we want to psychologically figure out
how to manipulate you as fast as
possible and then give you back that
dopamine hit we did that brilliantly at
Facebook Instagram has done it whatsapp
has done it
you know snapchat has done it Twitter
has done it I love that analogy you made
on 60 minutes about the slot machine
yeah that the phone is really a slot
machine and every time people are
checking they want they want to get of
them some sort of goose
I mean it’s built into our brains of
variable scheduled rewards so if you
pull a lever and sometimes you get a
reward and sometimes you don’t sometimes
you get a reward like you’re invited to
the Bill Maher show and sometimes you
pull your lever and you get a newsletter
on email you want to throw away it makes
it addictive and so everything about our
phone accidentally becomes a slot
machine because it could be a text
message from someone you love or it
could be nothing but the more frequently
a buzzes the more it conditions us to
check more and so it’s obviously leading
to these kind of addictive problems that
everybody feels right if the thought
process that went into building these
applications Facebook being the first of
them to really understand it that
thought process was all about how do we
consume as much of your time and
conscious attention as possible and that
means that we need to sort of give you a
little dopamine hit every once in a
while because someone liked or commented
on a photo or a post or whatever and
that’s going to get you to contribute
more content and that’s gonna get you
you know more likes and comments on it’s
a it’s a valid it’s a social validation
feedback loop that that it’s like I mean
it’s exactly the kind of thing that a
that a hacker like myself would come up
with because you’re exploiting a
vulnerability in in human psychology and
I just I think that we you know we the
inventors creators you know and it’s
it’s me it’s mark it’s the you know
Kevin Systrom and Instagram it’s all of
these people understood this consciously
and we did it anyway
what are some examples of you know apps
that people use on a pretty regular
basis and in ways that these companies
are drying this in have you noticed if
you ever log into Twitter as an example
so there’s an extra delay that you don’t
know how long it’s going to take it’s
between two and three seconds where that
the number of new notifications on
Twitter you have so why is that there
well it makes that into a what’s called
a variable schedule reward it’s like a
slot machine so you’re playing the slot
machine and there’s a time delay and
you’re in that time delay your
anticipations building and then you get
to see how many notifications I get and
so you become more addicted to checking
it again the next time that’s your real
point is that these companies and that’s
what I was saying in this essay a couple
of weeks ago is that companies just like
the tobacco companies just like food
companies it’s not enough that we just
like the product we have to be addicted
to it and that is something kind of evil
well and the reason though that this
this this we need you to use it as much
as possible thing comes from is because
of the attention economy there’s only so
much attention the attention economy
right because when information gets
abundant the only thing that’s left is
attention gets scarce because there’s
only our lives to fit it inside us so
that it becomes hyper competitive and
the reason people are stupider to your
point is because they don’t read anymore
and the reason they don’t read there’s
no time yeah because they’re doing this
anyone who uses social media
might admit it can be hard to tear
yourself away now the former head of
Facebook says that’s exactly what the
founders intended and like the site he
helped create this morning he has our
attention the 38 year old mogul admits
he along with other pioneers of social
media knew what they were doing we
understood this consciously and we did
it anyway
Facebook estimates it’s more than 2
billion users spend about 50 minutes per
day on its apps including Instagram and
messenger it literally changes your
relationship with society with each
other while the medical community has
yet to classify social media as
addictive like alcohol or gambling one
recent study found that participants who
appeared to use social media most
compulsively show changes in the part of
the brain that controls impulse
turn it off that’s what I would say it’s
it’s it’s hard for young people now cuz
they’re hooked they’re addicted if you
don’t think you’re addicted and I’m
talking about it anyone from the highest
of the lows if you don’t think you’re
addicted then see if you can turn it off
for a week it got quiet it didn’t get
real quiet it’s a tool so we should use
it God has blessed us with free will now
if we will magnify if we will on
steroids you’re free to go in any
direction you want it will allow you and
it’s not the enemy
it’s just the mat it’s it’s just a
reflection of our own free will
oh and and we all want to be liked but
now we want to be liked by sixteen
million and we’ll now some of us do
anything to be liked we we used to do
anything to be life but it was the by
the person in front of you now was to be
liked by sixteen million people that you
don’t know we have to ask ourselves what
is the long-term if not to the
short-term effect of too much
information people like to share after
all we are social animals but somehow
the age of social media has got us
sharing more and more no matter how
uninteresting it might be even though we
know every post gives marketers more and
more information about us so why do we
do it and could we stop ourselves even
if we try we have created tools that are
ripping apart the social fabric of how
society works that is truly where we are
and I would encourage all of you as the
future leaders of the world to really
internalize how important this is if you
feed the Beast that beast will destroy
you if you push back on it we have a
chance to control it and rein it in and
it is a point in time where people need
to hard break from some of these tools
and the things that you rely on the
