Distracted? Let's make technology that helps us spend our time well | Tristan Harris | TEDxBrussels

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. An "Organic" label for technology that respects our time - timewellspent.io/
Tristan Harris is a design thinker, philosopher and entrepreneur - most recently focused on Design Ethics.
Tristan is rated #16 in Inc Magazine's Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30, a former Mayfield Fellow in Stanford’s Technology Venture Program in Entrepreneurship, and graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Currently he’s developing a framework at Google to help product designers facilitate conscious choices for users. Before this, he was co-founder and CEO of Apture, an instant explanation engine that enabled millions of users to get on-the-fly explanations about any topic without leaving their place on the web. Google acquired Apture in 2011.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[@TheJorgenbo]

High five to those who have seen The Social Dilemma before coming here.

[@akashmohandas5914]

After watching social dillemma I become fan of this man

[@braedengibb8448]

@@akashmohandas5914 Tristan is the man.

[@unknown-nr7wh]

How's the movie?

[@prishacomar514]

@@unknown-nr7wh mind blowing and hella informative! Thumbs up to the creators Well it's also available on yt for free

[@unknown-nr7wh]

@@prishacomar514 can u share the link plz

[@joemurray1994]

So sad, yet not a suprise, to see that this video only has 50,000 views compared the other ones about technology with millions. This is such an important issue...

[@gfsdgfabfsdafjsavbdfs1253]

5.5 years and only 110K views. Incredibly sad, this is so relevant. Is YT deliberately ranking Tristan Harris lower in search results, autoplay? (of course they are)

[@uryzl]

It’s crazy that even when knowing you’re addicted to the phone, and knowing how your life would be if you weren’t addicted, but you can’t seem to let go of it. It really sucks, but it’s also a show of the lack of self discipline (which I have lol) in many people that don’t want to admit it, but this presentation was amazing and the social dilemma movie. This should be put in every school for when they have a movie day in class lol.

[@gedanggorengjasem01]

Terryfying

[@NganNguyen-hm5qc]

I like the idea. The idea about messages can't be sent when the user is working on something else. That's amazing. Thank you Tristan Harris.

[@carrieforest8017]

Merging humanity with technology "Time Well Spent" this is a cutting edge concept! Tristan Harris this is out of the box stretch your mind and heart type of thinking. I especially like that this concept can provide opportunities for us to become compassionate toward those on the other side of my computer. Choosing to live and work towards being respectful, purposeful and efficient in our daily task while using technology. Fantastic Idea ! Elizabeth would agree! Carrie Forest

[@uoieavillanueva5806]

Hope the algorithm of youtube could be based more on time well spent like these videos Thank you sir so much! This was time well spent!

[@FriendlyHugo]

Moving from *Time Spent* to *Time Well Spent*? In this TEDx talk by Tristan Harris, he campaigns for a change in design philosophy. Too often products are designed to simply suck you in and waste your time. The success metrics for such products are "the more time spent, the better"... the outcome is addictive designs that manipulate users with slot-machine psychology, and have no respect for users' time or their desire to live fulfilling lives. To fix this fundamental nastiness in products, we need to change the metrics for design success, such that they measure actual _good_ outcomes for users. (Tristan gives some examples.) We need to choose design goals that will make the world a better place. And this is truly possible - he suggests a solution by which such technology could be marketed, which should help make such design goals economically viable for all kinds of corporations. #fb #Mindful

[@FriendlyHugo]

Of course we don't want to _emulate_ the "Organic" label, in this sense: www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/01/04/scientist-mothers-view-organic-and-whole-foods-are-scam-of-the-decade/ Organic as an example simply demonstrates that one can differentiate products with smart labelling campaigns... and if labelling is not necessary, even better.

[@BuickGeek24]

@@FriendlyHugo You can say that all you want, but that doesn't mean anything will change. Yes, I know about snapchat having intergrated Headspace for meditation, so it's good that they're at least doing something to help people's mental health

[@BigHugeYES]

Love it. There was a TED Talk a while back related to this issue that focused on creating maps apps that could optionally direct you to the most pleasant route rather than the fastest route.

[@sumaiasaif82]

This video should have millions of views!!

[@RaRa-tl3dc]

Groundbreaking and eye opening. Loved it.

[@Zunttak1]

Thank you for this TEDx talk, I saw Tristan in the film "What Makes Us Click?" and was immediately amazed by his ideas. Thank you again :)

[@annaemma811]

please design this, mr harris!

[@sam_metal]

He sort of did, check out the app Moment.

[@tranquil87]

I'm really glad I can't relate to this at all. I check my emails once or twice a day. I rarely use my phone, and never check emails on my phone. There was a time where I definitely did and it's great now to see how much progress I've made after listening to this. No more Facebook, no more mindless browsing. There is intent behind my decisions to use KZbin for educational value, and other than that I'm not on social media platforms. I feel sorry for people who are a slave to their technology and who can't delay gratification. Even worse, I feel sorry for those who are actually gratified by the amount of trivial nonsense social media brings to their lives.

[@lynnwalker3503]

I can't either, Etienne. I"m very glad I never really used my cell phone for much. In fact, I"ve downgraded and use a Straight talk p hone now, so I can't even text easily, which helps me cut way back on texting. I truly feel for people who seem so dependent on their phones that it would be hard for them to function if they had to be without them for awhile.

[@BuickGeek24]

I will never get rid of my facebook though

[@babyfish1083]

Mr. Harris is a saint of our time.

