The Real Reason Your Tech Makes You Unhappy

[@enricotartarotti]

Learn how I ACTUALLY made my most successful videos with hands-on, practical behind the scenes breakdowns: www.enricotartarotti.com/storybehind?

[@zivzulander]

This is the best video I've seen on the subject of engagement and monetization of apps/services. The issue often (ironically) gets sensationalized for the purpose of gaining attention and views, and rarely does anyone propose a viable solution like you have. Most dangers and evils are subtle and arise even in the midst of good intentions. Thank you for explaining this in an understandable but also accurate way.

[@enricotartarotti]

This is exactly what I wanted to do with this video! Glad you liked it

[@peterm.2385]

I'm torn in between thanking you for this brilliant analysis (means: do exactly what KZbin wants me to do) and putting aside my phone and enjoy a beautiful afternoon in my garden 🙃

[@PunkHerr]

I hope you'll ignore this message (today) and have a great day. Also: Why not both?

[@enricotartarotti]

Go outside!l my friend!

[@micosstar]

yay good advice!@@enricotartarotti

[@JensenPalmer]

And I think the purpose of the video and technology in general is that it's not inherently a bad thing to use the products put out or to find value in them or use them like the tools they were original designed to be, but the whole addiction part. Back when the internet was new to the public space, people used it like any tool, got the value they came to it for, and then set it down and did something else. It is like if you are working on a project and you need a hammer. You get the hammer, you use the hammer, you put the hammer away, and then go do something else. Later that day, you use the hammer again because you used it for its intended purpose, finished and went on to the next thing. The problem lies in that many people use the hammer and many companies are now designing the hammer to be held simply to be held and smacked around even when you don't even really need the hammer. You just carry the hammer around, staring at it, hitting random objects for the sake of hitting an object (engagement) instead of hitting the nail and putting the hammer away again to be used again when it is needed.

[@GentlemanlyOtter]

You’re lucky to have a garden. Enjoy it!

[@rGunti]

This is the part where I apprechiate a lot of the open source apps I use. Or actually, which I don't use. Because they are not addictive, because they don't have "an evil algorithm" to boost engagement and keep you online for forever. They just want to provide a service to you, a tool for your everyday life or even just for an occasion. And they usually keep tracking to the absolute minimum, because they don't need to and because they don't want to, which makes for a good app as well (by not wasting CPU cycles on figuring out if you keep a screen open for 1000 hours or if your mouse hovers over this particular button) I know that this is not a business model that will ever work. But one can dream.

[@Rudxain]

It can work, but isn't extremely profitable. AGPL3 and donations can help devs get money for the value they provide to users, without fear of their software being turned into proprietary by some big-tech

[@breadman32398]

What if someone tackled the issue from the other side? If "engagement" and time viewing ads is the metric, what if someone made that metric worthless? I think the rise of bots that are indistinguishable from actual humans will break all metrics related to views, watch time, ect. They'll become meaningless because a million bots being shown a million hours of ads will then generate 0 dollars. I'm looking forward to that day.

[@graytoby1]

Great comment I like the pandoras box that ai will open up as it works both ways to the detriment both parties

[@globalwojtek]

the ending of the video is like calling a slave out for criticizing their oppressor while being kept alive by them...

[@smartideas-pedro1690]

This was the most engaging video against engagement that I've ever watched.

[@alessTheDev]

You should research also about the game industry problem, everyone expects amazing graphics, game companies failing, dlcs that are like 70 dollars, multiplayer games with battlepasses, rushing the game to meet the deadline, it's interesting to see the difference between the company prespective and the gamers prespective. And how the game industry is somehoew "failing" because games take time and money to make and if they fail the company may also fail with them

[@Sophia-ix2ri]

This is a good idea, but I doubt it will ever happen under our current economic model. As a former Product Manager, it's a very rare company that says, yes, let's build for happiness over profits. It's not happening, not in a world with pressure from shareholders. It's the optimization for greed that leads to the "more engagement" model and other things that drain our precious life force and ruin society. If we want real change, we're going to have to change the system. No way around it that I can see.

