Screen addiction is not limited to humans; nonhuman animals, like common marmosets, also exhibit addictive behaviors towards screens. A study demonstrated that marmosets tapped videos on a tablet to zoom in and hear sounds, becoming engaged without any standard rewards. This behavior mimics human tendencies to endlessly scroll through social media, motivated by continual change on screens. The interaction with screens is reinforcing, fostering a habit that persists even when the reward is removed, highlighting potential concerns about screen time for both humans and animals.
In a recent study, common marmosets, small South American monkeys, learned to tap videos on a computerized tablet, just to make the image bigger and hear chattering sounds. There was no food, no treats, nothing you would normally think of as a reward. Just the screen itself was enough to keep them doing it over and over again.
Within a few weeks, most of the marmosets were tapping regularly. Even when the reward was taken away, some of them kept tapping anyway. This suggests that the interaction itself and the change on the screen were enough to keep them going.
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