Why Do You Check Your Phone 150 Times a Day? | Tristan Harris

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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 why should someone who's in the business of getting someone's attention—why should somebody who runs a business that's all about getting attention, why should they switch to being in the business of helping people?


Well, for one, it's going to be hard to do that until consumers actually demand that that's what they want. We all need to recognize as citizens of humanity, as just being human, that this world that's constantly fighting to grab our attention doesn't serve any of us. It's polluting our inner and our social lives.


And once we recognize that we don't want that as consumers, that will enable businesses to follow consumer demand and say: we want to provide something whose goals are entirely in alignment with your goals, where we measure our success in terms of the net positive benefits that we delivered in people's lives, and we charged more like a subscription model or a payment model rather than advertising where we have an infinite appetite in stealing as much of your attention as possible.


So, when we check our phones 150 times a day, which is the average, are those 150 conscious moments where we're sitting here and then we think and then we choose: “Now I'm going to ch...

[SeanTheDon]

We are currently living in the Attention Economy and Tristan Harris is one of the leading thought leaders on the ethical and psychological ramifications of our society.

[aaronjohnmaughan]

I regularly go out of my way to engage people and foster those moments that many forget are better than anything your phone can provide right now. I have found most people can still be snapped out of their trance with a witty line or interesting question. Done right, I can often see the happiness wash over them as they realize a genuine moment is being shared.

Try it. It's a blast.

[MMSR_Reds]

I'm watching this while standing in a coffee line

[sebastianelytron]

I check my phone once a day. As soon as I wake up...




And put it back down when I get in bed at night.

[stefanhyltoft]

I notice I check my phone when I'm bored, but after checking for notifications for 5 seconds it gets boring. So I'd rather just zone out and look at the environment instead than a small screen.

[superyeahever]

Beautiful video! Made me think.
Before, it was a privilege to even own a phone.
Now, it's almost like it would be a privilege, to not constantly "own" one.

[scottselliers]

That split second around 2:41 when he looks to see what the notification said...

[barbieroalex]

It's only applicable to a moderns countries, and in areas where the crime are low. In Venezuela you can't see people in lines cheking them phones. People just can't buy an smartphone, but there is a thing recently i did a line to acquire a carnet "Carnet de la Patria", and the truths is Venezuelan people start speaking with the next guy in a couple of minutes, this happen more often when the line to acquire something is too long.

But in my case i start to speak whit the next guy for a while and whent the line is over i'll never see that guy again. We just say almost allways "good luck, was a pleasure to meet you, see you soon". When you see that guy in another moment of your life you said hi, but almost allways never take a new conversation. this happen to me a houndreds of times.

Another thing to know, i allways have a good time with that stranger. So, people really want to be connected?

sorry for my english :)

[shauniebnaturalista]

You're complicating things. It's about boredom and self-esteem. Sometimes we legit have a moment to kill, and we run our personal AND business lives on one device. Other times, when we stare at strangers, we imagine they're judging us and finding us wanting. We jump on our phone, and can imagine the stranger sees us as desireable and too busy for them. It's high school popularity all over again.

[kakashi]

I miss connecting with people. My ex and I used to have so much fun together... but then she started smoking K2, which made her a zombie/retareded cardboard cutout of herself, and the entire time she would be texting people to make sure she had some waiting for later when she ran out, or to just say hi to endless people, or to arrange some kind of meetings between drug people...I know the phone is not the complete reason she turned into a vapid, boring shell of the charming, passionate, evocative woman she used to be, but i feel like if it were just the drug I could have made her laugh or be silly or use my clever wit to get something going to the point that she could have forgotten how much she wanted the drug... but she would just be on the phone, half paying attention, often misunderstanding what i was saying because she only had about 20% of her drugged up brain devoted to listening to me. And I smoked pot for a very long time, and my friends and i would never waste that high just staring at a phone. we would interact MORE than normal... God damn i hate america right now. i really hate it here and I hope i can find a way to leave soon.

[christofinb]

Clicked onto this video after checking my phone

[MP-wgpd]

Sometimes I forget to bring my phone with me and it sits next to the bed all day. Of course, I've only had a cell phone since 2013 when I couldn't find a pay phone anywhere on campus. And I'm shocked people take it in the bathroom since I can't imagine they're washing their phone like they should be washing their hands.

[DJaquithFL]

Most people aren't too good about impulse control. Maybe try disabling notifications...

[ShawnRavenfire]

I actually do check my phone to avoid talking to other people.

[staciefreshener]

As netural person I am, I have to disagree at the point of when there is free time in bus or line we pull phone, you can use phone for productive use like why not do something good instead of social media or simply listen to music and fresh your mind . The bus one is okay as we see scenery and break from devices except your stuck in jam. So it's all situational. I look like I use my phone often when you see me outside but in home, I dont need it as I have computer and I do tasks in there or in physical writing etc. I am actually happy to disagree with that use being bad because we need to know more about this from all sides. As I said, it's only when there is jam or when in line it's loud and noisy so any is better, why not use phone but here is when you can start using it for better usage instead of social media, it's best to download some wikipedia articles early on or such to read among such times

[lurker]

It all started with commercials on TV and Radio. It's a decade old focusing preventing culture. The only difference now is that focus stealing is present in any media area. The funny thing is, I have to use an Adblocker to focus on this video.

[BraTina]

Watched this right after finishing 'Bored and Brilliant' by Manoush Zomorodi. Everything just makes so much sense. Highly recommend ! :)

[yasashiiyuuyake]

When I'm waiting in line in a store, I'm not looking to talk to random strangers (and I'm not on my phone either).

[importantname]

what did people do before they looked at phones 150 x day? And then why have so many chosen to not connect with the people around them, but rather look at their phone?

[sbalogh]

My partner and I sit down at a restaurant table. I don't take out my phone but she does. I sit there and watch her for a while, try to have a conversation but her attention is divided. Eventually I feel awkward and take out my phone. I take a photo of her pretty face and send it to her across the table via a Portugal server or wherever. What have we become?