[@MyCatKilledYourDad]

Imagine Instagram asking users how happy does this app make you? And people answer it makes them very unhappy (despite it being very popular) and then Instagram has this metric on google apps where is says that "this app makes its users feel miserable". Now that would be a nobrainer for new user!

[@modestMismagius105]

gotta love capitalism, where money matters more than life itself

[@JensenPalmer]

And I think the purpose of the video and technology in general is that it's not inherently a bad thing to use the products put out or to find value in them or use them like the tools they were original designed to be, but the whole addiction part. Back when the internet was new to the public space, people used it like any tool, got the value they came to it for, and then set it down and did something else. It is like if you are working on a project and you need a hammer. You get the hammer, you use the hammer, you put the hammer away, and then go do something else. Later that day, you use the hammer again because you used it for its intended purpose, finished and went on to the next thing. The problem lies in that many people use the hammer and many companies are now designing the hammer to be held simply to be held and smacked around even when you don't even really need the hammer. You just carry the hammer around, staring at it, hitting random objects for the sake of hitting an object (engagement) instead of hitting the nail and putting the hammer away again to be used again when it is needed.

[@dylswerb7492]

I am always either 80085 happy or 42069 happy

[@shadmanrchowdhury]

80085 is the epitome of happiness.

[@IlDogeIslamico]

"... and in the meantime, here's another video you might enjoy." MORE ENGAGEMENT!_!

[@davidcummins8125]

Very true. I despair for my son sometimes, it is so hard finding games for him to play which just work out of the box, which aren't ads every 30 seconds or trying to sell microtransactions. So many apps I'd happily pay $5 to rip all that evil out of, but they just don't make it an option.

[@TheNoviceAnimator_]

If you have a Apple device maybe try Apple Arcade no in app purchases or ads

[@DanteVelasquez]

We need more people like you with intelligence and vision.

[@carylittleford8980]

I have a rabbit r1 and after all the updates its easily one of the most delightful devices I've used. I work with disabled folks and the elderly and it brings more smiles and delight that I could have imagined.

[@siliconhawk]

asking users to give you a happiness score will 99% not work coz users are liars they dont realise how happy or useful the product is. asking them is an issue. the developer assumes that the user is lying and the user assumes that the developer is stealing their information so they always lie. you need to somehow find how useful the app is without asking the user. engagement is not it and we all know it.

[@reanimationxp]

users can lie, but assuming they are liars is not the whole story. what if they're just busy and you asked at the wrong time? for instance, popping up and asking me to rate the app out of 5 stars right as i launch it is getting in the way of whatever it was i was trying to do. if i've been on the app for 30 minutes already, maybe ask me then instead? also, how you ask matters. rating an app with 1-5 stars just makes me one other vote in a sea of useless votes. what if you asked me "do you feel like instagram is better or worse now than 1 month ago?" you might get a far more honest answer, and i might even tell you why if i think it's not better. if you think users are lying, you can also gather several metrics, and try to tell if the user is a liar or not. what kind of sentiment are they using in their comments while on the platform? are they always angry while using the app, or are they usually in a good mood? if they were in a good mood and were suddenly angry while staying in the app, what happened during that time? can i detect an angry user via motion of the phone, or checking for several rapid taps in the app after an action didn't complete, or something similar? it just requires applying some thought rather than 'eyeballs = gud'. this is why his idea of a third party company making that THEIR goal, to get an accurate reading of the user's satisfaction, is a good idea.

[@staciefreshener4032]

Personally I side with doing nothing about this. Everything is okay so far and people like you assume a lot .

[@HelloAlvi]

bro you are a real underrated person and your videos are awesome

[@SianaGearz]

I had tech that made me happier. It was over 20 years ago. My Casio PocketViewer and Psion 5mxPro were amazing! Little to no measurement based focus group testing, just good design.

