very happy about the great value it's brought to people's lives outside of western first world economies, those who were able to leap-frog into cell technology and spark rapid and significant baseline improvements in their daily well-being.

Hopefully smartphone technology is still in a rapid innovation phase here in the west and on the way towards embedding the damn things in the first above-mentioned people's heads, or at least exposing a mute button whenever such people are in public.

In other words: If we do not master our phones, our phones become our master.

...unless you happen to be in the proximity of an even bigger man who threatens to master you unless you put your phone away--haha!

Smartphone bouncers are the future.

Imagine if in day to day face to face conversation you made a statement or asked a question and waited an hour or day for a response.  The counter party just stares at you for an hour. 

When my toddler asks a question or makes a comment I need to validate it immediately or it is repeated and if I don't understand and say it back, meltdown insues. 

With smartphones there is this hybrid communication with unknown response times. It is maddening at times.  You don't know if you were not received or ignored. 

So, I write this post that is pretty obvious and really without meaning, but my mind grasps at the need for the response that in reality I should have no expectation of receiving. 

Every word I utter or type my mind grasps at response and is not happy until I forget or move on to next. If i get a "like" yeah i am smart and if trollled, boo people suck. Even to a greater extent my mind is grasping otherwise I would not have even taken the time to write this. 

So in conclusion,  wtf am I doing? 

Every action has reactions whether you see them or not.