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[Music]
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hi everyone thank you very much Adam for
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inviting me thank you to Wharton for
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hosting me so uh my name is Adam alter
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I'm a professor of uh psychology and
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marketing at NYU at Stern and this book
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is about addictive Tech and the rise of
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addictive Tech and the role that's
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playing in our lives the outsized role
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and I became interested in this topic
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about 3 years ago so when two things
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happened the first thing that happened
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was I read about this guy this guy's
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dong win he's a Vietnamese game
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developer and he designed a game that I
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could not stop playing um this is the
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game I don't know if any of you have
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played this game anyone having
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flashbacks this is Flappy Bird it's the
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simplest game in history all you have to
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do is make the bird not fly into walls
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it's incredibly straightforward but it's
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also massively addictive so nen designed
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this game and it was it was very very
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popular it took a little while to take
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off but when it did take off it did very
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well at its peak he was earning $50,000
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a day in ad Revenue which is not shabby
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if you're an independent game designer
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so he designed the game and I started
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playing it I found it very hard to stop
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and I got curious about it and I
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wondered if there was something about
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the game that made it hard to resist so
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I started to read some of the reviews
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for the game and they were really
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interesting so they there were this
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interesting mix what you see here
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is it's it's a it's a glowing review
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five stars is what you're looking for
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but it also is killing this person
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person which is a weird it's a really
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weird tension so this person says Flappy
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Bird will be the death of me let me
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start by saying do not download Flappy
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Bird keeping in mind this person gives
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it five stars um and they basically go
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on saying I went to the App Store I
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downloaded it that was my first mistake
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I played it once and said okay just one
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more time uh that one more time never
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ended I don't sleep I don't eat I'm
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losing friends all because a Flappy Bird
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so tremendous game um
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and what happened in the end was n had a
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conscious he grew a conscience and he
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felt so bad about it that despite the
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massive ad Revenue he pulled it from the
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App Store it was the number one game on
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the App Store he pulled it and he
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basically tweeted I'm sorry Flappy Bird
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users I will take Flappy Bird down I
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cannot take this anymore it is not
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anything related to legal issues I just
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cannot keep it anymore I also don't sell
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Flappy Bird please don't ask people were
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desperate there was like a black market
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for Flappy Bird so something here was
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going on with this this game and I'd
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played it for hours and hours on my
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iPhone now the second thing that
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happened paired with this suggested that
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there was something systemic going on
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here and what that was was I started to
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read a little bit about how Steve Jobs
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thought about the iPad as a delivery
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device and when he introduced the iPad
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in 2010 he said what this device does is
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extraordinary it offers the best way to
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browse the web way better than a laptop
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way better than a smartphone it's an
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incredible
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experience so that's obviously a glowing
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review of the product but at the same
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time when he was asked in 2012 what he
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thought about the iPad with respect to
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his kids this is Nick Bilton a tech
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writer for the New York Times Bilton
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said to him so your kids must love the
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iPad and job said they haven't used it
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we limit how much Tech our kids use at
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home so on the one hand he thought it
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was a wonderful device that's what he
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was telling the world but on the other
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he was really concerned about having
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this device in his home he didn't want
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to give it to his kids which is
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concerning perhaps because he knew that
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if they got hold of Flappy Bird it would
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be the end of them so something is going
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on here and what's interesting is beyond
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Steve Jobs other Tech Titans have said
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similar things so this is a school
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called the waldor school school of the
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peninsula which is uh in the Bay Area
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and there's something really interesting
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about this school it's one of the few
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schools around the country now that
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mandates a complete Tech ban no
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computers no iPads no iPhones nothing
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but what's really interesting about the
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school is that 75% of the kids there
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have parents who are SE Silicon Valley
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Tech execs so these are people producing
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Tech and yet saying that their kids
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should go to a school where there is no
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Tech they realize that something is
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going on here
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and you know they're right to have those
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concerns there's a lot of research
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suggesting that these concerns are well
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founded here's one of my favorite pieces
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of evidence a whole lot of people of
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roughly your age in their 20s and 30s
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were asked if you had to choose between
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a broken bone and a broken iPhone which
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one would you
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choose this is what they said
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54% said a broken phone which left 46%
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saying broken leg and what's really
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interesting about this is when you watch
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them make the decision even the people
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who say I'd have a broken phone agonize
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they spend time it's not like a snap
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decision where it's easy for them to
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make because these devices are so
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instrumental in their lives they know
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that not having them will be a really
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massive psychological pain for them um
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and so you you have this crazy statistic
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one of the reasons people say this by
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the way is they say while I'm recovering
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from my broken bone at least I'll have
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my phone to keep me