short-term dopamine driven feedback
loops that we have created are
destroying how society works no civil
discourse no cooperation misinformation
miss truth and it’s not an American
problem this is not about Russian ads
this is a global problem today wherever
we go we’re inevitably surrounded by
fellow citizens staring into their
phones as we usually are to so the goal
is to keep us on our devices longer why
for any company whose business model is
advertising or an engagement based
advertising meaning they care about the
amount of time someone spends on the
product you know they make more money
the more time people spend so the game
becomes how can I throw different
persuasive techniques to get people to
stay to spend as long as possible and to
come back tomorrow today we live in a
world now where it is easy to confuse
truth and popularity and you can use
money to amplify whatever you believe
and get people to believe that what is
popular is now truthful and what is not
popular may not be truthful and the
reality is now I can take money and I
can use that through all of these social
media systems that exist to hundreds of
millions of people and I can convince
all of Joe’s friends and everybody like
him of my opinion in very subtle in
small ways and he can do the same to me
we can do that about vaccines we can do
that about gay rights we can do that
about bathroom laws we can do that about
ROI more and so I think the question we
have to ask ourselves is how do we live
in a world where this is now possible so
how do we prevent social media from not
being a delivery system for fake news
because Hillary Clinton was out talking
about this this week and she said the
other side was using content that was
just flat-out false and delivering it in
a very personalized way if you look at
Facebook the vast majority of the news
items posted were fake what do we do
about this well I mean so the thing is
there’s this myth
that technology is neutral that it’s up
to us to choose how we use it therefore
these platforms are not responsible
it is not true because the debugged room
because these companies not because
they’re evil but they need to get as
much attention as possible near Eve so
if something that is sensational if
something is sensational they have to
show you the sensational thing that you
gets more attention than if they showed
you complex things that got less
attention they have to and you know
anybody runs a website or you know knows
this what all of these systems do every
single one is it exploits our own
natural tendencies in human beings to
get and want feedback and that feedback
chemically speaking is the release of
dopamine in your brain and so what these
feedback loops – and they exist
everywhere in Call of Duty and other
video games in social networking sites
they get you to react and I think that
if you get to desensitize and you need
it over and over and over again then you
become actually detached from the world
in which you live I’m callous you become
crude I don’t live in front of your
screen
how to manipulate you as fast as
possible and then give you back that
dopamine hit we did that brilliantly at
Facebook Instagram has done it whatsapp
has done it
you know snapchat has done it Twitter
has done it I love that analogy you made
on 60 minutes about the slot machine
yeah that the phone is really a slot
machine and every time people are
checking they want they want to get of
them some sort of goose
I mean it’s built into our brains of
variable scheduled rewards so if you
pull a lever and sometimes you get a
reward and sometimes you don’t sometimes
you get a reward like you’re invited to
the Bill Maher show and sometimes you
pull your lever and you get a newsletter
on email you want to throw away it makes
it addictive and so everything about our
phone accidentally becomes a slot
machine because it could be a text
message from someone you love or it
could be nothing but the more frequently
a buzzes the more it conditions us to
check more and so it’s obviously leading
to these kind of addictive problems that
everybody feels right if the thought
process that went into building these
applications Facebook being the first of
them to really understand it that
thought process was all about how do we
consume as much of your time and
conscious attention as possible and that
means that we need to sort of give you a
little dopamine hit every once in a
while because someone liked or commented
on a photo or a post or whatever and
that’s going to get you to contribute
more content and that’s gonna get you
you know more likes and comments on it’s
a it’s a valid it’s a social validation
feedback loop that that it’s like I mean
it’s exactly the kind of thing that a
that a hacker like myself would come up
with because you’re exploiting a
vulnerability in in human psychology and
I just I think that we you know we the
inventors creators you know and it’s
it’s me it’s mark it’s the you know
Kevin Systrom and Instagram it’s all of
these people understood this consciously
and we did it anyway
what are some examples of you know apps
that people use on a pretty regular
basis and in ways that these companies
are drying this in have you noticed if
you ever log into Twitter as an example
so there’s an extra delay that you don’t
know how long it’s going to take it’s
between two and three seconds where that
the number of new notifications on
Twitter you have so why is that there
well it makes that into a what’s called
a variable schedule reward it’s like a
slot machine so you’re playing the slot
machine and there’s a time delay and
you’re in that time delay your
anticipations building and then you get
to see how many notifications I get and
so you become more addicted to checking
it again the next time that’s your real
point is that these companies and that’s
what I was saying in this essay a couple
of weeks ago is that companies just like
the tobacco companies just like food
companies it’s not enough that we just
like the product we have to be addicted
to it and that is something kind of evil
well and the reason though that this
