How tech controls us
AWARD winning poet and filmmaker Max Stossel was working as a social media strategist when he realised “we were getting better as an industry at manipulating human attention than people were at self control”.
AWARD winning poet and filmmaker Max Stossel was working as a social media strategist when he realised “we were getting better as an industry at manipulating human attention than people were at self control”.
“The goals of the designers – me at the time – were so different from the goals of the people using these products,” he said.
“I was doing everything in my power to grab and hold as much attention as possible.”
That epiphany led Stossel on a new journey as one of the leaders of the Centre for Humane Technology’s Time Well Spent movement, a journey that will bring him from New York to Sydney as a speaker at JCA’s “Evening of Dangerous Ideas” campaign events on May 29 and 30.
A key theme that will be explored is how social media and online communities are replacing real connections.
“Tech can of course be a powerful tool for helping people find and build communities they might not otherwise have found, and for helping those communities communicate and organise,” Stossel said.
“But it’s important to remember the importance of in-person connection and communication.”
Stossel told The AJN that by being glued to our screens, we miss out on “most of life’s meaningful interaction”.
“Humans tend to care a lot about what other people think of us, so a moment like when we update a profile picture is a moment when we are particularly vulnerable to checking to see our likes,” he said. “Tech companies can control the dials on how much or little of this we feel.”
He added that mobile phones are designed “like a slot machine”.
“Every time we hit a notification icon we’re playing the slot machine. Sometimes I get a reward like an important text or email that makes me feel good, and other times I don’t,” he explained.
“It’s an incredibly addictive mechanism in the brain.”
Stossel explored these themes and more in his viral 2016 YouTube video The Panda is Dancing.
He said turning off notifications, setting the phone’s display to greyscale and using a separate alarm clock are ways to “free yourself”.
The Time Well Spent movement, comprising former tech insiders and CEOs, speaks to industry leaders, politicians and heads of state, and works with designers and tech executives.
“We want to create a world where technology is aligned with our humanity, where we don’t have to choose between being disconnected and afraid of missing out, and being connected and susceptible to all this persuasion and distraction,” he said.
Info:
For more information, visit www.jca.org.au
GARETH NARUNSKY
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