[lukifer]

The food industry has been carefully maximizing the addictiveness of its products for decades now. The software world has its equivalent in vendor lock-in, which may not tap into the same psychology, but is nonetheless rooted in fostering habits and dependence.

It's a problem of perverse incentives inherent in capitalism (and democracy also); the fact that a consumer's rational judgment holds so much power means that providers tend to be rewarded for distorting and subverting that rational judgment, which is easier than it would seem when done on a mass scale. It's a wicked problem, to be sure.