Snapchat uses the fear of missing out is a huge thing. The idea of losing your friends, not being part of the crowd, is much stronger when you're younger. There are some addictive features that really need to go but as long as the business model with incentive to keep us there for as long as possible, they will always come up with new things. And I know that there's another example that you have like with the social network of be real that falls under this as well.
This week I was both excited and intrigued to welcome Gaia Bernstein to the show for an eye opening talk about the addictive nature of technology. Gaia is a Law Professor, Co-Director of the Institute for Privacy Protection and Co-Director of the Gibbons Institute for Law Science and Technology at the Seton Hall University School of Law. She writes, teaches and lectures in the intersection of law, technology, health and privacy.
In her new book, Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies she shatters the illusion that we can control how much time we spend on our screens by resorting to self-help measures. Unwired shifts the responsibility for a solution from users to the technology industry, which designs its products to addicts. The book draws out the legal action that can pressure the technology industry to re-design its products to reduce technology overuse.
Gaia has academic degrees in both law and psychology. Her research combines findings from psychology, sociology, science and technology studies with law and policy. Gaia’s research has been featured extensively by the media including the New York Times, Forbes, ABC News and Psychology Today.
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