The average American adult spends over three hours a day staring into their phone. If you’re a teenager it’s even worse – seven hours. What’s really troubling is that in study after study, people say that they want to be looking at their screens less. They just don’t know how. They’ve lost control.
Johann Hari interviewed over 200 of the world’s leading experts on focus and attention for his new book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again. What he found was that your attention didn’t collapse. It’s been stolen from you. So on today’s episode, while everyone is busy debating what Elon Musk is doing to Twitter, Johann explains what Twitter is doing to all of us.
Just wanted to stop by to say that I really miss your perspective in writing, Bari. I would have loved to read your response to not only Elon Musk buying Twitter, but the Woke religious zealots's hilarious meltdown (particularly Ari Melber's self-own) as well.
We live in an age where organizations have become very sophisticated at one very troublesome thing -- how to manipulate people. These organizations understand human behavior and how to manipulate for their cause. Whether its a product or a political position or opinion or cause. In many cases, it is core to what they are trying to accomplish. And with forces like the internet, the ability to manipulate on very large scales is here to stay.
Addiction is a common human challenge. It isn't just gambling or alcohol or caffeine, etc etc.
One of the most manipulative items? The 'like' button. For many, the 'like' button and other similar forms of feedback are addictive.
The scary thing? Human nature evolves over the course of millennia. Computers ability to manage human nature evolves daily. One is moving much faster than the other. I don't like the odds for the upcoming generation in this battle.