How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day | Tristan Harris

13 insights saved from this video by @technology

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An engagement-optimized newsfeed favors outrage over calm content without anyone making a conscious editorial decision.
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Teenagers have given Snapchat passwords to as many as five friends so streaks survive their vacations.
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Some teenagers send photos of walls or ceilings simply to preserve Snapchat streaks.
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Advertising-funded platforms let paying actors target lies at the groups most susceptible to them.
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Persuasive-technology training teaches covert techniques for capturing attention and orchestrating behavior, while most people do not know those techniques exist.
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Attention competition creates a race to the bottom. Platforms provoke outrage and deeper neurological reactions to win more attention.
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Algorithms often optimize for instinctive clicks instead of preferences people endorse after reflecting on what they truly care about.
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Snapstreaks turn consecutive days of communication into something users feel they cannot afford to lose.
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A platform could move a controversial online exchange toward an in-person dinner, preserving discussion in a more constructive setting.
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Modern platforms let psychologically informed engineers deliberately orchestrate user behavior at enormous scale.
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Platforms become better at keeping people hooked when recommendations optimize only for the most interesting next item.
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Technology needs a design renaissance that optimizes for time well spent and user empowerment, not screen time.
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Technology is not neutral: competition for attention pushes products toward primitive, powerful psychological triggers.

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