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How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

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Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#291

Post by wiggity »

cpt1138 wrote: post #68
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, yeah. It's like talking to climate "skeptics" - people who believe climate change is real but disagree on the level of human agency. You can show them graph after graph of greenhouse gas emissions being pumped into the atmosphere at alarming rates and they'll say "I'm not that alarmed, we don't know how much of an impact it will have." Meanwhile, coral reefs are bleaching, Florida is flooding, and we are experie…

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 found Bret Victor's "What can a technologist do about climate change" (http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/) a refreshingly action-oriented exploration of your question ("but what?"). Its interactivity and richness of presentation are icing on the cake.

Incidentally, one can imagine a parallel message of informed empowerment to address the dark sides of OP's UI "mind hijacks."

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#292

Post by rms_returns »

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…

> User happiness just happens to not be be necessary for Facebook to be a successful business.

Agreed. But the anti-thesis of that is that along with tech companies (like Facebook and Goolge), the average user is evolving too. In other words, sooner or later, the average user will start thinking exactly what you are thinking now. And thats when the user will start ditching Facebook for something open source and WhatsApp for something like Telegram.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#293

Post by cynoclast »

I loved the part about the "friction required to enact choices" bit. Like how it's outstandingly easy to get a bank account, and how as a part of the law regarding privacy, they're required to provide a method for you to opt out of them selling your data, which involves them sending you a paper privacy notice, and to opt out you have to send them a written letter (no form is provided), to an address you have to write out yourself, and at your own cost.

That always infuriated me.

It should be as easy as signing up.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#294

Post by sah2ed »

bobwaycott wrote: post #154

I spend most of my internet time on HN. It makes me wish HN tracked this and, each time I load the page, prompted me with a "Do you really want to spend the next n minutes here?"

Well there's something close: the "noprocrast" [1] option in your profile.

[1] Explained here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=814695

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#295

Post by greendestiny_re »

pmlnr wrote: post #131
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…

A long time ago, when MMORPG was a new thing, I was still playing regular, "paper based" RPG. When someone asked me why am I not jumping on the shiny bandwagon I told them it's because I cannot make the decision to, in case I have the strength for it, pick up a random log of tree in the forest and kill the attacking giant with it in the game, because the choices there are limited to whatever the programmers decided t…

The exact response I have to people that badgered me about joining their WoW guild. I was thankfully playing D&D in the years prior and that inoculated me against the MMO genre...

Nearly a decade later, I was leveling a WoW hero to lvl 20 in order to get a Liadrin hero portrait in Hearthstone. Though I think the UI is fantastic and the music score is superb, every game mechanic just seems watered down and the world seems to have all key points curiously spaced out, as if to waste your time on traveling.

When I got repeatedly bullied by the Snapping Turtles in an oasis where you're meant to plant some dried seeds, I just gave up and went back to Teleglitch. Now that's a great game!

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#296

Post by AndrewKemendo »

eellpp wrote: post #286
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily Google, but yes some amalgamation of technology. Your senses are staggeringly limited and your brain is a mess when it comes to determining what is "real" or not. We use technology to fill the gaps. That's what technology is for - to allow us "see", interact with and influence the world through discrete and explicit measurement in ways our biological systems can't. How is that not the dream? Augmentin…

> Your senses are staggeringly limited ... when it comes to determining what is "real" or not.We use technology to fill the gaps. That's what technology is for - to allow us "see", interact with and influence the world through discrete and explicit measurement in ways our biological systems can't. Sense perception to understand reality or to seek pleasure ? When we pick the phone to play a game, is that interacting w…

Your point jumps over my broader argument to address the original thrust of the article however. In that context we aren't in disagreement on this point.

I was however addressing the question of "should technology guide our existence" - and I think you agree with my emphatic response of yes but don't realize it.

And for many of us, the ultimate goal is to live a better life by reducing these distractions.

My guess is you are compartmentalizing things like social networks etc... into those "distractions." I might also, but would also place in there "hunger", "pain", "confusion" etc... the things that distract us from understanding the fundamental nature of the universe.

Our goals likely align - but on different points along the scale of time.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#297

Post by AndrewKemendo »

grillvogel wrote: post #285
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily Google, but yes some amalgamation of technology. Your senses are staggeringly limited and your brain is a mess when it comes to determining what is "real" or not. We use technology to fill the gaps. That's what technology is for - to allow us "see", interact with and influence the world through discrete and explicit measurement in ways our biological systems can't. How is that not the dream? Augmentin…

are you a super villain?

Not yet. Great user name by the way - always up for a business hug.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#298

Post by kbenson »

mc32 wrote: post #280
kbenson wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, I don't think we are. Some decisions are being automated, but that's not reducing our own choices, just freeing us to focus on other ones. It becomes less of "should I go and then what flower should I buy" and more just "should I go" and we've freed our time and attention for some other decision. Then again, there will always be those that go above and beyond for someone they care for. Maybe you remember that yo…

If you look beyond reminder apps, I think things look a little different. There are good aspects to automation and some shortcomings as well. I'm not saying people need to maintain survivalist skills. But I think there is a danger in relinquishing your will and control to data. How will people, in the future, be able to adjust to catastrophe? I have no pocket computer, what should I do? Can I eat now? What can I eat?…

I think that ignores that there is always a spectrum of people who want differing levels of control. Even if there apps to suggest all our actions, there will be people that use them sparingly or not at all, because they want to feel in control. This is acceptable and normal, and also leads to situations where some people do maintain survivalist skills. Our population is homogeneous in almost nothing, which is one of our strengths.

What happens in a catastrophe? People probably die. Depending on the scale, possibly a lot. Will everyone die? Probably not, but there are cases where it could happen. The ways to mitigate that have nothing to do with less automation of simple decisions in my mind, and possibly quite the opposite.

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#299

Post by bobwaycott »

sah2ed wrote: post #294
bobwaycott wrote: post #154

I spend most of my internet time on HN. It makes me wish HN tracked this and, each time I load the page, prompted me with a "Do you really want to spend the next n minutes here?"

Well there's something close: the "noprocrast" [1] option in your profile. [1] Explained here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=814695

Oh, duh. I always forget those are there. :)

Re: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

#300

Post by djsumdog »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #35
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…

I think the more apt metaphor is lead in Roman pipes. They knew lead exposure made you crazy but they still used it in their pipes, on their plates - and it drove them mad. After the planet has warmed beyond a point of no return, after antibiotic resistant bacteria make routine surgery a life-or-death decision, after we have squandered away our resources and used what little we had left to wage futile wars, we will f…

I'm so glad you mentioned Edward Bernays. It's interesting how he was very helpful in promoting his uncle's book in the US, bringing Freud some much needed cash. At the same time, Sigmund hated Bernays, and Anna, for using a lot of his psychological work to change the face of advertising into what it is today.

Bernays created the very first _Public Relations_ office (he made up the term because "Propaganda" was a bad word). He helped get more women smoking (torches for freedom!). I'm sure if it wasn't him and Anna, someone else would have come along and made these discoveries anyway.

Capitalism, Consumerism and Planed Obsolescence will be what brings down the current world.

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