[jamesjyu]

Exactly.

Would this also apply to products like Uber? I use it all the time, and can't imagine life without it. Am I addicted to it? Is it an unethical company because people love to use it and it provides value to their lives?

[teacup50]

"Addiction is the continued repetition of a behavior despite adverse consequences, or a neurological impairment leading to such behaviors."

Would you say you have an addiction to Uber?

[riboflavin]

I chose the word "addiction" pretty specifically - does it enrich the user's life? Uber does. (And you probably don't have a desire to use Uber for hours every day).

Social gaming (someone mentioned below) does, to a point, and then it's engineered to go way, way beyond that point.

It's complicated of course - and there's a spectrum - but I think a bad sign is if your architecture is intended to hack the reward systems of your customers.

[hnriot]

"I use it all the time" - you might find it more economical to buy a car. I fail to see how anyone could be addicted to something as basic as transport. It's like saying you're addicted to using BART or MUNI.

[minimaxir]

It's only unethical if a) Uber has a monopoly and b) they charge a surplus (i.e. price-fixing) due to said monopoly.

Uber doesn't have a monopoly in ride-sharing, and Twitter doesn't have a monopoly in microblogging.