[@LukeSmith1984]

Incredible content as always. This video in particular was very interesting. Keep it up!

[@ivanlinuxandunix]

Today I spent 40-ish minutes typing in a BASIC program into GWBASIC on MS-DOS running from a floppy diskette, the program was typed from paper. It was a great time.

[@staciefreshener4032]

Happiness is complex and not always there. I think life is more fun when you don't try to be happy. You don't need happiness to enjoy life and chasing it is bad. I'm always mixing things around in my life. My tech makes me happy , bored , angry , sad , traumatized , exited , lusted Etc. All of these are interesting combination. Being unhappy is not a good thing but it's certianly better than whatever the hell " too much positivity " is. ( toxic positivity , ofcource ! )

[@aolien2739]

I love how comprehensive this breakdown is. This video is so well done!

[@lukevincent4141]

We often measure what we can instead of what we should. Value is much harder to measure than engagement.Its the eternal problem of tendency to focus on short term and tangible.

[@Dhiiraj0408]

Hey Enrico! As a fellow UX/UI designer, I found this video to be incredibly informative. It's always great to come across content that helps us grow in our field. Thanks for sharing this, buddy! Keep up the fantastic work! #DesignInspiration

[@4d3ff2]

Happiness is subjective - how the hell do you measure that? How do you convince Barbara who has been buying houses off engagement and would have been selling cigarette marketing in the 80's to shift? When her son jumps out a window because he didnt get enough toks ?

[@b0b303]

I am software dev and I have been thinking about the happiness problem in tech ever since covid started. Thank you for addressing it so clearly.

[@donoteatmikezila]

What I think would be a real turning point is just higher quality ads. I've had a love/hate/groan opinion of John Gruber over the years, but every time I read Daring Fireball I never skip reading the ads, because every single time it's an ad for something that I'm actually interested in. Every time it's a service or application I did not know existed but may see myself using, and not for a car or a soda or a streaming service that's already a household name. A product with a niche audience should have incredibly focused ads and those ads should be very expensive and exclusive.

[@BMAN0201]

And what’s scary is that for ads to be useful in that way, companies like google have to take our information to better learn what makes us tick and what we find interesting and useful. I’m not so sure I want that for myself.

[@donoteatmikezila]

@@BMAN0201 That's not really true, though. Maybe giga-corporations have to run like that because they rely on scale instead of quality, but it should also be possible for a smaller company to curate a list of partners and advertisers and for everyone involved to make money on being brought together. The ads you see shouldn't be placed there by a huge platform that follows you from site to site, they should be placed there directly by the people who made the content for the site.

[@Eokoi]

Simple: they all want $$$ and your attention. A lot of it. You are addicted to their app? That’s good. You bought something from an ad? Excellent for the company, and so on. Unless limited by law to do that, they seek all your time and attention while keeping you sad and making you doomscroll. So many KZbin channels have already covered this issue, I think. We’re in the late stage of the internet, where you either pay monthly, or get a ton of inconveniences and limitations

[@ChiefBridgeFuser]

Great vid, as usual. Any attempt at measuring happiness is fraught with peril. Working prototypes are frequently seen by business owners as good enough and go on without major changes. Also, what constitutes happiness? Would a new metric include cases of successfully overcoming stress / trial and accomplishing something you thought impossible?

[@mrunphotography]

It's hillarious that in some of your videos I'm learning to quit social media addiction, but also, I'm getting addicted to your videos😂😂

[@yumeyuki1944]

my guess: it won't sell, not stimulating enough, that's not what we subconsciously want

[@agnishom]

My brother in Christ, have some faith in humanity

[@user-ke3li4yr7r]

I hate this argument. We don’t want addiction. What we want is a social media with a lot of other users. And the effect of that causes them to all be free. That causes them to need ads to survive. That causes them to make platforms addicting so investors get consistent growth

[@Parciwal_Gaming]

that is like saying "you subconsciously want heroine "

