How can we change people's relationship with technology?
Redesigning the (AI-driven) Attention Economy
˚｡⋆ The Downsides of Hyperconnectivity⋆｡˚
People are increasingly living in the digital world, with detrimental effects. Social media, which started out to facilitate meaningful human interactions, has snowballed into the Attention Economy, seeking to control users’ time for profit.
Towards the end of 2023, users in the United States alone spent an average of 7 hours a day on the internet, with smartphone usage comprising over 50% that time. Increased technology usage linked to a greater likelihood of developing anxiety, depression, or stress. Professor Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, has demonstrated that social media and increased technology use is one of the major causes of mental health problems in young people.
Whistleblowers from big technology companies have also spoken out against the societal impacts of these platforms. Eli Pariser, in Filter Bubbles, examined how users’ online activity and personalized recommendations that influence how they see the world. Tristan Harris, a former Google executive and founder of the Center for Humane Technology, has drawn attention to the persuasive design patterns and cognitive hacks in social media that continuously push users to engage.
These notifications, color choices, sounds, and gamification techniques have been shown to affect certain parts of the brain, increasing digital addiction. These consumer apps, therefore, are becoming more effective at programming people, and have wider implications for amplifying misinformation, geopolitics, censorship, manipulation. Additionally, companies have capitalized on user data to make profits, at the expense of privacy.
The main problems with the Attention Economy:
The user as the product: while many applications are free, the actual price is user data. Facebook was recently exposed for supposedly providing Netflix with access to users’ private messages– likely to improve their personalization and recommendation algorithms. Users’ behavior on the apps, including eye-tracking data, likes, shares, clicks, and texts are also continuously collected, monetized, and sold.
Social and status drivers: the benefits that users experience from engaging with these apps are often intangible, and tap into human psychology, fears, insecurities and social status and prestige-related needs.
Sales and ads-driven: while platforms initially started out at social networking sites, they have now become marketplaces where posts are embedded with product placements, making it easier to click and buy, opening up more opportunities for e-commerce.
Entertainment-focused: Stories, reels, and a constantly updating feed allow individuals to be plugged in 24/7. According to one report, 57% of Gen Z wants to be a social media celebrity instead of entering the workforce.
Harming attention spans and productivity: the average attention span is now around 40 seconds, though some put it at 8. Short videos are proliferating across platforms, threatening users’ focus by flooding them with rapid-fire content. Task-switching has also become a problem, as users change apps rapidly from one context to another.
The sophistication with which these platforms are designed to constantly keep users online, and the growing evidence for their dangerous effects on individuals, especially young people, calls for a revaluation of this space. The new wave of AI-enabled technologies provides a startling glimpse into how these trends can accelerate, and their potential consequences.
˚｡⋆ The Acceleration of the Attention Economy⋆｡˚
Fed by clicks, views, likes and dislikes, and vast amounts of triangulated user data, techniques to personalize the social media experience for individuals has become more advanced, creating even more personalized interactions, such that “AI companions” are being promoted to replace real-world interactions.
Despite the fact that 70% of young people say that social media makes them feel anxious and depressed, the same respondents said they were four times more likely to use social media rather than discuss these feelings and negative self-image with family and friends.
AI-enhancements: companies such as TikTok and Snapchat have already developed filters and AI-enhanced editing tools to allow people to modify their photos and videos. But generative AI can further refine and power a variety of techniques due to the vast amount of data it is trained on, allowing users to create their “perfect” images and selves. Researchers at Boston University found that increased time on social media made users more willing to undergo cosmetic surgery to look like their AI-enhanced photos.
Advanced behavioral hacking: generative AI also allows for greater personalization and instant curation of online content based on users’ activity and interests. By drawing upon real-time behavior, users’ feeds can become even more addictive when combined with dark design patterns. Status-driven features also contribute to the negative effects that social media is having on young people – which is likely to be exacerbated with increased personalization.
AI-generated content and Influencers: companies are also creating AI companions and influencers, whose followers are unaware that they are fake. Virtual companions can now be hyper-personalized based on the tastes and preferences of their target audience, with the potential to manipulate and influence people emotionally.
Social Media and Geopolitics: there are also concerns about the role of social media companies in larger geopolitical issues. In the US, lawmakers proposed to ban TikTok if its ownership was not transferred to a different organization due to data security concerns. Social media applications also promote different policies and algorithms in different countries, which also has societal implications, and has also led to new alternatives.
In AI and the Future of Power, Rajiv Malhotra outlines how growing psychological dependency on social media and emotional hacking has resulted in the “moronization of the masses”. In this state, individuals voluntarily give up their data, privacy, and digital sovereignty to dominant technology companies, which then provide instant gratification through artificial, virtual pleasures. Ultimately, Malhotra writes that this is a battle for agency. Each interaction with these platforms serves to strengthen the ego, including individual desires, ideas of social status and prestige, and platform dependency, which in turn shape the individual’s behavior to align with the biases of the algorithms. This is only a sign of what is to come - wearable AI - such as Hume’s AI pin, has gained attention for its potential to replace smartphones, and become more integrated into everyday life.
The next part in this series outlines emerging startups that offer alternatives to the attention economy, seeking to design technology and social networks in a positive and productive way.
Further Reading:
Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Power - Rajiv Malhotra
- - Professor Jonathan Haidt
Why People Share: The Psychology Behind “Going Viral” - James Currier / NFX
Reshaping Social: Introducing the Anti-Social Media Era – Nicole Li / No Good