https:/.../19.%20Tristan%20Harris%20-%20How%20your%20brain%20is%20getting%20hacked.mp4

Well, so another vulnerability in our mind is
something called a variable schedule reward,

and that's like a slot machine
in Las Vegas.

It turns out that slot machines make
more money in the United States

than baseball, movies and
theme parks combined.

People become addicted to slot machines, I think it's two to
three times faster than any other kind of gambling in a casino.

So it's insane. And why is that?

Because it's very simple:

you just pull a lever, and sometimes you
get a reward and sometimes you don't.

And the more random it is and the more variable
it is the more addictive it becomes.

And the thing is, that that turns
our phone into a slot machine,

because every time we check our phone we're
playing the slot machine to see “what did I get?”

Every time that we check our email, we're playing
the slot machine to see, “What did I get?

Did I get invited to an interview at Big Think
or did I just get another newsletter?”

Or if you're on a dating site
like Tinder

and when you're swiping, each swipe is: you're playing
the slot machine to see “did I get a match?”,

I'm playing the slot machine to see,
“did I get a match?”

And the problem is that this dynamic, these variable
schedule rewards or this slot machine mechanic,

is so powerful that it's the best thing at addicting
people and putting you in the zone.

One of the original designers of
the Facebook newsfeed told me

that the thing that made the newsfeed work
at the very, very, very beginning back in 2006

was in part a hardware innovation. And I
looked at her and I said, "What do you mean?"

And she said it was actually
the scroll wheel on a mouse,

because with the scroll wheel on a mouse your
hand never had to leave its resting position

—you just scroll to see the next thing.

Because before that you had
to click on the down button

or move your mouse and drag the arrow
down and scroll the page that way.

When you don’t, you can take your
two fingers on a track pad and do this,

or you can just scroll
on a scroll wheel

—it just means your hand never has to leave its
resting position, and it's more like a slot machine:

you can just keep swiping and playing just like
in Vegas where there's the button right there.

They actually changed it. In fact, it used
to be a lever, and now it's just a button

in Vegas because they found it's easier just to
get people to see if they get a match this way.

So, how much on our phones, when we use our technology, Instagram
is like a slot machine? What's going to come next on the feeds?

Snapchat is a slot machine, each
time you see the red notifications

and you don't know what's behind it you're playing the slot
machine when you click on it to see “what did I get?”

And so it's sprinkled all throughout these products because
it's a very compelling way of getting people's attention.

There are alternative social networks that
don't want your attention to maximize profits.

Discover them at
trade-free.org/directory