hi I’m Henry and I want to ask you how
much of your time do you
alone I’m not just talking about when
you’re by yourself I also want to know
how much time you spend surrounded by
others eyes glued to your phones your
focus somewhere else I’m talking about
when you find yourselves alone together
maybe there was a lull in the
conversation maybe an awkward silence or
you got a text you just couldn’t ignore
well we’re all a little guilty after all
this is a world designed to exploit our
humanity our need to be accepted and
acknowledged today we never have to
endure boredom so long as we carry our
little magic mirrors everywhere we go to
be alone together is to find a little
niche apart from the world physically
separated by inches but operating in
internal spaces miles away it’s a
different kind of loneliness perversion
of our human nature where our desire for
togetherness pushes us further and
further apart technology has a tendency
of shaping us no matter what we try to
do to hold it back in ancient Athens a
common saying of Socrates was that the
written word would make humanity lazy
and forgetful somehow that approach
didn’t quite work for him since I got
that anecdote from the book so I’m not
gonna tell you to throw out your phones
or even to turn them off instead I want
to talk about the world we find
ourselves with and the ways that our
relationship with technology is changing
even today but I have to warn you it
gets worse before it gets better
so what exactly is the problem with
smart phones social media and the
internet after all they allow us to talk
across massive distances find people who
share our interests and access the sum
of human knowledge in our pockets it’s
easy enough to say that they distract us
from the real world but so do TVs movie
and in Socrates view books the real
problem with our technology today is
that it is so very good at exploiting
our basic human psychology
how much do you understand that the
devices you see every day not much right
well
you’re not alone we live in a society
made up of people who could not design
build repair or even operate most of the
devices upon which their lives depend in
this vastly complex world we are unable
to offer a satisfactory explanation for
the many human-made phenomena we see
every day this is why our technology can
control us instead of us controlling it
the magic qualities of the digital world
leave us in the passenger seat clinging
to the little social media walls and
websites that we do understand in the
book sapiens by Yuval Noah Harare he
explains that early humans evolved to
work in groups to measure their status
against other individuals and to crave
social recognition and capital these are
the ways our brains find a place for us
in society and roles to play in the many
relationships that make up our lives in
the modern world however there are
multiple overlapping hierarchies of
status money fame education worldliness
and more this overabundance of Status
markers and hierarchies in our lives is
difficult to navigate and this is where
our technology is so enticing
smartphones and social media provide
bite-sized addictive chunks of
recognition in the form of points like
streaks followers views and more they
give us quantifiable numbers on which to
compare ourselves and a constant stream
of buzzing flashing colorful reminders
that we are recognized by those around
us by the way you can follow me on
social media after this performance
in the 1990s at British anthropologist
Robin Dunbar discovered a correlation
between primate brain size and average
social group size by extrapolating he
found that humans can comfortably
maintain about 150 stable relationships
the so-called Dunbar number and this
increasingly digitized an urbanized
world we all have access to a massive
social circle way larger than the 150 we
could ever fully understand and the
Internet is an overwhelming firehose
more than 40 hours of video is posted on
YouTube every minute this reach havoc on
our primate brains but in another way
the internet also provides the answer in
the form of the endless subcultures
groups and communities for interest
ranging from Roman literature to memes
about alpacas I know personally I’m a
member of one such group weaving a
culture and joining a subculture is a
way for the monkey mind to cope with the
modern world these subcultures can both
nurture and isolates when I was in
Middle School I was a confused and nerdy
kid okay I’m still a little confused and
a lot nerdy but back then I’d get home
at 3:00 and play video games until late
into the night I played with strangers
from strange lands most of whom I’d
never met in person of all ages and
backgrounds some of whom didn’t even
speak my language we forged on behind
our separate screens because we had a
shared love of an online world öktem was
in a in a difficult shifting middle
school social world that was my lifeline
my island in a massive ocean of people
uh
in a massive ocean of people but even as
that community became like a second
family to me
I found myself drifting away from the
real world less able to cope with change
and more anxious about human interaction
this world of subcultures has had its
largest impact on those who’ve grown up
with it my generation the devices that
have been placed in our hand from an
early age have had a serious I have a
huge effect on their lives and it’s
making us seriously unhappy according to
researcher Jeanne twins rates of teen
depression and suicide have skyrocketed
since 2011 the same year that rates of
Americans with smartphones crossed 50%
it’s not an exaggeration to say that my
generation is on the brink of one of the
worst mental health crises in decades
and much of this deterioration can be
traced to our phones teens today are
less likely to work date take risks go
out or spend time with friends and
family the shift is stunning today’s
12th graders go out less often than
eighth graders do and the number of
teams who say they regularly go out with
their friends has decreased by 40% since
2000 this shift has had a major effect
on psyche according to the National
Institute on Drug Abuse there is a
direct correlation between time spent on
social media and symptoms of depression
and teens who spend 3 hours or more per
day on electronic devices are 35% more