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company so that's concerning but let me
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give you a sort of bigger more reliable
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data set uh this is a program called
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moment you can all download moment for
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your phone some of you may have it
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already it's designed by a guy called
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Kevin Kevin holes from Pittsburgh and he
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designed it because he felt that he was
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spending too much time on his phone it
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measures how long you spend on your
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phone every day and how many times you
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unlock your phone so basically he AB
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tested it with his friends and he asked
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them how long do you think you're
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spending on your phone and his friend
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said about an hour and a half on average
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turns out they were spending an average
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of 3 hours a day on their phones which
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is pretty striking and and what that
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means is if you look at the waking hours
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in the day for the average
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person the dark blue is the hours we
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spend at work the light blue is the
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hours we spend doing survival activities
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like eating and bathing which leaves the
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white bit and that's the bit that you
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can do lots of interesting things with
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or you can fill it with the black bar
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which is how long we spend on average on
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our phones now so that's we're left with
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that little sliver of white to engage
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with other people to have social
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interactions to talk to our loved ones
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to do the really important things in
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life we're not leaving ourselves much
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time to do that stuff because phones get
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in the way 3 hours a day on average for
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people so this is a problem now all of
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this falls under the banner of
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Behavioral addiction behavioral
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addiction is basically the drive to
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engage in some Behavior that's rewarding
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now but that has really strong negative
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consequences in the long run and they
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can be in a lot of different spheres
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they can be physical mental So Physical
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if you do say you play games for 45 days
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straight as one person I'm going to tell
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you about did that was bad for him he
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put on 40 pounds of fat because he
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didn't move um mental social Financial
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social because our relationships break
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down and financial obviously because
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people overshop and they don't work as
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much as they should and there are a lot
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of different kinds of experiences that
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fall under this Banner there are things
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like um compulsive use of phones emails
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social networks uh video games overwork
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OV exercise compulsive shopping gambling
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and what's interesting about this is if
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you want to know how many people in the
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population at large have at least one of
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these issues you may feel that you have
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one of them there was a study published
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in
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2011 U Mark riffi British researcher
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found that as of 2011 41% of all adults
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have at least one behavioral addiction
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and he predicted that number would rise
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and I'm sure now six years later that it
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has risen significantly it's probably
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over the 50% mark because now iPads have
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really taken a hold and when you ask
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people who work in behavioral addiction
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treatment they all say the biggest thing
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to happen in behavioral add ition was
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first the Advent of the iPhone and then
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second the Advent of the iPad so I think
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that number is probably risen so let's
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talk about what you can do about this um
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there are a few things that probably
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won't work cold turkey is one of
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them if you search cold turkey there
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actually is a cold like a a cold turkey
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you have that option there on Google
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Images which is nice um so cold turkey
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doesn't work for a lot of reasons one of
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them is that you can't function in the
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world and not use Tech it's just very
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hard you can't work or it's very hard to
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work it's very hard to travel it's hard
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to just go about the business of
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everyday life not to mention the social
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consequences of not using Tech so cold
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turkey is tough also um if you stop
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using Tech the motives that that Tech is
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is dealing with for you so let's say you
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are looking for social connection if you
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don't get that social connection through
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Tech you're going to need to find it
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somewhere else or soothe yourself some
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other way so there's some evidence that
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if you try not to use Tech just going
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cold turkey you end up developing other
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forms of addiction to compensate so
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that's dangerous the other thing you
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can't do in the long run is one of my
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favorite techniques this is min SEI and
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uh he's a tech entrepr entrepreneur who
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lives in New York and he went on
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Craigslist and he advertised for a
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position that he paid uh a significant
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sum of money this woman was paid to
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follow him around and when he did
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something he didn't want to do she was
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paid to slap
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him so so she punished him every time he
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opened his Facebook or his email and
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here you can see that that form of
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punishment in action he ended up
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designing a device that I he sent to me
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it costs $500 you wear it on your wrist
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and you can program it to give you a zap
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when you do something you shouldn't be
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doing it is so incredibly powerful that
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I hit the roof when I first use it so
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I've never used it since but people who
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do use it swear that it works really
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well but I don't think that's a
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long-term solution either so here are
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some things you can do one of them is
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basically a series of techniques known
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as behavioral architecture the that just
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as an architect creates a building or
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designs a building you can design your
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own life in such a way that you can
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minimize harm and maximize good so here
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are some things you can do with respect
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to tech one of the things you can do is
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for part of the day remove it from your
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life completely so what I've tried to do
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is between 5:00 p.m and 8:00 p.m. I put
