NewsBeat

6 NewsBeat January 2018 By RACHEL METZ Smartphones are Weapons of Mass Manipulation, and This Guy is Declaring War on Them f, like an ever- growing majority of people in the U.S., you own a smartphone, you might have the sense that apps in the age of the pocket-sized computer are designed to keep your attention as long as possible. You might not have the sense that they're manipulating you one tap, swipe, or notification at a time. But Tristan Harris thinks that's just what's happening to the billions of us who use social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, and he's on a mission to steer us toward potential solutions — or at least to get us to acknowledge that this manipulation is, in fact, going on. Harris, formerly a product manager turned design ethicist at Google, runs a nonprofit called Time Well Spent, which focuses on the addictive nature of technology and how apps could be better designed; it pursues public advocacy and supports design standards that take into account what's good for people's lives, rather than just seeking to maximize screen time. He says he's moving away from Time Well Spent these days (his new effort is as yet unnamed), trying to hold the tech industry accountable for the way it persuades us to spend as much time as possible online, with tactics ranging from Snapchat's snapstreaksto auto-playing videos on sites like YouTube and Facebook. I "It's so invisible what we're doing to ourselves," he says. "It's like a public health crisis. It's like cigarettes, except because we're given so many benefits, people can't actually see and admit the erosion of human thought that's occurring at the same time." Harris argues that because tech companies' business models largely depend upon advertising revenue, it's not really in their best interest to push us toward, say, getting off the social network du jour and going outside to hang out with friends. He's not saying Facebook (or any of its peers, for that matter) is bad, or that we should stop using our smartphones. But after spending years inside the tech industry — he joined Google in 2011 when it bought the startup he cofounded, a search-within-the-Web- page company called Apture — he is saying they are the most powerful social persuasion machines ever built, and he's concerned about how we're using them. Or, more to the point, how they're using us. It's an increasingly valid concern. For all the great things mobile technology makes possible, a growing body of research suggests that the use of social networks including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter may have negative consequences, like increasing your chances of depression or social isolation. Indeed, simply having your phone around could lower you cognitive capacity. To get his message out, Harris is working with colleagues including Roger McNamee, a venture capitalist and early Facebook and Google investor, who has recently written of his regrets about these money-making moves. It wasn't the most glamorous setting. While Stanford is a leafy, expansive, expensive bastion of Silicon Valley learning, this particular lecture hall was windowless, and the chair desks were old and uncomfortable. Harris, dressed comfortably in a chambray shirt and black pants, looked cramped standing behind an old lectern in a corner of the room. But if history is an indicator, it is one of the best places to reach the very people Harris hopes to connect with: bright students who may very well be the tech leaders of tomorrow (he would know, since he is a Stanford alum and counts as his friends some tech-famous Stanford graduates, Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger). Tristan Harris thinks big tech is taking advantage of us all. Can its power be used for good? Tristan Harris A view of Silicon Valley, as seen from above. FLICK — Patrick Nouhailler

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