Technology Is Not Hijacking Your Brain

Thank you. So a few years ago, I wrote this book, how to Build Habit Forming Products. And the book has been used by thousands of product teams all over the world at big companies like GE and Microsoft, Mozilla and PayPal, as well as smaller companies like MyFitnessPal and Product Hunt. Now, today's talk is not going to be about how to hook people. Instead, today's talk is going to be about what happens when we get too hooked to some of our technologies. Today, I want to talk about these two problems of technological dependence and technological distraction. Now, before you click away or start using your smartphone, stick with me because I am going to give you some very practical ways that we can fix these two problems and finally put technology in its place. So let's first talk about this problem of technological dependence. You know, there's a word that's thrown around these days in our industry that we hear quite a bit, and that word is addiction. Everything is addictive these days. We're told our iPhones are addictive, Facebook is addictive. Even products like Slack are addictive. But what is that word actually mean? Well, if you were to ask a psychologist, they would most likely tell you that an addiction is defined as a persistent compulsive dependency on a behavior or substance that harms the user. A dependency that harms. So let's do a quick poll here. How many of you, by show of hands, have Facebook accounts? How many of you have Facebook accounts? Terrific. Okay, leave your hands up. Leave your hands up. I want you to keep your hands up. If hypothetically, one day you decided you wanted to stop using Facebook, how many of you think you leave your hand up if you think you could stop. Okay, look around the room, everybody. Keep your hands up. Look around the room. All right, terrific. You can put your hands down. What we just learned from this little exercise, the vast majority of you are not technically addicted to Facebook. Now, maybe you're wrong, maybe you're all in denial. And that could very well be the case. Now, of course, there's a very simple test for this. Uninstall Facebook or try not using the app for a few days or a few weeks and see what happens. You might very well find a small proportion of you, about 1 to 5% of the population, that you are addicted, that a very small proportion of the population does struggle with not using a product, even when they don't want to. So the vast majority of you told me by your own admission that it's not an addiction, because you said you could stop if you wanted to. But some people, even when they want to stop, those people suffer from addiction. Now, of course, the question here is, what do we do about it? What do these companies that have people that they know want to stop using their product but can't because of an addiction, do? What's their ethical obligation? Well, there is something that we can do in our industry that other industries can't do. People have been getting addicted to, to all sorts of things for a very, very long time. So the thing that we can do that other industries can't. For example, let's say the alcohol industry, if you are a distiller, you could throw up your hands and say, well, I don't know who the addicts are. How do I know who the alcoholics are? And you'd be right. But in our industry, we do know because we have personally identifiable information that reveals to us who is using and who is abusing our product. What is that data? It's time on site. So a company like Facebook could, if they so choose, reach out to the small percentage of people who are using that product past a certain threshold. 20 hours a week, 30 hours a week, whatever that threshold might be, and reach out to them with a simple message, something like this, for example, that asks them to do they need help. Now, it's simple, it's respectful and easy. Now, some of you might be saying, hey, if we did send this message, what's to say that it would be effective? And frankly, if someone says, hey, leave me alone, I'm good, there's not much we can do, unfortunately. We can't be Big Brother and tell users that we know better than they know. However, if a user identifies to us that they do need help, it is unethical to continue profiting from people who are struggling with. With an addiction. But what about the business case for that? What's the incentive for a product like Facebook to send out a message like this to the few users who may be addicted? Well, there might be all sorts of business rationale. Maybe it's good not to burn people out. Maybe the product would be better if some people weren't using it as much. We all have that one friend on Facebook that uses it way too much that pollutes our feeds, right? We all know that person. Maybe the experience would be better for everyone if that person dialed back. But to be honest with you, I don't really care about the business rationale because this is an ethical argument. And I believe that companies that know they are addicting folks know who those people are and don't do anything to help them is unethical. Now, a company like Facebook or Reddit or any number of other services could easily do this. Other companies can't do this and won't do this. They won't do it because if they did, they would go out of business. And this is in certain industries and certain companies, for example, in the online gaming industry and in the casino industry, some companies, not all companies in those industries, but some companies target what they call whales. Whales are the less than 1% of users who account for 99% of the revenue. When I was doing the research for this presentation, I spoke with many companies and one company I spoke to was a very well known publicly traded gaming company. And I asked them, I said, look, do you ever hear from people who