Another element is that time is the ultimate zero-sum, nonfungible, rivalrous resource.
Time spent on FB is time not spent on another site. And the higher-friction FB can make activities (to the pain point of driving away users), the better for FB.
There's a similar notion in other areas, and one of the most ridiculously malevolent examples I can think of is a brick-and-mortar sales promotion gimmick: a furniture store would run a midsummer sales event on a weekend where every family visiting the store would receive a free gallon of ice cream.
Because if you've just put a gallon of ice cream in your trunk, you can't visit another furniture store, you've got to head home to put it in the freezer. And time not spent in a competitor's furniture store is time not spent assessing and purchasing their products.
(That leverages the sunk cost fallacy as well, among others.)
I tried to find an example of the promotion online, but couldn't. I'm not sure what the specific mechanics were, and it may have been an unadverised deal.
So, family appears at strore, is unexpectedly gifted a gallon of ice cream, and finds they have to head home so as not to "waste" it. (What is actually being wasted is the comparison-shopping opportunity.)
Hrm... Maybe this was on an economics podcast / programme ... possibly Freakonomics. I'll see if I can't turn it up.
One of several possible responses, yes. Better, offer to hold (and refrigerate) the ice cream until the customer is ready to pick it up, as that would entice them to the store twice.
Time spent on FB is time not spent on another site. And the higher-friction FB can make activities (to the pain point of driving away users), the better for FB.
There's a similar notion in other areas, and one of the most ridiculously malevolent examples I can think of is a brick-and-mortar sales promotion gimmick: a furniture store would run a midsummer sales event on a weekend where every family visiting the store would receive a free gallon of ice cream.
Because if you've just put a gallon of ice cream in your trunk, you can't visit another furniture store, you've got to head home to put it in the freezer. And time not spent in a competitor's furniture store is time not spent assessing and purchasing their products.
(That leverages the sunk cost fallacy as well, among others.)