Smartphones are becoming a habit with many people and it’s all by design says a former Google product manager, Tristan Harris.
The apps and content, especially social media, carried on phones are purposely designed to be habit-forming.
Harris compares smartphones to “slot machines” because, he says, “Every time I check my phone, I’m playing the slot machine to see, ‘What did I get?’” He is referring to “likes” on Facebook and Instagram, cute emojis in text messages and more followers on Twitter, powerful reinforcement for staying on your phone. It’s a flood of gratifying information that keeps coming via the so-easy-to-use scrolling method on digital devices, another way to keep us engaged.
Kids are often the biggest users.
“Inadvertently, whether they want to or not, they are shaping the thoughts and feelings and actions of people...There’s always this narrative that technology’s neutral. And it’s up to us to choose how we use it. This is just not true,” says Harris.