cultural anthropologist natasha dauschol conducted years of research in los vegas casinos. Slop machines alone account for upwards of 70 to 80 % of a typical casino's revenue. Even the designers of these slop machines marvel at the power of these devices to blot out the players surroundings and hold them spellbound in an endless loop of play. A sense of being a social person or even having a body can fade away so people will stop feeling pain.
Natasha Dow Schüll, author of Addiction by Design, has spent years studying how slot machines hold gamblers spellbound, in an endless loop of play. She never imagined the addictive designs which she had first witnessed in Las Vegas would go bounding into Silicon Valley and reappear on virtually every smartphone screen worldwide. In the first segment of this two-part interview, Natasha Dow Schüll offers a prescient warning to users and designers alike: How far can the attention economy go toward stealing another moment of your time? Farther than you might imagine.