want help using your product less? And they said, yes, frequently we get calls from people who tell us, hey, I want you to deactivate my account and I want you to blacklist me so I don't keep using this product. And I thought, wow, that's fantastic. That's a very ethical thing to do. You've identified the addicts and you've helped them stop using your product. But here's what I heard afterwards, that when those same people came back to this gaming company and wanted to keep playing, the gaming company welcomed them with open arms. That's not right. It is unethical. And we should not invest in work for or start companies that do not help people who they know are addicted but can't stop using the product because they are fighting an addiction. Can we all agree that that's a good ethical standard to live by? Terrific. Thank you. Thank you very much. There's another type of dependency I want to talk about that I hear about quite a bit that I'm guessing many of you might struggle with. And that is that many people tell me that they want to use technology less but that their workplace doesn't let them disconnect. It's not necessarily an addiction because if they won the lottery, they would stop using those technologies if they didn't have to go back to work. But what they tell me is they can't stop working because their bosses, their clients, their colleagues keep them tethered to to technology all day and all night. So my question is, when did the 9 to 5 become a 24 7? And who's responsible for this form of technological dependence? What's the real cause here? Let me tell you a quick story. In 2014, a researcher at Harvard by the name of Dr. Leslie Perlow wanted to Figure out, do companies really benefit from this always on connected culture? She wanted to find a company that exemplified the 24. 7 connection that many people have to their devices. And she found that company when she met a partner at the Boston Consulting Group. Now, the Boston Consulting Group is known to be one of the best consulting firms or the most premier consulting firms in the world. They deal with Fortune 100 clientele, and let me tell you, they have a very hard charging culture. In fact, I know I used to work there about 15 years ago, and the expectation was that you would be constantly connected. Now, Perlo went to a team, a consulting team at bcg. She sat down with these seven consultants on a case team, and she asked them a simple question. What would happen if everybody on this team got one night off per week? One night where they could totally disconnect from any technology. Email, cell phones, slack accounts. One night off to go to the movies with their spouse, to go to their kid's basketball game, or maybe just go to the gym and have some me time. Everybody on the team thought this was a terrific idea. But when Perlo asked this team, well, can we do it? What would it take to make this happen? Everybody on the team balked and said, it's impossible. There's no way. What if there's an emergency? We're in the services business. What if our clients demand it from us? Basically, they came up with every excuse in the book. Leslie Perlow asked this case team to think of this as a challenge. Think of it as something that, after all, being in the consulting business, what would they answer to one of their clients who wanted to institute this change? And what she discovered was the real problem wasn't the technology per se. It was lack of open communication. Once people could discuss this problem and make it a challenge, just like any other business challenge, they came up with all kinds of creative solutions, giving people these predictable periods of time off, holding each other accountable, so that when someone was online when they shouldn't be, someone reached out and said, hey, we agreed that you're not online, and held them accountable. And through these techniques, she discovered that this challenge was just like any other business challenge. Now, many of you are thinking, yeah, but business results would suffer, wouldn't they? In fact, she found the exact opposite. That when companies gave employees time off to disconnect from their technology, business results improved, as did employee morale. That in company after company, in study after study, at companies like IBM and Altos and Daimler, not to mention bcg, company results improve when people have time to Disconnect. Now, one of the things that Perlow discovered was that leadership plays a very important role. That is that culture is like water. It flows down the organization. And that people consistently look to company leadership for the appropriate amount of technology to use. Now, what this means is that if you're in company leadership, it behooves you to improve company outcomes by setting time for employees to disconnect. For example, take a look at Slack. Slack is the fastest growing technology company in history. And it's a product that many people associate with what keeps them tethered to the workplace. But if you go to Slack, what you will find is that the company doesn't have this problem. That in fact, at Slack, the company culture is that you work hard and you go home. In fact, they take this so seriously, they write it on the walls of their company headquarters. Why? Because the CEO, Stuart Butterfield, wants this to permeate throughout the organization. That it is a company taboo to bother people during off hours. So we talked about the problem of technological dependence, addiction, workplace culture. And the message here that I want to send to you is that it's not necessarily the technology that's the problem. It's the workplace culture. And culture, ladies and gentlemen, can change. Let's move on to this next problem of technological distraction. Now, distraction is a problem that is near and dear to my heart. In fact, I struggle