[@WingsOfFireTurtle]

@@Parciwal_GamingWINGS OF FIRE

[@NaviRetlav]

Thanks you for this video. This is what I needed to gain full confidence that the idea for my app is the right one, including the new type of monetization that promotes the value for the user :)

[@Lui_Fern]

This was utterly fascinating to listen to. I love the idea of pushing towards that. Like you said, it can be improved upon and made better with future iterations. It's a small change to an already incredibly complex system but one that if done right could yield big results. I really liked the optimistic view with a plan. Have been enjoying your videos for a while and this one really captivated me in a way the others just didn't for whatever reason. I think it was the clear explanation of a problem, the why, the how it got there, and not ending there where so many others do. You provided solution ideas. Loved it all around

[@C_Corpze]

Glad I found your channel, I find your videos easy to follow and learn new things from them!

[@rethabiledithuge9733]

This is arguably the most relevant video on the internet right now. I really like the comparison made made with "More Engagement" against providing consumers with more value. More videos like this please.

[@jes1911]

One thing i've noticed about the current culture as far as metrics that companies are not getting right... YOU CANNOT Ask people "how did this make you FEEL" Or "How Happy did this app make you" Gen Z and younger millennials especially this will apply to, actually 30's probably as well, So, Why? Idk how accurate my theory is, it's just what i've obsered, People are more jaded, and mix that with Meme culture and instinctually people don't want to give tech apps too good of a review based on HAPPINESS or FEELINGS because of just the overall stigma mentioned in the video ESPECIALLY social media apps. So the instinct will be to always gear towards Unhappiness or not being truthful in favor of negativity, plus you have TONS of kids and the rise of Gen alpha Everywhere, So mix this all together and you will get a very muddy waters, An easy fix though is a rating system, asking 1-10 , it would help to make it in Circle for entertainment where they won't feel that knee jerk reaction, so 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... in a clock formation, its seems stupid but... seriously we are just that jaded and the majority in this age group for attention span sake need it to be a game to engage or just look unique. People don't even like going out of their "way" to click subscribe or hit ht the like button, Just look at your anylitics or just look at the LIKE ration to a video with MILLIONS OR EVEN BILLIONS of views, The like ratio is at 1-5 percent of the VIEWS, and this is for a video people LOVE! Meanwhile go to a video that is a viral video to HATE and boom you see that rise , So to get a true metric, You need to read the room and write your text carefully.

[@2rx_bni]

Lovr how you just completely ignored Dark Patterns. I waited for you to bring it up.

[@zit1999]

Lengthening engagement while destroying attention span is both cruel and unsustainable. It’s a bubble that will burst in the future.

[@MoveOnAlready]

This increase in engagement and time on apps is called the ‘Attention Economy’.

[@pieTone]

This is the type of content I m looking for.

[@ExperimentalKana]

It's actually quite simple. I can tell from first hand experience. It is not designed to make you unhappy. Most people just choose apps which bring 0 value to their life and that is why. Instead of learning from yt they doomscroll on TT. Reality is this was even like this before tech was a thing. Many products were there just to make a profit, not to bring value (alcohol). Recent times it got worse. However if you learn a sliver of discipline it will improve your life.

[@qy9MC]

Old games were for joy😞 new games are for ads&money&subscriptions

[@martipk]

concerning your example of your dad in the 80s paying only 80 bucks for gps app. Actually when GPS first came out they cost like 300-400 the get the physical things, and all it did was show maps

[@Piano_Board]

underrated channel! i love your style of content!

[@enricotartarotti]

🖖🏻 Join my (Free) Email Club for exclusive weekly videos about new tech and making stuff on the internet: enricotartarotti.com/email-club/?

