Why is JetPunk So Addicting?

Congratulations! You use JetPunk so much that you stumbled into the blog section.

Chances are, you use JetPunk quite a lot. When I mean a lot, I mean that you've made over 300 quizzes, a good handful of blogs, and played thousands of quizzes, maybe ventured into the depths of the website. Sounds like you? Probably.

Of course, it's not a coincidence that over one million users have created an account on JetPunk, with over 60,000 of them creating a quiz. Over 10,000 have aced 1000 featured quizzes.  What makes JetPunk this addicting?

Say, you start taking the Countries of the World quiz. Once you type a country, you get immediate feedback - your score is updated, and the country lights up green on the map. This sense of achievement releases a bit of your best friend, dopamine.

Humans prefer consistency and completion - the feeling of missing a single question will make you do a quiz all over again. Remember the first time you completed the Countries of the World quiz? Whether you knew them all already, or grinded for hours, completion released more dopamine.

Your score is then compared to the millions of other people who have taken the quiz before you. This relates to the Social Comparison Theory - humans compare their own performance compared to others. Simply put, if you named 72 Texas counties, you'd be quite proud of yourself - objectively. But seeing that this puts you at the average score, the adrenaline rush you just had is being shut down pretty quickly.

It's a sort of double reward system. Intrinsic (personal reward) and extrinsic (having a higher score than others) motivation will push you to take the quiz again, and again...and again.

Not only this, but JetPunk makes it easy to access your next quiz. Click the random button on the menu bar, find quizzes in the recommended box, or find 'your next quiz' after scrolling down. With so many ways to start another quiz, you're bound to click one. And another, and another...after that adrenaline rush and all that dopamine, you'll want to take more quizzes, striving for perfection, or simply a good time.

One thing JetPunk is good at doing is expanding your knowledge. You'll be using it in almost every quiz you take, so you should know your stuff.

One thing that JetPunk can exploit is your semantic memory. This doesn't store lists, but rather how different things connect.

Let's say you have a topic, like JetPunk. JetPunk itself won't mean anything unless you connect it to what JetPunk is related to:

These connections can actually be used to fill in the gaps of what you don't know. A very simple example of this is guessing countries in Europe on the EU Members Quiz, even if you don't have the EU countries memorized. Most JetPunk quizzes naturally trigger this type of thinking one way or another.

This traces back to dopamine again. You guess the answer, get a green flash. Yay, dopamine, and you do it again.

If you want to comment, you'll need to create an account. If you want to subscribe to a user, you'll have to create an account. If you want to create a quiz, you have to create an account.

You get the idea. The first wall in your path is creating a damn account.

Then, you're introduced to the main incentive to take quizzes - the points system.

Now, you're not actually getting any real benefits (besides commenting, creating quizzes etc.) from gaining points. This is an example of gamification. Completing a quiz will give you five points - in other words, proof of your effort, progress, and achievement. Reaching a new level also releases, you guessed it, dopamine. However, you'll need more points to go from level 29 to 30 then from one to two, which will push you to take more and more quizzes as you level up.

Another common example of gamification are streaks. On JetPunk, one incentive to come back to the site daily is to grow your streak.

Generally, we hate losses more than we like victory. Every time you get that extended streak pop up, you feel that sense of achievement. Commitment and consistency also come into play here, as you'll want to keep that number growing and alive.

The goal gradient effect is very simple - more effort, more progress, more importance. Losing your 5 day streak will be nothing compared to losing your 500 day streak. The more you come back to continue your streak, the more you'll want to keep it.

There's no 'quiz' without 'quizmaking'. And if you happen to like making JetPunk quizzes, the motivation is pretty simple. Similar to how there isn't one company who produces electronics, or one company who manufactures clothing, there's more than one JetPunk user. The general incentive is that a better quiz means more takes.

Oh, what? No, you think. I don't care how many takes I get! Well, you do. Or at least you do enough. Of course you'll be happier if you get 5,000 takes versus 50 takes.

The whole thing in displaying takes, and the quizmaker ranking, is to foster that competitive spirit! However, you can't exactly predict how well a quiz is going to perform once you publish it. If you could predict how well your quiz was going to do every time, it would take the fun out of making the quiz, wouldn't it? You know if you publish a quiz something will happen.

Uncertainty is very powerful! I mean, why not keep making more quizzes if you can score that golden 2%?

Let's say the gamble pays off. Woohoo, I got a featured quiz! First time I got one I was drooling for more (hello, dopamine). Anyway, the point is, you never know what'll happen, but it's always worth a shot.

Eventually, if you use JetPunk enough, you will become infused with it. Instead of something you do, it'll be something you are (think of it as a social media account). You have a streak to keep going, a bunch of quizzes to make, ranks to climb, and abandoning that will just feel like losing a part of yourself. Eventually, you'll be like "JetPunk is love, JetPunk is life" because it's now a part of yours.

You're not an internet user. The internet is using you. JetPunk is no exception - just one of the thousands of apps and websites designed to keep you on the screen.

You probably already know this, it's bad for your health, gets you addicted, blah blah blah. You have been manipulated by JetPunk. To learn, create, problem solve, make friends...huh. Maybe that's not so bad after all.