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Ex-Google product manager reveals the tricks Apps use to get us hooked
United Kingdom Created: 11 Apr 2017
Silicon Valley companies are exploiting weaknesses in our brains, it's claimed - Apps such as Snapchat use clever tricks to keep us glued to our smartphones - Ex-Google Tristan Harris warns tactics are 'destroying our kids' ability to focus'.

Silicon Valley giants such as Google and Facebook are using underhand tactics to get our brains hooked to our smartphones.

That's according to former Google product manager Tristan Harris, who claims technology companies are using techniques borrowed from casinos to get us addicted to checking our phones.

He said the widespread phenomenon is known as 'brain hacking' by computer programmers and warned that the methods are 'destroying our kids' ability to focus'.

'They are shaping the thoughts and feelings and actions of people,' he told CBS News.

'They are programming people.

'There’s a whole playbook of techniques that get used to get you using the product for as long as possible.'

Mr Harris said notification streams on smartphones and apps such as Facebook are designed to excite the brain in a similar way to slot machines.

He said: 'Every time I check my phone, I’m playing the slot machine to see, “What did I get?”

'This is one way to hijack people’s minds and create a habit, to form a habit.

'What you do is you make it so when someone pulls a lever, sometimes they get a reward, an exciting reward.

'And it turns out that this design technique can be embedded inside of all these products.'

He said this explains why apps allow users to slowly gather rewards over time.

For example, Twitter lets its users slowly build up followers, while Snapchat keeps a running score based on how much you use the app.

Mr Harris said: 'Snapchat’s the most popular messaging service for teenagers.

'And they invented this feature called “streaks,” which shows the number of days in a row that you’ve sent a message back and forth with someone.

'The problem is that kids feel like, “Well, now I don’t want to lose my streak.”

'But it turns out that kids actually when they go on vacation are so stressed about their streak that they actually give their password to, like, five other kids to keep their streaks going on their behalf.'

He said competing companies have entered into a race 'to the bottom of the brainstem' to grab our attention and keep us hooked to our phones.

'It’s because the game is getting attention at all costs,' he said.

'And the problem is it becomes this race to the bottom of the brainstem, where if I go lower on the brainstem to get you, you know, using my product, I win.

'But it doesn’t end up in the world we want to live in.

'We don’t end up feeling good about how we’re using all this stuff.

He added the tactics are 'weakening our relationships to each other' and 'destroying our kids ability to focus'.

'And so you could ask when these features are being designed, are they designed to most help people live their life?' he added.

'Or are they being designed because they’re best at hooking people into using the product?
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Source: Mail Online, DAISY DUNNE, 10 Apr 2017

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