Formal Introduction: A Skinner box is an enclosed apparatus that contains a bar or key that an animal subject can manipulate in order to obtain reinforcement.1 Developed by B. F. Skinner (ik not the kind of bf you’d like ) and also known as an operant conditioning chamber.

Basically, it looks like a box, with a lever for food , Lets ignore light , water electric grid for furthur simplicity. it will have the subject inside in this case a rat

So Why this Skinner bloke was going around putting rats in a box which contains a lever for food. well, formally to understand conditioning patterns but on a lighter note we will look at it not because we love behavioral psychology but to get an answer to why the bloody hell i scroll so much?!.

so think of it as three of these boxes:

1. whenever the rat is hungry he presses the lever for food, and nothing ever comes out. (press the lever=no food)
2. whenever the rat is hungry he presses the lever and always the food comes out (press the lever= always food)
3. whenever the rat is hungry , he presses the lever and sometimes food comes out, sometimes it doesnt. (press the lever= possiblity of food)

Naturally, the first rat is going to be dejected and never press the lever because he knows, hes never going to get any morsel . The second rat however, will only press it when he is hungry and has 100% surety that he will get food. The things get murky , dismal and very much like you and me when it comes to the third rat , since there is uncertainity whether he gets food or not, he will compulsively press that lever (because you never know)

but what does it say about us, well the phone or the reels in this case becomes our skinner’s box, you never know maybe youll get a funny meme to laugh at or a geo-political posts that never lets you sleep. basically, Its the uncertainity , the presence of something infinitely good or bad that keeps us chained to these.

but what do i do? (idk write about it like me yes thats a good solution too), on a general level , dont love or hate that you scroll so much but instead try to think about it in terms of whether i got what i was looking for or not? , whether i would want to do it the next day too?. and if all of this gets all too guilty for you , atleast you know youre in a skinner’s box , you rat!