[@soniayounas2215]

I propose we have google etc search on key words not key words and what they think we want to see. Back to the basic Internet. Recommendations are good but individuality separate from algorithms is better. Lets keep auto play however :) loved the talk very humane which is rare these days online or offline. Ps I hate ads on google and KZbin. I feel lots of time wasted is on silly marketing techniques that just annoy us. We already pay the ISP's websites should make money from these. As for measuring them success vs time spent should be plenty as people would be using sites they want and not 'think' they want

[@sissichan9656]

It seems to be a revolution in the era of electronics and information.

[@dandusha]

inspiring speech! thank you Tristan

[@abhijitv]

awesome ! superb thinking Kudos to you Tristan

[@carolgeorge6409]

Love this!

[@etiennedhaussy5034]

Inspirational !!

[@gavinwieland3707]

I love this video. It's so Coll and very educational.

[@fernandabernal2151]

Yo quiero esa nueva tecnología!!! El mundo lo necesita!!

[@wendypersoon7058]

very interesting view on technology. enjoyed it. The subtitles need some rework... for example he says "get sucked into' and the subtitles say 'get fucked into' (no kidding), but also things not really related like, 'this coin' becomes 'this clean'.

[@braedengibb8448]

How do we demand this change? It's 2020 and things still seem the same.

[@dhyeymakadia]

Man's A legend

[@solanabernardinodeandrade4812]

Perfeito👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@danielaibarra986]

Excelent!

[@sehzadelee]

WOW , this man is far a head his time.

[@davidbpalmsprings1266]

What do you have on? Your mind?

[@LemonCurry.]

When he says everything you can get is based on demand, I demand PC enterprises to seriously consider creating environmentally friendlier computers, because the electronics market hasn't produced anything like this yet.

[@spockontour]

Turning off sound and vibration notifications made my life easier. This way you only check your phone when you want to...

[@ZachJenkins]

see, choice exists. the only two options are not "distracted" or "fomo" aka distracted...

[@subxonalinishonov3070]

Thanks 👍👍👍

[@user-kd2uy2ir3j]

Nice jobs,thanks share

[@Unboundedominion]

A New Internet Economy: Software that Check the Social Aspect of Your Text. Is there an option to file a bypass, under FoS?

[@AFRICANGUY]

at the end of the day: is YOU, who chooses how to spend YOUR time!!

[@sumenthrirao8489]

Their is always someone hacking into my phone, even if I change my numbers a lot. I have no privacy at all. They know Everything, technology has become a time bomb and society is so blinded by this.

[@nicolethiernagand2573]

merci

[@JonathanCr0ss]

Fantastic talk, so important!

[@hdholl9696]

'My phone is a slot machine'. Correct. The link between the two is behaviorist B.F. Skinner's variable ratio schedule, which he used in his experiment to condition pigeons to compulsively respond to randomly distributed stimuli. We are pigeons.

[@taoist32]

Henri Pelissier And dogs, and rats.

[@TheAllBlue139]

Genious :)

[@stoic122]

I am big fan of him after watching social dilemma👍👍

[@kuysjohnrev2216]

🔥🔥🔥

[@usportraits2429]

Parks are still better than cyber cafes

[@sumenthrirao8489]

With technology their are nargs and supply that can twist things around.

[@elizabethbennet4791]

sure- after my chrome browser stops crashing with a limit of five pages up

[@michaelf8873]

So, if this new design was added to search engines which rank sites by their useful or parasitical impact, we'd soon get used to that. Facebook would be dead in a day.

[@AfroChilanGringo]

Is this messaging app available? WIth Focused action?

[@fandumarpaung7652]

Fire

[@guilhermebarros2019]

Great

[@miskbalder]

watching TED talks is a slot machine that lead me to this video, thats irony for you.. :)

[@muhammadaliffarhan1825]

I agree with you man! Youre very clever!

[@srivathsar4434]

Wow. The talk was worth the distraction. "net orchestrated conviviality" = +ve. This will alter the way I look at things.

[@jamespharris2494]

Maybe buying our kids more stuff and getting it to them faster & faster isn't the answer.

[@nimim.markomikkila1673]

I demand:)

[@cykablyat867]

I was scrolling facebook during the video.

[@noravahine3991]

I was scrolling other KZbin videos during this video

[@nimim.markomikkila1673]

I just cut down on fb just before seeing this video:)

[@ishtarex433]

I was scrolling scrollers.

[@benjaminkaarst]

Sounds like an activist more than a businessman.

[@BrendaHernandez-us9je]

yesnoyesnookay b. ..

[@strenoo]

◢◤

[@yusufmohamedsalh8321]

As I have understood ,Your talk was about marketing your System of (Customized Social Network),it was NOT ABOUT spending time well ,I hope you change the video title ,because THAT REALLY DID NOT HELP IN SOLVING DISTRACTION ,you are only trading in people 's distraction over internet to buy your system.

[@chelseamcintyre-hook3508]

Yusuf Mohamed Salh wot?

[@jideidowu4267]

To be truthful to ourselves, Facebook, Instagram, tiktok, Snapchat would not just go away. They are here to stay so why not use them to the best of our abilities and have this technologies help shape our life much better in the sense of growth and development. This is something that we can achieve.

[@nichollesss]

I still find this a very neo-liberalist position. We want to spend our time (time is money) well, but still we want to spend that. As a kind of free choice. But a part from that, isn´t also a bad experience good for our understanding of the world? I can´t imagine a heavenly life on earth. Let´s be serious. You want to give the choice to spend time well, than maybe we should extend this choice to everybody, not only to those who can afford it.

[@goldenvisit2236]

Jesus can change yr life bro

[@ctogaurav]

Sadly, nothing changed even in 2021.