Constantin Vica
Constantin Vica is a philosopher at the University of Bucharest working on ethics and digital technology, and a co-author of the 2024 Topoi paper on social media platforms as attentional scaffolds. That paper makes the structural case that platforms operate on a variable-ratio schedule, which is the strongest version of the position this site's own writing on scrolling sets itself against.
Who they are
The argument he co-authors is philosophical rather than experimental, and its strength is that it does not need an experiment. If a platform delivers rewarding content on an unpredictable schedule, the behaviour that follows is the behaviour the reinforcement literature has described since the 1950s, and no further mechanism has to be posited. The scaffolding framing is the useful part: the claim is not that a user is compelled but that the environment has been shaped so that a particular pattern of attention is the path of least resistance.
This site holds only the 2024 paper for him and records nothing beyond what that work supports.
Key papers
Voinea, C., Vica, C., and colleagues (2024), "Digital Slot Machines: Social Media Platforms as Attentional Scaffolds," Topoi. The structural case that platforms operate on a variable-ratio schedule. Cristina Voinea is first author.
Key ideas
Platforms as attentional scaffolds. The environment is arranged so that a particular pattern of attention costs the least, which is a claim about design rather than about willpower.
The variable-ratio comparison is structural. It rests on the shape of the delivery schedule rather than on a measured effect in users.
The argument is philosophical and is strongest read that way. It describes what the design implies rather than what any study has shown.
Sources
- Voinea, C., Vica, C., and colleagues (2024), "Digital Slot Machines: Social Media Platforms as Attentional Scaffolds," Topoi.
- Vault note: [[Constantin Vica]].