[@Milan-jr7wu]

I just founded the solution : quit capitalism

[@KeldonFischer]

Who is your editor? I love the edits

[@dopeprogrammer]

I don't know how people took this video, but it's a live saver for my startups 😊 thanks enrico

[@cewla3348]

oh crap top five alright: i'd say it's that advertisements make you unhappier, so you'd need to remove them and you make money from free apps through advertisements

[@Codefan321]

Advertisements don't cause many problems aren't forced on the user. This is impossible for something like KZbin but it can be done on mobile games (such as rewarding the player for watching an advert but never forcing them to)

[@jer4rud0]

I hate A/B testing on paid apps such as Spotify. Why limit what I access when I pay the same price as the other people? I think A/B testing is alright for those apps that aren’t subscription-based.

[@sferro21]

Love this! Can we do a petition to make it a reality 😂

[@tuams]

That's a good point you're making.

[@gekkkoincroe]

You're statement couldn't be more wrong " Anyone Anywhere Everywhere " Because you're feed is personalized ie " FYP " page So ultimately you would never know what you dont know

[@pavelvedernikov8502]

Great, now I've OKR around the okr

[@lifeblood3277]

Lol love how he called out moon

[@L.-..]

6:44 I see what you did there 😉

[@PROMAN8625]

what is special with 80085?

[@lemonsquareFPV]

@@PROMAN8625it’s how kids wrote boobs on calculators back in the day

[@enricotartarotti]

lol

[@PROMAN8625]

@@enricotartarotti lol

[@pablogila]

Promising start, although the final mental stunts to avoid mentioning capitalism are kinda weird

[@Hollowdude15]

Great video man and now I see why they can't built apps happier :]

[@JaneNewAuthor]

Fascinating concept, but I'm sick of getting surveys asking me how happy I am with the product. I no longer answer them. It's got to the stage where I'd get a survey from the supermarket every time I shopped! No, just no. Unfortunately the $s I spend are still the best indicator of how happy I am with a product. Btw I rarely use FB any more. Twitter is broken. Spotify rips off musicians and I'm unsubscribing. I'm left with KZbin!

[@RandomGeometryDashStuff]

desmos and geometry dash does sometimes make me happy

[@viktursky]

I feel like apps will only keep engaging people more and more😵‍💫😵‍💫

[@osku388]

Idk, I don't think the intentions of the app (to make money) really matter whether it is perceived as evil. For most people KZbin, Instagram, any of these slot machine apps might as well be devil incarnate

[@user-ke3li4yr7r]

I have my own solution. We ban advertisements or put a daily quota of 1 ad. Their survival as a business would no longer hinge on how well they keep us addicted and how much they waste our time We may have to pay for them but that is a good thing. I’m not sure how best to explain this but I will try. Watching ads as a form of payment is inherently the most wasteful use of our time. Imagine a restaurant that sells free donuts if you watch ads for 10 hours. 10 hours of ads? I would be happier to work for 30 minutes and spend the other 9.5 hours doing productive and fulfilling things.

[@fgclue]

That's, the worst idea ever. Most people hate advertisements but banning them is not the solution. No one wants to pay to use these apps either. Your idea is just stupid.

[@user-ke3li4yr7r]

@@fgclue so in my analogy, would you be lining up to get the free donuts in exchange for watching 10 hours of ads? I would think you and everyone else would want to pay for apps with money, because you are already paying with your time. If you truly don't want to pay money to use these apps, then could you explain why you'd rather "pay" for them by watching ads instead? Thanks, have a nice day.

[@patricknelson]

Oh man, KZbin has engagement down on lock for me (i.e. I watch/listen to it a lot). 😅 I

[@NegativeReferral]

Tech makes me happy in many ways. Not social media though.

[@Cyber_Chriis]

I’ll comment on this video to boost the engagement, so that more people learn about alternate metrics that are not engagement. Ironic.

[@SalazarKnight]

A product manager that is unbiased towards tech? Could it be??

[@hacorn96]

your channel is fantastic!

