Tristan Harris – How A Handful of Tech Companies Control Billions of Minds Every Day

Tristan Harris co-founded the movement for Time Well Spent to spark an important conversation to about the kind of future we want from the technology industry. Instead of a “time spent” economy where apps and websites compete for how much time they take from us, it aims to create an ecosystem competing to help us live by our values and spend time well.

Harris was a design ethicist and product philosopher at Google until 2016, where he studied how technology influences a billion users’ attention, well-being and behavior. He led design sprints with product teams, including a meeting between Google’s lead product designers and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, international spokesperson for Mindfulness.

Previously, Harris was CEO and co-founder of Apture, which Google bought in 2011. Apture enabled millions of users to get instant, on-the-fly explanations without leaving their place, across a publisher network of a billion page views per month.

Harris holds several patents from his previous career at Apple, Wikia, Apture and Google. He graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Computer Science, focused on Human Computer Interaction, while dabbling in behavioral economics, social psychology, behavior change and habit formation in Professor BJ Fogg’s Stanford Persuasive Technology lab.

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NOTE: If this caught your attention, please also read Roger McNamee’s article How to Fix Facebook—Before It Fixes Us. It is a long article, but it is really worth doing it.

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The Innovation of Loneliness

What is the connection between Social Networks and Being Lonely?
Quoting the words of Sherry Turkle from her TED talk – Connected, But Alone.
Also Based on Dr. Yair Amichai-Hamburgers hebrew article -The Invention of Loneliness.

 

Finally back home

Tirana – view from the hotel window

I am finally home, after two weeks on the road, in Arusha, Tanzania and Tirana, Albania.  But not for long. Next Saturday I hit the road again, this time for Barcelona, Spain and Osijek, Croatia.

You may hear from me on this blog, today and in the coming days, after which I will again be less present.

I continue to be disconnected from Facebook for this lent period. However, since these posts are showed automatically on Facebook, I use this opportunity to greet my Facebook friends and to wish them a spiritually refreshing Lent period.

Tweeter vs Facebook

Facebook, Netiquette and the Bible

Social networks have changed our lives. For more than a billion people, platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Skype have become a primary means of interacting. In many respects, the surging popularity of social networks is a positive development. A brave photographer can document evidence of atrocities by the Assad regime in Syria, and then it becomes instantly available around the world. Social media sites have enhanced our democratic system in the United States: many of us follow and participate in online conversations about politics and public policy. The possibilities for churches, synagogues and other religious bodies are also appealing, as members keep abreast of sick persons in their congregation or listen to the latest sermon on a podcast.

How (anti) social is social media

MIT professor Sherry Turkle’s  book, Alone Together. Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, explores the ways in which the so-called social media is changing the way in which people engage in relationships.

The American Psychological Association website publishes an interview she has give on this book. Here are the questions ahe responded to:

How has social networking through technology changed society the most?

Does social technology isolate people from the real world, or augment our personal relationships?

How does that reduced intimacy cause problems in our relationships?

Facebook Status

End of the World?

(found on Facebook)

Facebook and your career

Yahoo Finance published recently a set of suggestions on how to manage your Facebook account if you want to not see your professional career hampered by what you publish there. Here it is:

Facebook – Testul de personalitate Myers-Briggs

Nu ştiu care este relaţia voastră cu site-ul Facebook. Eu mi-am făcut cont de aproape un an, după mai multe ezitări. Nici acum nu pot spune că sunt mare fan Facebook. Nu-l accesez nicidecum zilnic. Iar atunci când primesc mesaje de la prietenii mei de pe acest site, aş prefera să le pot răspunde pe email, decât să mă conectez. Dar nu se poate prin reply (sau nu ştiu eu cum).

Există însă şi avantaje. Astfel am reintrat în contact cu prieteni de care nu mai ştiam nimic de multă vreme sau care nu sunt prea activi pe email.

Emailul – binecuvintare sau blestem

Cu ceva timp în urmă un prieten îmi povestea că pentru copiii lui, de vârsta adolescenţei, emailul este un mijloc de comunicare prea lent, ei preferând acestuia Facebook-ul.

În ce mă priveşte, poate că sunt eu deja prea bătrân, dar Facebook-ul mi se pare mult prea invaziv pentru a fi pe gustul meu. Ca şi telefonul, pe care îl folosesc însă mai des, căci n-am de ales. Desigur, am şi eu un cont pe Facebook, la fel ca mulţi dintre prietenii mei, dar stau arareori conectat la el pentru multă vreme. Acelaşi lucru este valabil şi pentru Skype.  Nu sunt atât de multi-tasking încât să nu fiu deranjet de permanente întreruperi. Este dovedit că acestea afectează în mod serios capacitatea noastră de concentrare şi de aprofundare a lucrurilor.