Running for Your Life: Yeah, That Addiction Thing

Okay, so you didn’t drop everything and read the “Put Down Your Phone” essay by Andrew Sullivan that I posted last month. Don’t worry. Here’s another, this one in that swishy new Economist lifestyle magazine that continues to find its way to my door at home.

This report, by Ian Leslie, is called “The Scientists Who Make Apps Addictive.” http://bit.ly/2dusGxV. Redeem yourself and stop everything to read THIS article. These Internet addiction pieces do seem to be piling up, like leaves falling year-round in our so-confused climate.

Some beauts. For those who insist on keeping their phone in their hands, rather than convince themselves they have time on the hands.

  • When motivation is high enough, or a task easy enough, people become responsive to triggers such as the vibration of a phone, Facebook’s red dot, the email from the fashion store featuring a time-limited offer on jumpsuits.

  • Respondents spent all their hours thinking about how to organize their lives in order to take pictures they could post to each persona, which meant they weren’t able to enjoy whatever they were doing, which made them stressed and unhappy.

  • No matter how useful the products, the system itself is tilted in favor of its designers. The house always wins.

And finally:

  • In theory, we can all opt out of the loops of incentive and reward which encircle us, but few of us choose to. It is just so much easier to accept and connect. If we are captives of captology, then we are willing ones.

Next: Running for Your Life: Deep State S--t





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