with technological distraction or all the time. Not because I'm addicted. If I'm honest with myself, I could stop if I wanted to. And it's not because of workplace culture I work for myself, but because it's fun. I like it. I enjoy watching YouTube videos and scrolling around on Reddit. It's fun. But at times I find that it comes at the cost of doing other things I know I should do. But we should take some comfort in knowing that this is not a new problem. That in fact, human beings have been struggling with distraction for a very, very long time. That the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates debated the nature of Akrasia, this condition that we have as people to do things against our better judgment. Well before Facebook, well before YouTube, people have been struggling with, you know, technology today is like walking by the window of a never ending bakery and you're constantly tempted by all these sweet, amazing, delicious treats. By the way, that's my dad, that's my mom. They're both on diets and you can see they're tempted by these delicious treats. But it would be ridiculous for them to walk into the bakery and say, how dare you make this food so Good that I want to eat it. And it's equally ridiculous to ask tech companies to do anything but making their products so good that we want to use them. Is it tempting? Of course it is. But products getting better isn't necessarily a problem. It's progress. So just like at the bakery where we wouldn't blame the baker for making their food so good, this isn't your fault as the user, but it is our responsibility. So what do we do about this? How do we live in a world where things are getting constantly better and distracting and sometimes more and more delicious? How do we live in such a world? Well, we will do the exact same thing that human beings have done. Whenever there is a new technological change, we will adapt our behaviors and we will adopt new technological solutions. You know, Paul Varillo has this fantastic quote. He said, when you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck. I think that's very true. But if you think about it, when was the last time you heard of an actual shipwreck? It doesn't occur all that often. Why don't we hear about shipwrecks today? Why are airplanes and automobiles safer than ever before? Well, let's take automobiles, for example. The adapted behavior is that people today wear seat belts. They have adapted that behavior, and then they have adopted new technologies. Airbags, sensors, things that make driving today safer per mile than ever before. And we are going to do the same exact thing when it comes to the problem of technological distraction. Let me show you how. Here's how we're going to adapt our behaviors. Who's ever had this happen to them? I'm guessing this has happened to everybody in the room. You're at a nice dinner, you're having lunch with some colleagues, you're having a great time, and somebody in your party thinks it's a great time to start using their phone and start putzing around on Facebook or. This is super annoying. So what do we do about this? I think we do the same thing that we did with cigarettes. You know, in the 1960s, about half of the United States adult population smoked cigarettes. Today, it's about 16%. Part of the reason that this happened was because smoking became no longer socially acceptable. You know, when I was a kid, we had ashtrays all over my house, but my parents didn't smoke. Why? Because there was an expectation that when people came over to our house and they wanted to smoke, that they could do so. But today, I'd never let someone smoke in my living room. If you want to smoke, go Outside. And we can do the same exact thing with our technology. The next time you see somebody doing this, there's a simple way that you can get them back into the conversation. All you have to do is ask them a question. Hey, is everything okay? By simply asking this question, you may discover that, hey, there really is some emergency and hopefully they'll go take care of it, or they'll put the technology away and rejoin the conversation. Now, what about when we're by ourselves? How can we adapt our behaviors when it's just us? Here are some very practical things that we can do. For one, we can change our notification settings. About two thirds of people with smartphones never change their notification settings. Please take 15 minutes and just make sure that the app maker isn't pinging you and sending you triggers on their schedule that you're only using these technologies on your schedule. Next, another thing you can do, never sleep with your cell phone. About 75% of Americans charge their cell phone right by their nightstand. And that's a big mistake. This is why we have alarm clocks. You will get more sex. You will get more sleep if you charge your cell phone outside of the bedroom. Next, use distracting apps through your browser. So this is a problem I personally experienced. I found that throughout my day I was looking at Facebook and Twitter instead of being with my daughter or doing something else that I thought was more important. So I uninstalled Facebook and Twitter from my device. But I still love these services. I just use them on my browser when I'm on my desktop. And finally, we want to break the hook. The same thing that I talk about in my book about how to build habit forming products can work in revers to stop behaviors you don't want to keep doing to break habits that don't serve you. We want to add some more friction by logging out of an app that doesn't serve us or burying that app within folders, just adding a bit of friction to help us use that technology less. So that's how we can adapt our behaviors. Let's talk about how we can adopt new technologies. You know, for most people logging on to Facebook, the first thing