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my phone in a drawer and I Don't Go Near
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it same with my iPad I try not to use
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the
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TV um so I try to remove Tech Al
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together for part of the day that's one
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option but some tech is going to be with
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you and so you need to make sure that
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you do whatever you can to minimize the
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pull of that text so here's one thing
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you can do I don't know if you heard
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that it was subtle but there was the
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ding sound that a lot of us have when we
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get a new email and that for us ignites
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a set of responses that makes us feel
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really good most of the time it's a sort
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of reward response so one thing to do is
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to turn that sound off that's pretty
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effective another thing you can do is
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turn off all notifications on your phone
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because what you're doing then is your
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resting control from your phone and
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you're you're taking it yourself you're
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deciding when to go to the phone because
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if you have push notifications your
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phone is guiding you which is the
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opposite of what you want to happen
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another thing to do is to make sure that
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your homepage on your phone doesn't have
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any of those addictive apps for you if
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it's Twitter or Instagram or Facebook or
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whatever it is remove them put them in a
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folder in the third or fourth page and
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make sure that you type in the search
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bar the name of that app because that's
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a willed behavior that basically means
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that the only time you will go to this
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device is because you you've willed it
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you've decided that it's something that
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should happen it's not that the the app
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or the icon is reminding you to check it
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which you'll do reflexively uh and the
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fourth thing you can do this is a little
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small but if you look at the bottom
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there this is a Facebook post you can
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see this person has 10 likes three
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shares and seven comments there's a a
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program now known as a the Facebook
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demetricator which removes all the
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numbers so if you look at what happens
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when you activate the demetricator it
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doesn't give you numbers it just tells
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you that these things have happened but
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not how much and so you don't
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obsessively return to check over and
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over and over again it's proven to be
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pretty effective so those are some
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things you can do um also at the
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cultural level there are some things we
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should do and this is a bigger
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conversation obviously one of them is
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exemplified in the behavior of this
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design firm in Germany they have tables
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that are Tethered to the ceiling and at
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6 p.m. every day no matter what you're
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doing the tables rise to the ceiling and
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the place the place turns into a yoga
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studio so You' better be finished with
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your work you have no option so that's
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one thing we could do is sort of mandate
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that work ends at a particular time or
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do our best to do that another thing we
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can do is you know a lot of businesses
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when I tell them this say we obviously
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want our programs to be addictive
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because that's how we compete in the
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marketplace well here's one solution
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these 100 calorie packs in the food
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industry are very popular people will
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basically pay more to buy less food
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because what they're paying for is
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self-control they're Outsourcing
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self-control to the companies that make
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the food now if if social media
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platforms offered are slightly more
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expensive I guess they're currently free
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but if they said for 10 bucks a year you
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can get a version of this platform that
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has fewer of the hooks that will addict
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you effectively you're resting they're
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resting self-control from you and doing
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it for you people would pay more for
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that so the businesses might be happy
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and you would get a better version of
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the program that's one option and
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finally there are people who are known
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as design ethicists at these big
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companies and a lot of them believe
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there should be a hypocritic oath for
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Designing Tech that just as doctors are
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supposed to do no harm when you're
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designing Tech you should make sure that
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you consult with behavioral experts who
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explain to you what you should be doing
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to minimize the addictive hooks that are
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conveyed in these products and the last
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thing is to understand what it is that
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makes you addicted in the first place
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because addiction isn't just about that
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rise in dopamine it's not just about
00:13:16
taking the drug or doing the behavior
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it's what it does for you it's what it
00:13:20
soothes and this is Isaac viberg he's uh
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a gamer from way back he's a straight A
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student he did very well in school he
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played football
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he was kind of the the All American guy
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and things went wrong for him when he
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started playing World of
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Warcraft there 100 million people who've
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played this game and signed up for
00:13:38
accounts half of them have developed
00:13:40
addictions it's probably the most
00:13:41
addictive experience in the world um and
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Isaac had a real problem with this he's
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the guy who spent 45 days playing and
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the key for him was to work out what it
00:13:49
was that was driving that so some people
00:13:51
play World of Warcraft because they're
00:13:53
bullied and it allows them to choose a
00:13:55
really dominant Avatar and so they do
00:13:57
really well they feel better because
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they've got a dominant Avatar That
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Conquers missions and does does really
00:14:03
well on missions um other people are
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lonely and so they form Guilds of
00:14:07
friends on the platform and for him that
00:14:09
was the main thing and so he realized
00:14:12
that if he could cultivate social a
00:14:13
social life outside of the game he that
00:14:16
addiction would would wither away and
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that's what happened for other people
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it's about low self-esteem and
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conquering quests it makes them feel
00:14:22
efficacious and so the key is to work
00:14:24
out what is the underlying psychological
00:14:26
issue that you soothe with these
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behavioral addictions and the biggest
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thing I think of all is nature it's the
00:14:34
anti- behavioral addiction it's the
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perfect place to go it's sort of
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anywhere where you go where you have no
00:14:39
idea what year it is is a good solution
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and so I think that's that's the biggest
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cure of all thanks very
00:14:46
[Applause]
00:14:47
[Music]
00:14:53
much
