{"id":1397,"date":"2017-05-31T09:12:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T08:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/?p=1397"},"modified":"2017-05-31T09:53:46","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T08:53:46","slug":"reclaiming-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/reclaiming-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Reclaiming time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The average US-American checks their personal phone app. 150 times a day (not a misprint). After a disruption it can take each of us up in excess of 10 minutes to re-focus our attention on whatever we were doing previously. There are lots of statistics like these, some more helpful and relevant than others. One thing seems to be clear \u2013 as efficent and helpful as some elements of modern web-based technologies are, they can also be a vicious attack on the time available to us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the activities tech offers us seem to be magnetic, seem to suck us in. We start off with something…and the next time we have a look at our watch, two hours are gone.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not about time management. Nor about concentration or the ability to focus (a topic worthy of entire books…some of which have actually already been written). Instead, this article is simply about being aware that the absorbing features of technical devices and the programs run on them are not happening by accident, but by design. The people building the apps we are using actually think about how to make all of us spend as much time with them as possible. And they use the entire bag of tricks, including getting us quite literally hooked. <\/span><\/p>\n

All this is not a conspiracy theory. It’s fact, in part due to the characteristics of a business\u00a0model that makes\u00a0time spent on a particular site or in a particular app the main business metric and value driver for the people and organisations designing and running them.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, there are some really smart people thinking and writing about the danger of us getting too close to our gadgets for our own good. At the bottom of this post you will find some links to information and resources to younger-generation authors on this highly-relevant topic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. I am not a luddite. I use technology and very much like some of its applications\u00a0and potential. At the same time, I have noticed in myself, how much time can irretrievably go down the drain without any apparent benefit by succumbing to tech\u2019s addictive potential. So anyone looking for a diagnosis and an antidote has my attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that our personal ability to use tech rather than being used by it, our ability to retain our agency in the face of tech’s alluring nature and the ability to make conscious choices about the use of our time with or without tech will be a large factor in performing well in whatever we chose to look at. And I’m quite sure that this topic will only become more and more relevant.<\/span><\/p>\n

While there are about 15 potentially interesting topics and threads embedded in the last paragraphs, for now this is just about awareness for\u00a0some of the design-principles used when creating the technology\u00a0we use on a daily basis. Very much in this vein I can only encourage you to spend some time browsing through the links provided below, pick up some bits and pieces. Awareness of this kind seems to be a necessary step towards countering whatever unwanted consequences tech might have for us, our brains, bodies and, in particular, the way we spend our time.<\/span><\/p>\n

——————————<\/span><\/p>\n

Some links to two highly relevant\u00a0people in this regard:<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most outspoken is Tristan Harris<\/strong>, a former Google employee with the interesting job title of „Design Ethicist“. His slim<\/span> website<\/a><\/span> is a great starting point, including a highly interesting<\/span> longer essay<\/a><\/span> with pictures and videos on some of the mechanisms by which the creators of technology want to get us hooked. Here\u00a0is a<\/span> link<\/a><\/span> to a highly-interesting podcast of Tristan Harris as guest of Sam Harris (not related) at the latter\u2019s Waking-up Podcast\u00a0(also available on iTunes and the other usual places to get podcasts from.\u00a0This<\/a><\/span> is a shorter (< 9 mins) interview with Tristan Harris on similar topics.\u00a0And this\u00a0is a longer article about Harris<\/a><\/span>, also from The Atlantic (and also available as an audio file). Finally, Tristan Harris was a very last-minute invitee to the most recent TED main even in Vancouver with a supposedly great TED-talk (in addition to his 2016 talk, which you can easily find online) – that\u00a0is to be expected some time soon on the web.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another one you might find interesting is Adam Alter<\/strong>, who researches and writes inter alia on addictive technology. Beyond his<\/span> website<\/a><\/span>, he has a<\/span> new book<\/a><\/span> out on the topic. And<\/span>\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>is an interesting younger podcast with him \u2013 part of the nowadays usual podcast\u00a0tour promoting new book, but definitely interesting in its own right.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m sure there are others (in the older generation e.g. guys like Jaron Lanier), but these two particularly focus on\/around the deliberate use of time and the implications of soft- and hardware design that I find particularly interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The average US-American checks their personal phone app. 150 times a day (not a misprint). After a disruption it can take each of us up in excess of 10 minutes to re-focus our attention on whatever we were doing previously. There are lots of statistics like these, some more helpful and relevant than others. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}