Can’t Put Down Your Device Or Your Food? That’s by Design

[bananas]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/technology/personaltech/cant-put-down-your-device-thats-by-design.html

Can’t Put Down Your Device? That’s by Design

By NATASHA SINGERDEC. 5, 2015

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There’s even an industry term for the experts who continually test and tweak apps and sites to better hook consumers, keep them coming back and persuade them to stay longer: growth hackers.

<snip>

Yet technologists like Tristan Harris, a design ethicist who is also a product philosopher at Google, warn that growth hacking, taken to its extreme, can encourage sites and apps to escalate their use of persuasive design techniques with potentially unintended consequences for consumers. He compares online engagement maximization efforts to the so-called bliss-point techniques some food companies have developed to hook consumers on a stew of fat, salt and sugar.

“The ‘I don’t have enough willpower’ conversation misses the fact that there are 1,000 people on the other side of the screen whose job is to break down the self-regulation that you have,” said Mr. Harris, who emphasized that he was speaking only for himself and not for Google.

<snip>

“I think something will actually change — the question is where will change come from?” he said, noting that the organic food movement started with small producers, not the mass-produced food industry. Online services that give users more options and control, he concluded, “may not come from the incumbent players.”

[ellenrr]

1. I agree but...

Sherry Turkle studies the effect of the digital age esp on younger people (teens - thirties).
And reveals peoples' addictions with their phones.
And of course the industry does what they can to keep people hooked.
But I think we should not give ALL responsibility to them.
People HAVE choice.
People could exercise some discipline and resist the temptation.

[awoke_in_2003]

2. I put down my smart phone when I eat