this this we need you to use it as much
as possible thing comes from is because
of the attention economy there’s only so
much attention the attention economy
right because when information gets
abundant the only thing that’s left is
attention gets scarce because there’s
only our lives to fit it inside us so
that it becomes hyper competitive and
the reason people are stupider to your
point is because they don’t read anymore
and the reason they don’t read there’s
no time yeah because they’re doing this
anyone who uses social media
might admit it can be hard to tear
yourself away now the former head of
Facebook says that’s exactly what the
founders intended and like the site he
helped create this morning he has our
attention the 38 year old mogul admits
he along with other pioneers of social
media knew what they were doing we
understood this consciously and we did
it anyway
Facebook estimates it’s more than 2
billion users spend about 50 minutes per
day on its apps including Instagram and
messenger it literally changes your
relationship with society with each
other while the medical community has
yet to classify social media as
addictive like alcohol or gambling one
recent study found that participants who
appeared to use social media most
compulsively show changes in the part of
the brain that controls impulse
turn it off that’s what I would say it’s
it’s it’s hard for young people now cuz
they’re hooked they’re addicted if you
don’t think you’re addicted and I’m
talking about it anyone from the highest
of the lows if you don’t think you’re
addicted then see if you can turn it off
for a week it got quiet it didn’t get
real quiet it’s a tool so we should use
it God has blessed us with free will now
if we will magnify if we will on
steroids you’re free to go in any
direction you want it will allow you and
it’s not the enemy
it’s just the mat it’s it’s just a
reflection of our own free will
oh and and we all want to be liked but
now we want to be liked by sixteen
million and we’ll now some of us do
anything to be liked we we used to do
anything to be life but it was the by
the person in front of you now was to be
liked by sixteen million people that you
don’t know we have to ask ourselves what
is the long-term if not to the
short-term effect of too much
information people like to share after
all we are social animals but somehow
the age of social media has got us
sharing more and more no matter how
uninteresting it might be even though we
know every post gives marketers more and
more information about us so why do we
do it and could we stop ourselves even
if we try we have created tools that are
ripping apart the social fabric of how
society works that is truly where we are
and I would encourage all of you as the
future leaders of the world to really
internalize how important this is if you
feed the Beast that beast will destroy
you if you push back on it we have a
chance to control it and rein it in and
it is a point in time where people need
to hard break from some of these tools
and the things that you rely on the
short-term dopamine driven feedback
loops that we have created are
destroying how society works no civil
discourse no cooperation misinformation
miss truth and it’s not an American
problem this is not about Russian ads
this is a global problem today wherever
we go we’re inevitably surrounded by
fellow citizens staring into their
phones as we usually are to so the goal
is to keep us on our devices longer why
for any company whose business model is
advertising or an engagement based
advertising meaning they care about the
amount of time someone spends on the
product you know they make more money
the more time people spend so the game
becomes how can I throw different
persuasive techniques to get people to
stay to spend as long as possible and to
come back tomorrow today we live in a
world now where it is easy to confuse
truth and popularity and you can use
money to amplify whatever you believe
and get people to believe that what is
popular is now truthful and what is not
popular may not be truthful and the
reality is now I can take money and I
can use that through all of these social
media systems that exist to hundreds of
millions of people and I can convince
all of Joe’s friends and everybody like
him of my opinion in very subtle in
small ways and he can do the same to me
we can do that about vaccines we can do
that about gay rights we can do that
about bathroom laws we can do that about
ROI more and so I think the question we
have to ask ourselves is how do we live
in a world where this is now possible so
how do we prevent social media from not
being a delivery system for fake news
because Hillary Clinton was out talking
about this this week and she said the
other side was using content that was
just flat-out false and delivering it in
a very personalized way if you look at
Facebook the vast majority of the news
items posted were fake what do we do
about this well I mean so the thing is
there’s this myth
that technology is neutral that it’s up
to us to choose how we use it therefore
these platforms are not responsible
it is not true because the debugged room
because these companies not because
they’re evil but they need to get as
much attention as possible near Eve so
if something that is sensational if
something is sensational they have to
show you the sensational thing that you
gets more attention than if they showed
you complex things that got less
attention they have to and you know
anybody runs a website or you know knows
this what all of these systems do every
single one is it exploits our own
natural tendencies in human beings to
get and want feedback and that feedback
chemically speaking is the release of
dopamine in your brain and so what these
feedback loops – and they exist
everywhere in Call of Duty and other
video games in social networking sites
they get you to react and I think that
if you get to desensitize and you need
it over and over and over again then you
become actually detached from the world
in which you live I’m callous you become
crude I don’t live in front of your
screen
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