The Psychological Tricks Keeping You Online

We take a look at persuasive design – and how good design persuades you every single day. When it comes to technology this can have some pretty big impacts of keeping us hooked to our devices. Should navigating this be your responsibility? Or should we call for more ethical design?

We’re in the middle of an Attention War – where big tech battle it out to win over our eyeballs. Our attention spans are considered a precious—and scarce—commodity. So what is the price of your attention? In this mini-series, we'll explore the psychology, design and impact of tech and social media on both ourselves and society. A new episode will be released every Friday for the next six weeks.

Thank you to Jaron Lanier and Nir Eyal for lending their expertise to this episode.

Videos worth a watch:

This mini-series was created by:
Vanessa Hill - Director, Presenter, Co-Producer
Margie Bryant - Producer
Aline Jacques - Post Producer
Bahar Gholipour - Associate Producer
Dominique Taylor - Editor
Stephen Boyle - Legal and Business Affairs
James Hutson - Animator
Field Producers - Bahar Gholipour, Georgia Quinn, Mehrnaz Farahmand
Crew - Finn Boyle-Moore, Jacques Lang, Tim Oxford, Trace Dominquez, Alex Rapine, Andy Kulikowski, Angelina Bruno
John Hresc - Sound Mix
Andrew Arbuthnot - Investment Manager, Screen Australia
Adam Dylewski - Programming Director, PBS Digital Studios

[braincraft]

tl;dw it’s a good idea to turn off auto play on YouTube, limit notifications to what you really care about, and even bundle apps that are not essential tools (like maps or messages) and move them to the second page of your phone screen. I installed an app called Moment and it was surprising — I knew I spent a good amount of time on my phone, but some days I was spending 4 hours on apps that aren’t really necessary. That’s a LOT of my attention.

So, if good design nudges your behaviour every single day — in the case of technology, should companies tell you what those design tricks are? Should design be more ethical? Or is it your responsibility to navigate?

[Tscott]

Pavlov is at a bar, drinking a beer and he hears someone's phone go off. He suddenly gets up and says "Oh, crap, I forgot to feed the dog!"

[futureDK]

I actually recently deleted my Snapchat & Facebook. It honestly feels awesome & liberating!

[Brainstorm]

Attention Wars is a great way of phrasing it. This is an important discussion to have in society. What do you think is our role as content creators in this war of attention? We fight for clicks and watch time and retention rates as well after all.

[Jesse-cwpv]

This makes me think about what some of the more addicting video games do to keep you playing. I spent too long playing certain online games growing up. Rewards can give you dopamine release and want you coming back for more. It feels like a need, definitely an addiction in my case. I'd be interested in a video on video game addiction in the future

[audiofile]

This is the last video I'm watching today.

[Rhowski]

the only thing that really keeps me online is damn life itself, gimme anything to focus on but reality and i'll be aboard

[thanos]

Is it bad that I'm watching this at 3 AM in the morning because I feel like my mind requires constant stimulus of entertainment because otherwise I feel dead?

[MukMn]

I really like this series and the format. I'm sure they take more time, effort and resources to make, but I think you should do more series like this. Also I stopped using Facebook news feed or personal updates a while ago, but getting rid of it completely would mean disconnecting from certain friends and colleagues completely, so I won't delete. YouTube recommendations suck me in at times, so my goal is to only watch things intentionally and less browsing. It's a work in progress

[bretthurst]

I'm so glad you're doing some videos on this. Its a really important thing to be telling people. Its important that people know how these things work rather than just being blindly led. I look forward to the next one!

[StelCreator]

I really appreciate videos like this that encourage mindfulness with technology.

I work with social media promotion so I’m unfortunately a bit trapped by notifications, however, I have my phone set to ‘do not disturb’ from 9pm to 8am. This allows me to self direct my consumption without notifications ‘pushing’ me to other platforms.

Also, Bluetooth headphones allow me to multitask while watching videos. This means I can consume videos, podcasts and audiobooks while still packing the dishwasher and cooking. This leads to a greater sense of accomplishment while still being educated or entertained.

Thank you for this new channel. I will be subscribing and adding notifications, not so I can be ‘persuaded’, but mindful of when I can choose to be informed by your content.

[Kalleosini]

Personal responsibility certainly
but the game isn't balanced, advertisers study for years on how to manipulate us, and we teach none of it to our children, I sure didn't learn anything about it in highschool or before, which leaves us vulnerable to being manipulated.

[DefektoPrime]

I really like these mini series, which are going deeper into subjects, like this and Bad Behaviour: A Field Guide. I hope you get to make more of them in the future

[JosephFuller]

Am I the only one that left social media years ago when I saw that it was negatively affecting my life? I now only use YouTube on my computer instead of watching TV or Netflix as it seems to be the most benign of the attention grabbers. I have no notifications on my laptop or PC. I also got rid of my smart phone. I have found that online classes are useful ways to have fun instead of playing games and yet I still feel like I have not done enough.

[passwordguy]

just great information from credible sources, thank you so much for spreading it to the masses! quick sub.

[MidwestArtMan]

5:42 YouTube notified me of a new video here and it took me a while to realize it wasn’t part of the video.

[alahhh]

I'm happily giving you my attention xD, at least your content is way better than Facebook's

[SteveJB]

Wow. Totally watching the next 4 parts, Nessy.
What you said at the end about staring at our screens - that's me. If none of my friends are on discord, I will sit around for quite a while in the hope that a friend will come on to interact with.
Can see the patterns you're talking about if I analyse my habits when I get home:
- Drape jacket over kitchen chair,
- Walk into computer room, Take shoes and socks off, Sit at computer,
- Open Chrome, type "fa" in address bar to bring up Facebook, go through new Facebook notifications, go through Facebook wall, go into Youtube, check Youtube subscriptions for new videos of interest, watch new videos of interest/no new videos of interest then maybe something in Facebook will occupy my attention- bugger I was in Facebook 2 minutes ago when nothing was there....
-maybe I can check if I have any cool emails there... well I received one response to something I was waiting on and deleted some spam... now what?... maybe there's something good to watch on Youtube... check subscriptions for new vide- I was here less than 2 minutes ago! Ok, Facebook... I've done this... why am I checking Facebook again so soon?? :( :( :(

[francismicker]

Brilliant! Just what I needed. I need my attention somewhere else.

[VaskoGames]

I think the best way to deal with persuasive design is to be mindful and shop/choose which technologies we want to allow into our personal lives. Similar to the GPS analogy, its best to pick the things that are taking you where you want to go. Instagram for example is an excellent place to find great artists, and youtube is a great place to find some amazing informative channels (like BrainCraft). I think as long as we remain cognizant of the persuasive designs it all works out well.

Also not all persuasive design is bad. While sites like YouTube and Google want to maximise your time on them, they also want to deliver the value you are seeking. If used came to Youtube to look for this series and they couldn't find it, they'd get mad and leave. On the same note after watching episode the site will recommend similar content (which from my end looks like TED talks and other educational channels) which, if you are being mindful, you can choose to watch or just hop off.

The way I see this whole design aspect is as a necessary evil. I do hope the field of HCI looks further into design to help for a positive experience for more people rather than the current, often harmful, attention grabbing style.