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How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

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Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#221

Post by colordrops »

lars wrote: post #30

Wow, I'm glad this was posted. I think the way we use technology today will be looked back on the same way we look back at naive cigarette smoking in the 1950s. Modern app design isn't about creating things that are good for the user, but about creating want in the user. This is a problem. For example, there are several studies showing that using Facebook in general makes people less happy. User happiness just happen…

Funny that you mention cigarette smoking. I was just ruminating last night in bed how hard it was to put down the phone and go to sleep. I had the same feeling of addiction that I hadn't felt since I quit smoking 15 years ago. It actually caused me to have a minor panic attack, and I'm now actively seeking methods to reduce my dependency on the phone and internet information feed.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#222

Post by hypertexthero »

bikamonki wrote: post #18

Does anyone else feel the slot machine effect here on HN is the karma displayed on the top-right? After a submission or comment, is that number the first thing you check when you come back to the site?

https://blog.codinghorror.com/because-reading-is-fundamental...

> If I have learned anything from the Internet, it is this: be very, very careful when you put a number next to someone's name. Because people will do whatever it takes to make that number go up.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#223

Post by freshhawk »

kbenson wrote: post #179
mc32 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm aware of all that. We have come a long way since being "savage". My issue is we're getting to the last mile problem where we begin to undermine what we are.

My point is that I don't think "what we are" is changed by the tools we use. So what if a tool suggests we take time out for our friend? It's still our choice. It's no different than your mother, father, significant other, or random person on the street offering a suggestion if you explained the situation to them. Ultimately it's your choice what to do. If you're unhappy with how people treat some things as worthy of…

So you don't think "what we are" is changed by the tools we use but it is changed by changes in cultural norms? Which are clearly influenced by the tools we use?

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#224

Post by Goronmon »

pyre wrote: post #135
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dangerous doesn't mean too dangerous. Nuclear energy is dangerous but any projection of energy use that accommodates growing population and energy usage AND expects carbon reductions AND doesn't include growing nuclear use is simply impossible. EDIT: Also worth noting that there is a clear correlation between the increase of electronics/battery recycling in the West and lead poisoning cases in Kenyan children where t…

Nuclear power can be done safe, but we also have many examples of it not being done safe. Saying, "well it will be different this time. We will build systems to make corruption, laziness, and dangerous actions impossible!" is believing in a pipe dream.

Nuclear power can be done safe, but we also have many examples of it not being done safe

You could replace "Nuclear power" with quite a lot of things we do these days. Such as "Driving" or "Home construction".

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#225

Post by perseusprime11 »

colordrops wrote: post #221
lars wrote: post #30

Wow, I'm glad this was posted. I think the way we use technology today will be looked back on the same way we look back at naive cigarette smoking in the 1950s. Modern app design isn't about creating things that are good for the user, but about creating want in the user. This is a problem. For example, there are several studies showing that using Facebook in general makes people less happy. User happiness just happen…

Funny that you mention cigarette smoking. I was just ruminating last night in bed how hard it was to put down the phone and go to sleep. I had the same feeling of addiction that I hadn't felt since I quit smoking 15 years ago. It actually caused me to have a minor panic attack, and I'm now actively seeking methods to reduce my dependency on the phone and internet information feed.

+1 Smartphone is a universal addiction as opposed to cigarette smoking. If we do not do something about this, our future humans will walk around with stiff necks as this will be coded into our DNA and we will evolve accordingly.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#226

Post by unclebucknasty »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #77
cpt1138 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what? The problem with the constant doom is that we get exhausted. At least in the US all we truly care about is war and old people (looking at where the money goes; http://whatwepayfor.com/ ). The problem with the doom sayers is they have no solutions or actionable items that we can say yes or no to. Its just lions and tigers and bears 24/7.

I'll give you an example. I live in Ithaca, NY, not far from some of the richest shale gas deposits in the United States. This town is also ground zero for fracking hatred. Post something awful about fracking, and people will eat that shit up whether it's true or not. I know, because I was one of them. Then I started dating a hydrogeologist. As luck would have it, her very MS thesis was on fracking. She dispelled rum…

That's a very strange form of argument. First, you are arguing that fracking doesn't cause these things, then you go on to list the specific constituents of fracking activity that cause them.

Then, you're saying that fracking doesn't have to cause these problems, but the fact is that it has. So, it's the fracking industry itself that has given fracking a bad name.

In general, it sounds like industry PR and misdirection.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#227

Post by tdaltonc »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #219
tdaltonc wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not such a big problem. I think we can get good an inferring values from behavior and using values in marketing. Then if you download an app that has positioned itself with certain values, the designer can reasonably assume that you hold those values.

Disagree. People are terrible at aligning behaviors with stated "values." Economists look at this dissonance as "revealed preferences." While it may be the best thing we have to describe behavior, it's not well aligned with self-image - which is really what stated preferences aka "values" are. As a result, designing systems around revealed preferences might be advantageous in the short term - it conflicts with people…

I'm super familiar with the problems of revealed preferences (that's literally chapter 1 of my PhD thesis). But we don't need to naively interpret every action as an expression of 'values.' For example, consider netflix playlists. I shouldn't infer your values from what's in your playlist, but I probably can inver your values from the movies that go in to your playlist but never get watched. You wish you were the kind of person who watched that documentary on the failing school system. That's a value inferred from behavior.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#228

Post by 1_2__3 »

I'd say it's worse, because now that we don't pay for things (ad support ftw?) the service providers have a much stronger incentive to keep you on the site than they do to make you happy. They've slowly but surely developed methods that do exactly that, leaving us all wondering why we spend so much time on sites/in apps that we don't actually enjoy.

This isn't going to change.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#229

Post by ecdavis »

notduncansmith wrote: post #26
Jtsummers wrote: post #4

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 pe…

George Orwell felt similarly. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm

Related to this essay is the appendix from 1984, containing a discussion on the principles of Newspeak.

http://orwell.ru/library/novels/1984/english/en_app

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#230

Post by mazuhl »

henrik_w wrote: post #175

I just finished reading "Deep Work" by Cal Newport - great book. The central theme of the book is that you need distraction-free focus to do your best work (especially relevant for programmers I think). Social media goes against this - constantly checking HN, Twitter or FB breaks this focus. He basically recommends to quit altogether. A good start is to try and go a full day with checking any social media - it's hard…

Same here and I've just started reading "Hooked" by Nir Eyal which is kind if a counter/companion to "Deep Work". Following Newport's logic I am looking at optimising engagmement (for a paid/freemium app/SaaS website) as "help people stay in their flow state, make the interactions smooth and non-demanding, then get out of the way". Part of the book seems suggests that having tools is fine as long as the tool doesn't too much extra baggage or make to process of using it too much about itself (drawing you away from the goal/original focus).
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