that they see is this news feed, which is algorithmically designed to keep you scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. But there's nothing that says we cannot adopt new technologies to fix what's wrong with today's technology. So when I look at Facebook, this is what my Facebook newsfeed looks like. Because I use a free Chrome extension called Facebook News Feed Eradicator, totally free. Anyone can use It. I still love using Facebook, but when I check my individual friends accounts, I can see everything they have to show me. But I don't want to see that newsfeed because I know it's designed to keep me coming back and that doesn't serve me. So I've decided to eradicate it. Here's another solution. This is how most people's YouTube looks. And if you've read my book, you know that all those things on the side, there are triggers that are designed to bring you back, to keep you watching the next video and the next video and the next video. But you don't have to put up with that because there's another free Chrome extension that allows you to eradicate those ads and those other videos. This is called YouTube df. YouTube. DF stands for YouTube Distraction Free Again, a free Chrome extension. Here's some more examples of technology fighting technology. These services like Pocket Points, which rewards you for having time away from distracting services or freedom or rescue time. Here's a simple solution. In my home we bought ourselves a $10 outlet timer that every evening at 10pm shuts off our Internet router, right? How simple is that? And there are literally thousands of apps in the iOS app store, in the Android App Store that do exactly this, that help you gain control over your technology use. The message I want to leave you with is that you are not powerless. A lot of technology critics today are getting a lot of buzz because they're calling technology irresistible. They're telling us that it's hijacking our brain. And I think that is the worst thing that you can believe because believing it makes it so. In 2015, there was a fantastic study of alcoholics that found that alcoholics were much more likely to relapse after treatment if they believed they were powerless to fight their addiction. In fact, these alcoholics belief of their powerlessness was as much of a factor as the physical dependency itself. Think about this for a minute. With alcoholics, their beliefs of their powerless was as much of a factor as the alcohol dependency itself. Now remember, these aren't physical dependencies. We're not freebasing Facebook and injecting Instagram. We have the power to disconnect from these devices. Don't believe that you are powerless because that makes it so. Instead we should be asking ourselves a simple Is this technology serving me or am I serving it? Opening ourselves up to the answers to this question can help us put technology in its place. Now today I've talked about just two problems of technology. There are many, many other Problems of technology. But for these two solutions of technological dependence and technological distraction, there are some simple solutions that we can do in our industry to fix these problems. We first and foremost, we need to identify the addicts and offer them help to disconnect from these services that they don't want to use. Next, as employers, we should build in time for employees to disconnect. Our business results will improve and so will employee satisfaction. And as users, it's our responsibility to understand that first and foremost we are not powerless and to ask ourselves this critical question of is the technology serving me or, or am I serving it? And then finally, to adapt our behaviors and adopt new technological fixes to fix the bad aspects of the last generation of technology. You know, Kevin Kelly once told me that 99% of our problems and solutions come from technology. And I think that's very true and very exciting because what this means is that there are limitless opportunities out there. You know, the real problem is not that a few companies have figured out how to suck us in. The real problem is that far too much technology out there just plain old sucks. Because the vast majority of people in this room, the people in our industry, we don't want to make products that harm people. We don't want to addict people. That's bad for our souls and it's bad for business. Instead, we want to help people live better lives. We want to help them connect with others, live healthier lives, exercise more, save money. And that's where building habit forming technologies is not only a business opportunity, it's a business imperative as well as an ethical guideline. And that's where you come in. You know, there has never been a better time to have a bigger impact. The products and services that you're making touch more people's lives than ever before. The future is yours. Make it a future that you want to see. Thank you very much. Thanks very much. I have a quick, quick request for you. I have a quick request for you. Can everybody hold up their phones for a quick second? Hold up your phones for me. I have to get a picture of this from my Instagram account. You guys are such a beautiful audience. Hold them up high. Beautiful, beautiful. The other reason I asked you to hold up your phones is because I'd really love for you to go to this URL www.overview2.us. Now that you have the phone in your hand, I would love your feedback. This is a brand new talk. I would love to know what you think, what you liked, what you didn't like. I will read every single one of your comments. And as a little incentive to get you to take this little survey, it'll only take you 30 seconds. When you click on the survey after you submit it, you'll be given a link to my SlideShare page where you can get all the slides you just saw. So thank you very much.