Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google's Plan to Make Tech Less Addictive

fastcodesign.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 129 posts

Re: Google's Plan to Make Tech Less Addictive

#31

Post by mic47 »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #16

My cynical read of this is that it's an attack on Facebook. Google has a giant attention platform in YouTube, but Facebook and Instagram are attention platforms. I think YouTube will decline a bit as a result of this, but the rest of Google - and the data collection of Android are untouched. If people become less addicted to their phones, they're still going to have their phone when they go to restaurants and take ph…

"Shush" and "Wind Down" are already on Samsung phones, and FB is in good relations with Samsung (see oculus), so doubt this would be Facebook killer.

Additionally, Facebook already turn down video in newsfeed (it decreased time-spent), and changed goals to 'meaningful social interactions'. Long term, being useful is more important than grabbing attention (and FB plays long-term game). The fact that FB, Instagram, Youtube, are "grabbing attention", is only byproduct of thinking that time-spent like metrics are good proxies for usefulness (and they were really easy to optimize), which turns out not to be true (or at least they don't tell the full story). Hackernews is grabbing my attentions the most for me, should I blame the ranking model?

Most engineers, managers, designers, ... in these companies are people who want to build useful stuff, rather than maximizing short term gains for share holders (additionally none of these companies are paying dividends, so if you maximize value for share holders, you should play mid to long game). If you can make these engineers realized that what they are building is harmful, they will change it.

Disclaimer: I worked at Facebook and it from inside, so have different "trust" model for these companies, and expectations how they work internally. I don't believe that there sinister master-plan behind every feature they release, instead, they are complex organisms with many players that are optimizing for different goals (sometimes sometimes seemingly opposite).

Re: Google's Plan to Make Tech Less Addictive

#33

Post by teddyh »

mseebach wrote: post #12
dschuetz wrote: post #3

It's clearly a contradiction. Companies like Google thrived on addictive behavior of users online. Now that Google basically is the Internet for consumers they want to crack down on online and tech addiction? Really? What I've read in the article means to me that Google will toss away the responsibility to users by making them aware of their usage patterns. "We told them they need a break from consuming our apps, but…

It's only a contradiction if you think short term. Long term, it's clearly in Google's interest to engender sustainable consumption. People who are comfortable with the role their smartphones play in their lives are much more valuable consumers than addicts who are apprehensive over it. They are also much less likely to seek radical action which may damage Google in hard to predict ways.

It has not, historically, been in the nature of companies to think or act in the long term. People inside companies have incentives to bring short term profits, while long term profits benefits only the company as a whole, not any individual internal actor who may be positioned to make them happen. Therefore, they don’t happen, and large organizations basically always act only in the short term.

Re: Google's Plan to Make Tech Less Addictive

#35

Post by mark_l_watson »

Google is not the only company that is trying to optimize both profits and user experience/benefits, that is a priority where I work also.

I have been trying to live in Apple’s walled garden because they are more of a privacy company. But, I periodically turn Google Assistant, Google Maps, and Gmail on - largely turning my iPhone temporarily into a Google device as far as tracking goes. I do this when travelling or when I need the better ‘AI’ experience that Google provides. Google Assistant really is very useful, and sometimes turning over my life event data is worth it.

Re: Google's Plan to Make Tech Less Addictive

#36

Post by reificator »

Qwertie wrote: post #30
reificator wrote: post #2

> Big Pharma's Plan to Make Prescription Drugs Less Addictive > Local Heroin Dealers' Plan to Make Heroin Less Addictive > Coca Cola's Plan to Make Soda Less Addictive LGTM.

Most of googles products are not based on addiction. You use google search because you have to find something. You don't spend hours randomly browsing search results. Youtube will take a hit from this but the rest of google is not an addiction business.

Most of Google's revenue is based on addiction. You see more ads the longer you use the internet.

Re: Google's Plan to Make Tech Less Addictive

#37

Post by mseebach »

teddyh wrote: post #33
mseebach wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only a contradiction if you think short term. Long term, it's clearly in Google's interest to engender sustainable consumption. People who are comfortable with the role their smartphones play in their lives are much more valuable consumers than addicts who are apprehensive over it. They are also much less likely to seek radical action which may damage Google in hard to predict ways.

It has not, historically, been in the nature of companies to think or act in the long term. People inside companies have incentives to bring short term profits, while long term profits benefits only the company as a whole, not any individual internal actor who may be positioned to make them happen. Therefore, they don’t happen, and large organizations basically always act only in the short term.

Yeah, that's common knowledge but like most such knowledge it may contain a nugget of truth (yes, there are certain structures that reward shorttermism), it just doesn't stand up to scrutiny as a general framework. In studying practically all companies that has become successful at scale and sustained both success and scale over a period of time, you can find plenty of evidence of long term thinking.

Google in particular has shown itself to be perfectly capable of setting and following a long term strategy.

Re: Google's Plan to Make Tech Less Addictive

#38

Post by collyw »

reificator wrote: post #36
Qwertie wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of googles products are not based on addiction. You use google search because you have to find something. You don't spend hours randomly browsing search results. Youtube will take a hit from this but the rest of google is not an addiction business.

Most of Google's revenue is based on addiction. You see more ads the longer you use the internet.

I spend a large amount of time on the internet, but I use duck duck go and have ad blockers turned on. When I turn off add blockers it makes me want to spend less time on the internet.

Re: Google's Plan to Make Tech Less Addictive

#39

Post by anpago »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #5

I like all the 3 features mentioned, good they're coming. They really should have been something implementable as an app though. I guess I'll get to test them in 2 or 3 years. (Yeah, this is annoying - Android versions come out really fast, but their support in most phones lags couple of years, even if you just throw away your current one and go buy a flagship.)

With Project Treble that may change who knows?

Re: Google's Plan to Make Tech Less Addictive

#40

Post by teknopaul »

I'd have to dig it out, but I remember reading an article that showed that just having phones on the table seriously interfered with ones ability to follow a conversation. I insist on removing phones from sight when eating since.

I wonder if the people that implemented this face down feature know that?

Post reply on HN