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@nireyalNirAndFar.com
(and the Simple Tricks to STOP IT)
Why People Check Their Tech at the
Wrong Times
“We expect more from technology
and less fromeach other.”
- Sherry TurkleDirector of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self vs
Chances are you’ve
experienced the following:
You’re with a small group of friends at a nice restaurant.
Everyone is enjoying the food and conversation.
Then someone decides to take out her phone…
Not for an urgent call…
Not for an urgent call… but to check email, Twitter, and Facebook.
The Disease that is
Indiscriminate
Gadget Use
Doing nothing in the face of indiscriminate
gadget use is no longer O.K.
Staying silent about bad technology habits
is making things worse
for all of us.
Paul Graham coined the term
“Social Antibodies”:
defenses against new harmful behaviors
He uses the example of cigarette
smoking.
Smoking in public became taboo over the span of just one generation
after social conventions changed.
The remedy to screen indiscretion may be developing new norms that make it
socially undesirable
to check one’s phone in the company of others.
Keep in mind:
Tech makers design these products using the same psychology that makes slot machines
addictive.
If we don’t build social antibodies, the disease of distraction will become
the new normal.
But how do we develop and spread social antibodies to inoculate ourselves against
bad mobile manners?
At Work: Mandate a
“no-screen meeting”
At corporate meetings, someone (typically the highest-paid person in the room) starts
using his or her personal technology.
This sends a message to everyone in the room that gadget time is
more important
than their time.
This also prevents the person using the device from participating in the discussion, which means the meeting
wasn’t worth having
in the first place.
Workshops and discussions
declared device-free are by far more productive.
Setting
expectations
up front
is equivalent to administering a distraction vaccine.
Among Friends: Snap the offender out
of the phone zone
Give your friend two options:
excuse himself to attend to whatever crisis is
happening
Give your friend two options:
excuse himself to attend to whatever crisis is
happening
Give your friend two options:
put away the tech and go back to the
conversation or
How?
Ask a question:
Pull him back to the conversation while sending a clear message.
Then say,
“Oh, sorry, were you on your phone? Is everything
O.K.?”
More often than not, your friend will tuck his phone back into his pocket and start enjoying the company.
Let’s Do
Something
Set limits.
Don’t resign
yourself to
being ignored.
The idea is not to disavow technology
completely, but to encourage people
to appreciate its power, and to
be aware when its power over them
is becoming a problem.
Technology should serve us
— we should
not serve it.
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WORKBOOK
for Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products.
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WORKBOOK
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