How Online Advertising Is Tricking Your Thoughts, Attitudes, and Beliefs | Tristan Harris| Big Think

How Online Advertising Is Tricking Your Thoughts, Attitudes, and Beliefs

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TRISTAN HARRIS:

Tristan Harris is a design thinker, philosopher and entrepreneur.

Called the “closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience,” by The Atlantic magazine, Tristan Harris was a Design Ethicist at Google and is now a leader in Time Well Spent, a movement to align technology with our humanity. Time Well Spent aims to heighten consumer awareness about how technology shapes our minds, empower consumers with better ways to use technology and change business incentives and design practices to align with humanity’s best interest.

Tristan is an avid researcher of what influences human behavior, beliefs and interpersonal dynamics, drawing on insights from sleight of hand magic and hypnosis to cults and behavioral economics. Currently he is developing a framework for ethical influence, especially as it relates to the moral responsibility of technology companies.

His work has been featured on PBS NewsHour, The Atlantic Magazine, ReCode, TED, 1843 Economist Magazine, Wired, NYTimes, Der Spiegel, NY Review of Books, Rue89 and more.

Previously, Tristan was CEO of Apture, which Google acquired in 2011. Apture enabled millions of users to get instant, on-the-fly explanations across a publisher network of a billion page views per month.

Tristan holds several patents from his work at Apple, Wikia, Apture and Google. He graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Computer Science, focused on Human Computer Interaction, while dabbling in behavioral economics, social psychology, behavior change and habit formation in Professor BJ Fogg’s Stanford Persuasive Technology lab. He was rated #16 in Inc Magazine’s Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 in 2009.

You can read his most popular essay: How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds – from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Tristan Harris: So we always had an attention economy, whether it was on radio or television there's always been a race for our attention and it's a zero sum game. If one TV station gets more of your attention the other TV station gets less.

But now because we're spending more and more time on screens and there's so many things competing for our attention we really feel it. And in the attention economy with social media and with the Internet and our screens, everything needs your attention. So a meditation app, the New York Times, Big Think or Facebook—they're still all competing for the same currency, which is attention.

And if one guy gets more attention someone else gets less. As an example, the CEO of Netflix recently said that the biggest competitors to Netflix weren't other video sites, he said the biggest competitors to Netflix were Facebook, YouTube and sleep, because at the end of the day it all comes from this limited supply of attention that we get.

And part of that is because of advertising. Because the business model of advertising says I don't just want some of your attention, I actually make more money the more attention I get from you. So I have an unbounded appetite for more of your attention.

[Keybreak]

Does ANYBODY have an original thought the moment they learn a language?

Advertising has always been about tricking people into buying things they don't need. Even with Adblock on I still got people selling me ideas. The only way to live WITHOUT being persuaded is probably to move to the woods and live in a cabin like Henry Thoreau did.

Walden was a pretty interesting book. Paperback's only $9.99 on Amazon.

[FutureAbe]

I haven't been on Facebook since 2011.
Youtube, however, I visit every day.

Conclusion: VIdeos, such as this one, are more interesting than my family and friends.

[davidabineri]

I do not watch ads on TV, never click on an ad online and delete advertising emails. I try to think for myself and be skeptical about everything I see, read and hear. How is this problem fixed? Partly through a much better educational system which teaches how to think for yourself and NOT be swayed by unwanted advertising and how better to recognize fake news from real news. One could argue that by educating minimally, the government is working with advertisers and fake news outlets besides not showing people what it is possible to do with their lives.

[Synthminator]

This is why the news is absolute bs these days. Online newspapers are operating on the same model: be first, be more bombastic, quantity always over quality

[commie]

Don't watch commercials and don't click ads... You control your attention. They're just trying to trick you into thinking you need something you don't.

[humanity.]

This articulates so perfectly why I don't have ads on my channel! I love the idea of Ethical Persuasion. Gonna totally integrate that in my ideas of Constructive Disagreement Etiquette. Bravo!

[oneminuteinthelifeofcaro]

Absolutely, we need more ethics in business models of advertising.

[kimberleebrackley]

That's the most open way of looking at this problem. Though negative, l can't help believing the need for power and money will not give way to any kind of that civilized talk. l've found most people don't know what it means to have integrity or recognized it in others. People rarly make rules for themseves, its how we've learned. We are this way because we can be, and need education or we might as well be animals. Please, please continue teaching us other ways of looking at issues and thinking about them. l want my belief to change, l sometimes have hope. Thank you.

[oneminuteinthelifeofcaro]

As consumers it is always important to question why someone wants you to buy something. They will tell you you need it. But do you really?

[ChaosmanOne]

I don't watch television or listen to the radio or read newspapers. I don't use Facebook (at all) or YouTube algorithms to find videos. I only use Netflix when I know what show I want to watch. I use ad-block on every media and device that will allow it. What are these "advertisements" that you speak of?

[ivanboyraz]

They CAN make most people buy shit!
Maddison avenue doesn't get paid he big bucks for nothing! ( the BBC documentary 'The century of the self' - Freud' uncles Edward Bernays influence).

[von]

Anyone that can be persuaded to buy things that they do not need OR can Not afford... deserves all the trouble they get themselves into, regardless of how they were persuaded.

[AaronGRandall]

Beer commercial just before video. So many commercials I see (especially on YouTube) I get angry because 99% of the time it is some stupid product I don't care about. Bottom line: this advertising controls my emotions by making me angry at content I feel is stupid.

[xBUMSKIx]

Except that Netflix doesn't have ads...they take subscriptions....

[grassyclimer]

yea youtube was having problems so they tried to sell me youtube red for better buffering when I said no they blamed my isp and tried to sell me AT&T when I said no my video quality went back to normal

[Cotictimmy]

My particular approach is to be extremely sceptical (bordering on hostility) of anyone I perceive as marketing at me. I switch of TV sound and minimise picture in any ad break. I pre-record and skip ads: I cut sound and look at other stuff on youtube when ads come on. I do whatever I can to come up with ways to tune out the advertiser and their message. I regard myself as in a hostile environment (a battlefield if you like) where I am under 24/7/365 bombardment and sniper fire from those attempting to get inside my head. I see a wall of brainwashing techniques coming at all individual citizens - attempting to inflence us into self-destructive behaviours to benefit commerical interests. I think the world has gone all 'arse about face': consumers researching products and companies is acceptable - corporations reasearching and building databases on individual citizens is NOT.

[DingoAteMeBaby]

I think the growing trend will be the shift from advertisements to the penetration of microtransactions into more and more markets

[oneminuteinthelifeofcaro]

I also want transparency within each company; what is each company's business model? What are they contributing to society? Are they only exploiting workers and the environment for the bottom line? I won't support any such company.

[teggerzz]

I found that around 17 advertising stopped working and started actively annoying me
I know what I want and I don't need anyone limiting my Google results
I don't really understand how advertising can work once you know the conventions
It's like a charity worker, you know what they want and the small talk is all fake
The difference is advertisers don't get to look you in the eye and try filling you with guilt

I can be quite surprised when people fall for this stuff if they're over 13 (Im not the brightest person)

[HorneyOne]

The choice is yours to think a certain way, not an advertisers.