What Will Break People’s Addictions to Their Phones? | Hacker News Reader

What Will Break People’s Addictions to Their Phones?

theatlantic.com

11 pointselnado6 comments

Tristan Harris is a fascinating guy and I largely agree with the concerns he lays out... but I really wish this article had answered the question posed. A Hippocratic oath for product designers simply won't work; the only reason it works for doctors is because medicine is an extremely gated, controlled, and well-regulated community. Anyone can be a "designer" with an internet connection and a good work ethic, and that's a good thing!

So what do we actually do? In a capitalist society, how do we reframe incentives so that information technology isn't used for increasing psychological manipulation? Who would want to accept these new design standards and certifications when there's so much money to be made in making the next addictive application, and incredible amounts of research and data crunching being done to make addictions stronger all the time? I guess this article is a start, if it can shift the culture of consumers in general to pay more attention to these issues, but it's hard for this message to compete with the rush of checking your phone.

Right, I completely understand where you're coming from. I'd like to think that there'll be a paradigm shift in consumer wants to steer away from disruptive technology, that consumers will become punitive towards time-sink apps that consequently lower the morale of its users (Facebook, Instagram, etc) despite the initial rush, and instead value apps/services that increase productivity and efficiency. It's really hard to grayscale 'addicting' apps with a negative connotation as Facebook is arguably trying to present more useful information, carefully personalized from user info via its hoard of data scientists, Twitter arguably made the world a better place by distributing news faster, and so on. I am however really glad that articles like these are coming out, and the general ethic concern of companies targeting human psychological venerabilities becoming more exposed since more educated consumers will drive, through demand, 'better' product (by whichever metric you use).

There will need to be curation, or a stamp of approval for applications or online content. Then, a method of filtering an app store or search engine for that content. This would be appealing to parents (speaking as one myself).

Didn't the flappy bird developer take a break because of the negative impact users reported? As problems come to light I imagine producers will become more thoughtful about what they make.

quick snippet: 'Tristan Harris, a former product philosopher at Google' .. 'is rallying product designers to adopt a “Hippocratic oath” for software that, he explains, would check the practice of “exposing people’s psychological vulnerabilities” and restore “agency” to users. “There needs to be new ratings, new criteria, new design standards, new certification standards,” he says. “There is a way to design based not on addiction.”'

A fantastic article. One actionable example given for consumers was to turn of notifications/vibrations. Another was to move those subconsciously-addicting apps off your home screen. I'd be interested in seeing a more comprehensive list of those.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com