Leon Festinger's social comparison theory (1954) established that people evaluate their opinions and standing by comparing themselves to others. Apps that make comparison metrics public — follower counts, like totals, streaks, leaderboards — operationalize this as an engagement mechanism. The score isn't informational; it exists to be compared.
Jean Twenge's longitudinal research on adolescents shows a downstream effect: as social life moved onto platforms where status metrics are visible and permanent, rates of anxiety and depression among teenagers rose in parallel with adoption. The pressure is not incidental to these designs — it is the product.