likely to have a risk factor for suicide
the irony is that this sadness comes
most often from the most social people
the ones with throngs of online friends
and digital followers who are therefore
pushed to spend more and more time on
social media worst of all we can’t know
what the long-term effects of growing up
like this will be
adolescence is a key time for the
development of social skills and
interpersonal relationships something
were often seriously lacking when tied
to a digital niche so maybe you think
I’m gonna tell you the solution is to
forego our technology civilization and
maybe even agriculture altogether and
return to humanity’s roots in hunting
and gathering well I’m not gonna say
that I like binging Netflix a little too
much to give it up also eating the
example of Socrates proves that
crusading against change is unlikely to
change anything instead I think there
are reasons to be optimistic and ways
that our relationship to technology is
changing in the words of technology
writer guan society looked at
objectively has a lot of downsides if
someone really finds a place in their
subculture which gives them mental ease
and physical health what right do the
rest of us have to interfere and drag
them into the main culture in this way
subcultures better provide a space for
kids like me with the specific niche
interests people who find places of
acceptance and love outside of the
social norm culture is by definition
vast and unspecialized culture can’t
cater to individual interests but
subcultures can a world of subcultures
may actually help us cope with the
complexity we see in our day-to-day
lives just as we’re adapting to our
technology it too is adapting to us the
devices of today can predict our
emotions from our words diagnose our
sleep habits from our movements and
bit-by-bit
technology is learning how we act online
when we feel alone the devices of the
future instead of crudely exploiting our
psychology are starting to act like
little digital psychologists asking us
how we feel and catering our digital
experience to enlighten and enliven us
instead of inspiring anxiety and
frustration for example a Stanford
researcher has
I created a program called wobot a
digital therapist for use in messaging
clients that has shown huge advances in
improving mood and diagnosing depression
and this is just the beginning
technology companies continue to advance
these approaches because they to know
that the status quo is unsustainable as
technology comes to understand us better
I hope that we humans will continue to
work on understanding ourselves I hope
that every one of you leaves this room
with a better understanding of why it is
that social technology so appeals to us
as humans and I want to challenge you
the next time you feel the need to look
down at your phone I want to challenge
you to look up instead at the people
around you or in the next room or
outside on the street the next time you
feel alone I want you to look for
another human being I know that what
you’re looking for isn’t found in your
pocket what you’re looking for is inside
them and maybe it’s inside you as well
you [Applause]
much of your time do you
alone I’m not just talking about when
you’re by yourself I also want to know
how much time you spend surrounded by
others eyes glued to your phones your
focus somewhere else I’m talking about
when you find yourselves alone together
maybe there was a lull in the
conversation maybe an awkward silence or
you got a text you just couldn’t ignore
well we’re all a little guilty after all
this is a world designed to exploit our
humanity our need to be accepted and
acknowledged today we never have to
endure boredom so long as we carry our
little magic mirrors everywhere we go to
be alone together is to find a little
niche apart from the world physically
separated by inches but operating in
internal spaces miles away it’s a
different kind of loneliness perversion
of our human nature where our desire for
togetherness pushes us further and
further apart technology has a tendency
of shaping us no matter what we try to
do to hold it back in ancient Athens a
common saying of Socrates was that the
written word would make humanity lazy
and forgetful somehow that approach
didn’t quite work for him since I got
that anecdote from the book so I’m not
gonna tell you to throw out your phones
or even to turn them off instead I want
to talk about the world we find
ourselves with and the ways that our
relationship with technology is changing
even today but I have to warn you it
gets worse before it gets better
so what exactly is the problem with
smart phones social media and the
internet after all they allow us to talk
across massive distances find people who
share our interests and access the sum
of human knowledge in our pockets it’s
easy enough to say that they distract us
from the real world but so do TVs movie
and in Socrates view books the real
problem with our technology today is
that it is so very good at exploiting
our basic human psychology
how much do you understand that the
devices you see every day not much right
well
you’re not alone we live in a society
made up of people who could not design
build repair or even operate most of the
devices upon which their lives depend in
this vastly complex world we are unable
to offer a satisfactory explanation for
the many human-made phenomena we see
every day this is why our technology can
control us instead of us controlling it
the magic qualities of the digital world
leave us in the passenger seat clinging
to the little social media walls and
websites that we do understand in the
book sapiens by Yuval Noah Harare he
explains that early humans evolved to
work in groups to measure their status
against other individuals and to crave
social recognition and capital these are
the ways our brains find a place for us
in society and roles to play in the many
relationships that make up our lives in
the modern world however there are
multiple overlapping hierarchies of
status money fame education worldliness
and more this overabundance of Status
markers and hierarchies in our lives is
difficult to navigate and this is where
our technology is so enticing
smartphones and social media provide
bite-sized addictive chunks of
recognition in the form of points like