[@kakaeriko]

videos with topics of 'content addiction' always get a lower algorithm hit on KZbin

[@404hopenotfound]

its bad for youtube bottom line the last thing they want is for you to stop watching there ads

[@MysticMylesZ]

1:05 I did not do well in product management class 😂 I don't think it fits me. I remember some of the names of the cycles like waterfall... but that's about it.

[@bjtaudio]

The evil is the greed and money, and the subscription model and the engagement push is a way to screw people. But is doesn't work on me as I block the adds, I don't download the apps, just copy the rest, also the idea of adds is to sell the products, if u don't ever buy the products the the adds are useless. I use to love the adds on TV in the 80's, I still remember them, but I never ever bought the products, Id look for a alternative. These days the adds are just annoying and its best to just block them, as they ruin the experience.

[@degcrip7320]

Thank you!!!❤

[@Silverphoenix36912]

The answer to the confusion. Creeps. That's it.

[@dummyfarm]

Great video, Antidote X intro was great

[@mamfi1908]

absolutely fabulous explanation

[@mamfi1908]

Favorite design youtuber! Thank you for being

[@rustix3]

8:05 Aren't likes already kinda a measurement of user's satisfaction? And asking users for their subjective feeling for a specific period of time(a month) doesn't look like a proper measurement. I will be feeling like I am on a monthly meeting with my manager at my job, where he asks how well do I feel about my work.

[@404hopenotfound]

well when youtube removed the dislike button it makes it kind of useless

[@staciefreshener4032]

@@404hopenotfound Yeah that's one of wrongest moves , it isn't returning back but we're stuck here. I nitpick even my favorite companies or brands and go down hard on them so youtube has already been one of those questionable ones. It's still one of big platform for video feed so got stuck. Same with other social media. You can reject convinience but it's not going to work well for everyone.

[@RavTech217]

Amazing video😃

[@MyHandleIsAplaceholder]

The free market at work.

[@notohkae]

I hope this happens

[@Mr.Coffee576]

Believe it or not, I was thinking the same question today. And here you are making a video about it.

[@grospoulpe951]

well, I would have said that he provided a video about it today, instead, because, well, the video had probably be made and finished a few days ago before uploading it on KZbin... 😉

[@darkmanonlyviser3304]

for talking about companes beeing evil for more engagement you are a lot more engaging than a lot of companes or youtubers this is a complement don't take it the wrong way

[@creeky8676]

My favorite mexican youtuber

[@enricotartarotti]

I dont know what to respond lol

[@creeky8676]

@@enricotartarotti gracias amigo

[@mobiusinversion]

Fear of Google is a clear factor

[@robinhood768]

really well done

[@stuartstark]

Excellent content

[@ultimatetrishbhatia]

M O R E E N G A G E M E N T

[@TheNonCraftyt]

very good video 👏

[@pandadev_]

less goo finally more high quality video i was waiting for this day

[@tommydee7806]

No words: too much value in this video

[@tankredtabbertart4038]

Great! 😃

[@ssa2211]

Happiness cannot come from an App no matter what the objective.

[@mikemuponda1781]

the on;ly happiness capitalism values is that of its investors lol That is the true curse of growth and why almost every company must eventually move from making products to satisfy their customers to making products to keep the coffers full.

[@Appleloucious]

And then at about 27 sec again... This is not something used in a vid.... This has nothing with some stylistic thing to do but is just ignorant of others!

[@Perspectivemapper]

Brilliant analysis!

[@kuros2349]

"But engagement drives high retention"... "But high retention users are more engaged naturally"....

[@zit1999]

It’s like a game of fractional double-or-nothing. People either put up with grind or all the greedy metrics broke down because you won’t find it as easy to test products on people that don’t want to use the product.

[@Qoushik]

You know those "Do this to grow your audience" accounts whose only post is to post the same text with a different background video? What's gonna happen to them if people actually enjoy good content with that happiness score, and consider those craps as unhappy. Can't wait to that genre to die in 74 million years!

[@wienerhymier]

Bathelona

[@Hollowdude15]

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@megafoxatron3rd521]

my happiness score of you is meh