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How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

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Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#2

Post by wslh »

I was really interested in the article until I read: "I spent the last three years as Google’s Design Ethicist...". In the article he is focusing at the application level but the issue is at the form factor level.

One simple example: if you give to a child a Simon game app based on the original Simon game [1] he/she will probably end up switching to YouTube and watching stupid videos but if you give him/her the "limited" form factor version of the game the child will have more fun.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game)

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#3

Post by have_faith »

Technology doesn't hijack our minds, people do. It's an age old practice of blaming the tools.

The logical next step might be to ask well then how do we fix people? (aka, society). Maximum freedom in society means maximum freedom to be manipulated by others.

Perhaps ironically, the closer we get to solving world hunger and eradicating diseases and so on the closer we become to overpopulation and overcrowding our little planet that once seemed so large. Our ineptitude at cooperating with each other and our ability to manipulate each other so easily is probably the only thing stopping highly accelerated human progress, and thus our own demise.

Absurdism looks more appealing every day.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#4

Post by Jtsummers »

Kind of interesting idea about how our tools (generic) present us with limited menus, and effectively restrict our options.

Facebook has expanded (barely) the options for basic responses to posts (no longer just like, but also a handful of emoticons to express laughter, anger, sadness, etc.). Not as full an option as when using the comment box, but for quick responses it allows for greater expressiveness. At least people don't have to "like" the tragic news of their friend's family deaths anymore.

But then look at Allo, announced from Google yesterday, with its @google bot that will help people decide how to make basic, trivial responses to pictures posted to threads. (I'll try to find the link later, but the demo was with a graduation photo, and a few suggested responses like "You look great!" "Congratulations, so happy for you" or something similar).

By pushing the job of coming up with options to tools, like the choice of restaurants and bars to Yelp, we narrow our worlds. We limit our expressiveness and creativity.

I don't know that I have a point, just some thoughts.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#7

Post by emodendroket »

have_faith wrote: post #3

Technology doesn't hijack our minds, people do. It's an age old practice of blaming the tools. The logical next step might be to ask well then how do we fix people? (aka, society). Maximum freedom in society means maximum freedom to be manipulated by others. Perhaps ironically, the closer we get to solving world hunger and eradicating diseases and so on the closer we become to overpopulation and overcrowding our litt…

Did you read the article? The whole point is that there is a design intended to encourage "people" to act in ways they didn't really intend.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#8

Post by AlexandrB »

Some of the design anti-patterns he's describing smell a lot like the broken window fallacy [1]. Sure, apps can get big on getting users addicted and "engaged", but there's no actual economic benefit being produced by such design - just tons of opportunity cost to users.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#10

Post by guard-of-terra »

When people are given a menu of choices, they rarely ask:

    “what’s not on the menu?”
    “why am I being given these options and not others?”
    “do I know the menu provider’s goals?”
    “is this menu empowering for my original need, or are the choices actually a distraction?” (e.g. an overwhelmingly array of toothpastes)
It's so much more about politics (elections of all levels) rather than about technology!
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