streaks followers views and more they
give us quantifiable numbers on which to
compare ourselves and a constant stream
of buzzing flashing colorful reminders
that we are recognized by those around
us by the way you can follow me on
social media after this performance
in the 1990s at British anthropologist
Robin Dunbar discovered a correlation
between primate brain size and average
social group size by extrapolating he
found that humans can comfortably
maintain about 150 stable relationships
the so-called Dunbar number and this
increasingly digitized an urbanized
world we all have access to a massive
social circle way larger than the 150 we
could ever fully understand and the
Internet is an overwhelming firehose
more than 40 hours of video is posted on
YouTube every minute this reach havoc on
our primate brains but in another way
the internet also provides the answer in
the form of the endless subcultures
groups and communities for interest
ranging from Roman literature to memes
about alpacas I know personally I’m a
member of one such group weaving a
culture and joining a subculture is a
way for the monkey mind to cope with the
modern world these subcultures can both
nurture and isolates when I was in
Middle School I was a confused and nerdy
kid okay I’m still a little confused and
a lot nerdy but back then I’d get home
at 3:00 and play video games until late
into the night I played with strangers
from strange lands most of whom I’d
never met in person of all ages and
backgrounds some of whom didn’t even
speak my language we forged on behind
our separate screens because we had a
shared love of an online world öktem was
in a in a difficult shifting middle
school social world that was my lifeline
my island in a massive ocean of people
uh
in a massive ocean of people but even as
that community became like a second
family to me
I found myself drifting away from the
real world less able to cope with change
and more anxious about human interaction
this world of subcultures has had its
largest impact on those who’ve grown up
with it my generation the devices that
have been placed in our hand from an
early age have had a serious I have a
huge effect on their lives and it’s
making us seriously unhappy according to
researcher Jeanne twins rates of teen
depression and suicide have skyrocketed
since 2011 the same year that rates of
Americans with smartphones crossed 50%
it’s not an exaggeration to say that my
generation is on the brink of one of the
worst mental health crises in decades
and much of this deterioration can be
traced to our phones teens today are
less likely to work date take risks go
out or spend time with friends and
family the shift is stunning today’s
12th graders go out less often than
eighth graders do and the number of
teams who say they regularly go out with
their friends has decreased by 40% since
2000 this shift has had a major effect
on psyche according to the National
Institute on Drug Abuse there is a
direct correlation between time spent on
social media and symptoms of depression
and teens who spend 3 hours or more per
day on electronic devices are 35% more
likely to have a risk factor for suicide
the irony is that this sadness comes
most often from the most social people
the ones with throngs of online friends
and digital followers who are therefore
pushed to spend more and more time on
social media worst of all we can’t know
what the long-term effects of growing up
like this will be
adolescence is a key time for the
development of social skills and
interpersonal relationships something
were often seriously lacking when tied
to a digital niche so maybe you think
I’m gonna tell you the solution is to
forego our technology civilization and
maybe even agriculture altogether and
return to humanity’s roots in hunting
and gathering well I’m not gonna say
that I like binging Netflix a little too
much to give it up also eating the
example of Socrates proves that
crusading against change is unlikely to
change anything instead I think there
are reasons to be optimistic and ways
that our relationship to technology is
changing in the words of technology
writer guan society looked at
objectively has a lot of downsides if
someone really finds a place in their
subculture which gives them mental ease
and physical health what right do the
rest of us have to interfere and drag
them into the main culture in this way
subcultures better provide a space for
kids like me with the specific niche
interests people who find places of
acceptance and love outside of the
social norm culture is by definition
vast and unspecialized culture can’t
cater to individual interests but
subcultures can a world of subcultures
may actually help us cope with the
complexity we see in our day-to-day
lives just as we’re adapting to our
technology it too is adapting to us the
devices of today can predict our
emotions from our words diagnose our
sleep habits from our movements and
bit-by-bit
technology is learning how we act online
when we feel alone the devices of the
future instead of crudely exploiting our
psychology are starting to act like
little digital psychologists asking us
how we feel and catering our digital
experience to enlighten and enliven us
instead of inspiring anxiety and
frustration for example a Stanford
researcher has
I created a program called wobot a
digital therapist for use in messaging
clients that has shown huge advances in
improving mood and diagnosing depression
and this is just the beginning
technology companies continue to advance
these approaches because they to know
that the status quo is unsustainable as
technology comes to understand us better
I hope that we humans will continue to
work on understanding ourselves I hope
that every one of you leaves this room
with a better understanding of why it is
that social technology so appeals to us
as humans and I want to challenge you
the next time you feel the need to look
down at your phone I want to challenge
you to look up instead at the people
around you or in the next room or
outside on the street the next time you
feel alone I want you to look for
another human being I know that what
you’re looking for isn’t found in your
pocket what you’re looking for is inside
them and maybe it’s inside you as well
you [Applause]
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