Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--And How to Think Deeply Again

Tristan Harris, one of the experts behind the documentary The Social Dilemma, learned as a child that the key to performing a successful magic trick was to test “the limits of attention” (106). Controlling people’s attention made it easy to manipulate their behavior, even though they felt that they were making their own choices. At Stanford University, Harris studied at the Persuasive Psychology Lab, where he learned web design techniques, some based on Skinnerian psychology. While Harris was initially excited about using these psychological insights in his work, he soon became concerned about their potential for unethical manipulation.

After Harris developed an app that allowed readers to highlight phrases and access a concise definition or explanation while they read, his app was bought by Google, which also hired Harris. Google employees were constantly brainstorming ways to make people more engaged with their Gmail accounts. This engagement drove profits, since the more people use their phones the more ad revenue Google can generate. Harris was disturbed that Google affected the attention habits of a billion people by making changes to Gmail’s functions.

Harris asked colleagues to consider the ethics of their work and to stop creating mindless disruptions to user focus.