VINTED BRAIN by Kate Mossman "The “gamification” of online shopping platforms refers to the integration of rewards and other psychological triggers pioneered by video game designers. It was first perfected by the e-commerce giant Shein, whose hyper-personalised experience is designed to create a feeling of emotional connection in the buyer. Through data matching, brand affinity and size and weight analysis, Shein made you feel warm and fuzzy inside: wow, everything on here will look good on me! In the last 12 months, in France and the UK, Vinted has surpassed Shein in customer base and revenue – and its own parasocial setting is much more sophisticated, not least because you are interacting with real people selling their own things. Alongside a social media-inspired cocktail of likes and infinite scrolling, Vinted’s homepage uses an advanced algorithm to display stuff truly unique to your taste – an infinite, personal, constantly updating jumble sale of the mind. Each time you look at this jumble sale, it will present better versions of the thing you’ve just bought, encouraging you to buy them too and sell the inferior version, thus keeping you on the app. The money from your sale is stored in a pot rather than going directly to your bank account: this “free money” then sits there, to be used for future purchases, and is often spent accidentally before it can be withdrawn. Vinted shows you how much money you’ve made on the app, but not how much you’ve spent. And though many users, myself included, fantasise about deleting their account, there is always something left to sell, because of all the mistakes and poor purchases brought about by the addiction in the first place. I have never had a compulsive relationship with alcohol, cigarettes or drugs, and I have no social media accounts – yet Vinted dominates my life."