Analysis Of Tristan Harris's 'Slot Machine In Your Pocket'

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Every so often a new phone comes out or a new wifi router better than the old one. Hearing hundreds of reasons why it 's better or faster only tempt people, especially gen Z, to upgrade to the latest and greatest. In the article, Slot Machine in Your Pocket, Tristan Harris talks about how people become addicted to their phones just like slot machines and how people, on average, check their phones more than 100 times a day. In the article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?", Nicholas Carr refers to many sources about what google and the internet have done to us. Technology has changed many things including the way we do things. Older generations have been forced to adapt while newer generations were born into it. Many believe that the change has …show more content…
The reward aspect is a major part of this due to the fact humans are driven by the appearance of reward. Many people asked the question of how this can be the case and how it 's even possible for someone to make a phone addicting in similar ways that a slot machine is addicting. Tristan Harris states in his article, “I learned about our minds’ vulnerabilities when I was a magician. Magicians start looking for blind spots, vulnerabilities, and biases of people 's minds, so they can influence what people do without them even realizing it .” Magicians and the creators of software, games, and apps all strive for the same goal, hooking the user. This is done by linking in users actions to your app.They also use the “reward” process that you receive in a slot machine such as cranking the handle or hearing the alarms go off when you hit a jackpot except, on a phone, it’s the buzz in your pocket, the next picture you see on your Instagram feed, or the feeling you get when you finally beat a level in your favorite game. The joy you receive from participating. Apps are made to be addictive to continuously bring people back to play them. This is all backed up by the data as well. The average person checks their phone 150 times per day. All caused by one thing, intermittent variable …show more content…
Google has become motivated by a desire to make use of technology to solve problems that have never been solved before. Google has helped us gain access to the answers of our questions in fractions of seconds but, what is that doing to our brains. Carr states, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” Today 's world finds it much more convenient to skim rather than read the entire article or book. The way we read has changed. People find it hard so stay focused for more than 2 or 3 pages before they “bounce” to somewhere else. Google and the internet have affected how we focus and the way we receive information from sources and people worry that a style of reading that is more focused on efficiency and immediacy may be weakening our

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