The Battle For Our Brains

Our smartphones are as addictive as slot machines – and they are making us nasty and stupid. That’s the grim verdict of industry whizzkid Tristan Harris who’s on a mission to make us aware of the tricks Big Tech firms use to keep us hooked to our devices

- Ben Hoyle

Reporting can be a scary job. I’ve had nervous moments with warlords, gangsters and neo-Nazis. I have been shot at and threatened. But if Tristan Harris is right about what he’s telling me, then the presentation playing now on his phone is the most frightening thing I’ve seen in my life.

It’s a road map for the erosion of civilisation as we know it.

Harris (35) is a former Google insider who’s been called “the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience”. He believes we’re in the midst of an “invisible climate change of culture” caused by technology companies that view the world’s 2,7 billion smartphone users as a resource whose attention they can mine for profit. The resulting competition has a very unfortunate side-effect: “attention capitalism” is making us nastier, stupider and much less likely to find common ground with our fellow humans.

We can try to resist, but it’s not a fair fight. Whenever you open Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, you switch on what Harris calls “a voodoo doll-like version of you in a supercomputer”. This consists of nearly everything you’ve ever clicked on, liked or watched. That’s how the companies keep you ensnared: they know you better than you know yourself.

Harris’ conclusions are controversial but his influence is unmistakable. He’s briefed world leaders and is a confidant of some of the most powerful figures in the technology industry. He’s testified to the US congress. His two Ted Talks have been viewed more than four million times.

More is at stake here than just children spending too much time staring at screens, companies selling our data or Russian hackers interfering in elections, Harris argues. Those seemingly separate problems are real but they’re also diversions from tackling the bigger picture.