The Uncanny Valley

Quieren ustedes escuchamos por favor The future Quieren ustedes escuchamos por favor The future This thing is a slot machine Well, how is that a slot machine Well every time I check my phone I'm playing a slot machine to see What did I get What you do is you make it so that when someone pulls a lever Sometimes they get an exciting reward And it turns out that this design technique can be embedded inside of all these products There's a whole playbook of techniques that get used to keep you on them for as long As possible So snapchats the most popular messaging service for teenagers, and they invented this FFeature called streaks, which shows the number of days in a row that you've sent a Message back and forth with someone And so you ask When these features are designed Are they designed to most help people live their life There's always this narrative that technology is neutral and that it's up to us to decide How we use it This is just not true They are shaping thoughts and feelings and actions of humans They are programming people Never before in human history have a handful of people at a handful of technology Companies shaped how people think and feel everyday And it's not because anyone is evil or has bad intentions It's because the game is getting attention at all costs The problem is it becomes this race to the bottom of the brain stem Where if I go lower on the brain stem to get you using my product I win But it doesn't end up in the world we want to live in We don't feel good about how we're using this stuff Because in the race for attention I have to do whatever works It absolutely wants one thing It's not neutral They want you to use it in particular ways And for long periods of time Because that's how they make their money It's rare for a tech insider to be so blunt