How Your Phone Is Designed to Control Your Life [video]
theatlantic.com
How Your Phone Is Designed to Control Your Life [video]
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Re: How Your Phone Is Designed to Control Your Life [video]
#2I just wish there was a better way to measure "positive impact" on people's lives. Often the amount of time spent is used as a proxy for this, because it is much easier to measure.
In order to truly accurately measure such a thing, you would need to know (or infer/predict) someone's personal goals, and their progress towards their goals. This raises concerns with privacy, but perhaps it is a level of trust that more people will be able to give technology at some point.
Re: How Your Phone Is Designed to Control Your Life [video]
#3Wow, such a negative view.
> Never before in history have 50, mostly male, 20-35 year old designers, living in California, working at 3 tech companies, influenced how a billion people spend their time.
This is an incredibly specific statement that wouldn't be true if scaled back a bit. The result of this seems to be pure FUD. I have to say what an incredibly biased piece. The attention economy did not start with the internet. This a cultural issue not the fault of the companies in Sili Valley. Take responsibility for yourself people.
Re: How Your Phone Is Designed to Control Your Life [video]
#4I actually am very far from addicted to my smartphone. I spend very little time trying to digest information on a 6" screen when I can wait till I get home and digest it on a 4K display and able to concentrate on my work.
For me the most annoying thing is that other people expect me to be glued to my smartphone like them. They expect that I can be reachable at any hour, any minute, and always checking my messages. People expect that they can change venues last minute and I'll be checking my messages. People expect that they can be late 45 minutes and that I'll be okay with it because I can check my messages.
No. That's not the life I want to live. When I leave the house, I have a plan and I execute it according to schedule, giving full attention to the world around me, not the world inside a stupid 6" screen.
Re: How Your Phone Is Designed to Control Your Life [video]
#5He's absolutely right but how do you change the incentive from maximizing time spent to improving lives?
I find it unlikely that ads are the only problem, after all Netflix wants people to binge just as much as Spotify does and the customers have already paid.
Re: How Your Phone Is Designed to Control Your Life [video]
#6He's absolutely right but how do you change the incentive from maximizing time spent to improving lives? I find it unlikely that ads are the only problem, after all Netflix wants people to binge just as much as Spotify does and the customers have already paid.
Netflix's incentive structure is slightly different: they want their clients to enjoy the service, so that they will be inclined to subscribe to them in the future. Spotify, on the other hand, wants to maximize time spent using the service, which in turn maximizes exposure to advertisements and thus inflates their ad revenue.
For Spotify, binge use is the end goal, whereas for Netflix it is merely a consequence of producing an enjoyable service.
You're right though, it would be difficult to directly incentivize something as nebulous as 'improving lives' beyond providing services that do just that, since corporate incentives generally follow the money.
Re: How Your Phone Is Designed to Control Your Life [video]
#7I'm really happy this topic is getting some traction. Human well-being should be the non-negotiable constraint within the design process.
I understand the argument that people should be able to manage themselves but human nature is not that simple. People are never told that they are about to use a drug that has been proven to have addictive effects.
Receiving a like on facebook releases dopamine the same way smoking, drinking alcohol or gambling do. All fine in the right amount but dangerous when taken beyond a certain point. One of the problems for example is that people tend to use these substances more under stressful situation like studying for exams, dealing with a problem in your relationship, etc.
Re: How Your Phone Is Designed to Control Your Life [video]
#8I actually am very far from addicted to my smartphone. I spend very little time trying to digest information on a 6" screen when I can wait till I get home and digest it on a 4K display and able to concentrate on my work. For me the most annoying thing is that other people expect me to be glued to my smartphone like them. They expect that I can be reachable at any hour, any minute, and always checking my messages. Pe…
> I have a plan and I execute it according to schedule
This makes no sense. The single best thing about a phone is removing friction from the last mile and last fifteen minutes of meeting friends. Checking in and fine tuning last minute details is great for friendships. If someone changes venues on you, consider that maybe it accommodated the needs of other members of the group. If someone is late, it's not a problem unless it is a pattern. If it's a pattern, then you know how to plan around it or avoid that friend
Re: How Your Phone Is Designed to Control Your Life [video]
#9I actually am very far from addicted to my smartphone. I spend very little time trying to digest information on a 6" screen when I can wait till I get home and digest it on a 4K display and able to concentrate on my work. For me the most annoying thing is that other people expect me to be glued to my smartphone like them. They expect that I can be reachable at any hour, any minute, and always checking my messages. Pe…
I tend to leave my phone in my bag all day except to use 2-factor auth or something.
I would rather stare out of the window on the train in the morning than at facebook or twitter.
Instead of people using technology to magnify their lives, they are confining their lives to their phone.
Re: How Your Phone Is Designed to Control Your Life [video]
#10First step is to gplv3 the entire stack as much as possible, and in the meantime while that seems impossible or improbable, the thing to do is to not use proprietary systems. LineageOS seems like the best comprimise for the time being.
Stallman was right. Either the program controls the user or the user controls the program.