Recommendation
Former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris has become a household name among those who worry about the addictive and stress-inducing impact of modern technology. He coined the term “human downgrading” to describe how tech companies are exploiting and amplifying people’s most primitive instincts and has become famous for comparing digital phones to “slot machines.” In this episode of the podcast Your Undivided Attention, Harris talks with Gloria Mark, a pioneer in the emerging field of interruption science. Anyone wondering why they can’t stop checking emails and switching tasks will benefit from the discussion’s insights.
Take-Aways
- People’s average attention span is getting shorter and shorter.
- Distraction becomes a habit: If external interferences don’t divert people’s attention, people interrupt themselves.
- Tech developers must design tools that help people lead more fulfilling lives instead of playing to and exploiting humans’ most primitive instincts.
Summary
People’s average attention span is getting shorter and shorter.
Back in 2004, when multitasking was in vogue, informatics professor Gloria Mark wanted to find out how often people were switching among tasks in the course of a workday. She found that her study subjects changed tasks every three minutes on average. By 2016, the amount of time her study subjects were keeping their attention on a single task or computer program had shrunk to 40 seconds.
“When our attention breaks so chronically and so pervasively, we’re not even noticing the full toll that it takes on us.” (Tristan Harris)
Statistics on television viewing show a similar trend: While the average shot length within a TV show was 13 seconds in the 1950s, the number decreased to about 3.5 seconds by 2010.
Distraction becomes a habit: If external interferences don’t divert people’s attention, people interrupt themselves.
With the advent of email (including email notifications) and smartphones, the number of outside disruptions has increased exponentially. On average, people check their email 74 times a day. These constant interruptions take a toll on people’s cognitive functions, as people have to find their way back to what they were doing prior to the interruption every time they take their minds off a task. Yet automated notifications constitute only about half the interruptions people experience. The other half are self-interruptions: Data suggest that people – habituated to frequent interruptions – discontinue their workflow randomly even without distractions. However, when Mark’s study subjects were denied access to email for five days, they self-interrupted about 50% less.
Tech developers must design tools that help people lead more fulfilling lives instead of playing to and exploiting humans’ most primitive instincts.
To avoid the high stress-inducing interruptions and addictive habits caused by modern technology, just telling people to live their lives offline isn’t a viable solution.
“We can develop technology that liberates our attention and help us direct it to things we care about, or we can let it be the status quo, but then we’d be forfeiting our attention to the next incoming notification, and the next one, and the next one ad nauseam.” (Tristan Harris)
Instead, tech developers must start creating products that help people maximize their full potential and lead healthier lives. To be able to do so, tech developers need a more sophisticated understanding of human cognition and behavior – as well as of people’s most profound values and aspirations. Social networking platforms, for example, could focus on helping users deepen social relationships or achieve a better work-life balance. Tech developers can start designing tools that facilitate lifelong learning and support people in reaching their personal goals. Technology can also render making healthy choices easier for people. For example, Google developers enhanced the Google Calendar room-booking feature by adding the option to set up walking meetings. By making it easy for people to have their meetings outside – and reminding people that this option even exists – Google Calendar discreetly contributed to Google employees’ well-being.
About the Podcast
Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin co-founded the Center for Humane Technology nonprofit to reverse the “digital attention crisis.” Its Your Undivided Attention podcast exposes the design features that capitalize on seizing people’s attention, nudge people toward unhealthy choices and destabilize real-world communities. Here, they interview Gloria Mark – a pioneer in the emerging field of interruption science.
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