How Technology Hijacks People's Minds

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How Technology Hijacks People's Minds

Bottomless bowls, Infinite feeds, Autoplay

Autoplay feature in sites like Netflix, Youtube & FB that auto plays the next video in the list without user's consent.

Keep people engaged/consuming things even when they aren't hungry anymore.

Instant Interruption VS Respectful Delivery

FB, Whatsapp letting other people know when you have responded or read their messages.

Interrupting people immediately VS sending them asynchronous messages like mails.

Bundling your reasons (business) with their reasons (personal)

User having to go to FB news feed to access FB Events or going through Twitter feeds to post a new Tweet.

User's own personal reason for using the App VS Apps business reasons.

Inconvenient Choices

Unsubscribing from a subscription, closing out an online account. Features like these are hidden and difficult to find.

Tech companies always make it harder for you to do the things they don't want you to do.

Forecasting Errors, "Foot in the Door" Strategies

Good practice will be to inform the user about the estimated time/effort to complete a task like reading an Article or submitting a survey.

Tech companies exploit people's inability to estimate the true consequences of a click (cost per click)

Social Reciprocity (Tit-for-Tat)

LinkedIn (accepting a connection, responding to messages, endorsing someone for a skill, Pending Invitations tagged with People You May Know section)

Tech companies manipulate how many times we experience Social Reciprocity.

Social Approval

FB suggestions for tagging people in photos.

The need to belong, to be appreciated by our peers is among the highest human motivations.

Fear of missing something important (FOMSI)

Being hooked to Newsletters, Dating Apps, having FB friends we dont usually talk to.

Put a Slot machine in a billion pockets (Intermittent Variable Rewards)

Certain important notifications like for filing Income Tax returns should be more frequent than notifications for games

Compare Slot Machines with App Notifications

Slot machines make more money in US than baseball, movies & theme parks combined!

Linking a user's action with a variable reward

If you control the Menu, you control the choices

Preference given to Favorites & Popular menu items

How often do we actually consider choices not listed on a Menu??