I am an architect turned product manager in a start-up environment overseeing construction-related software in Pittsburgh. I am also a ministry leader at a local church working with young professionals just out of college.
My conscience has been torn over new forms of media and tech for a long time because of my work with the church and the effects I see in my friends, mentees, and families raising kids. Recently, I’ve been engaged in ministries helping those who are addicted to pornography, and the addictive danger of new technologies has been brought into sharp relief.
From observation, I think the effects of new media go a lot deeper than simply losing time and mindfulness, it alters the way we are learning to think. As a church leader, I’m grateful to find a group that is pursuing new thinking and approaches for this crisis. As a new person in the tech community, I’m grateful to get ideas to help my company create ethical solutions moving forward. Excited to be here!
Hi All, I am currently an online community manager for a corporate entity, soon to be transitioning to an account manager role for a SaaS product. I previously worked in social media customer care, since back when that was still somewhat novel. I studied Anthropology and Media Study in college. I’ve seen vast quantities of very strange and interesting human behavior online.
Excited to be part of this community to learn and find new opportunities!
Hey there! I’m Pedro, I am a web developer who worked a lot in marketing agencies, creating websites focused on raising sales numbers.
I’ve seen my share of user experiences being optimized to manipulate user’s choices, and one day, noticed that my own decisions were constantly hijacked.
I found the movement trough Tristan’s articles in Medium, and I think it’s addressing concerns that are really impactful to our society. My greatest worries are related to the younger public, who are growing up inside this loop, and may be stuck in it troughout most of their lifes.
Anyways, I’m here to help in what I can. (English is not my first language, so expect me to be either making mistakes, or not being able to properly express myself).
Hi,
I’m a deeply concerned parent of a beautiful, smart, creative, energetic, emotionally intelligent 15 year old daughter. Although she is still beautiful, the other qualities seem to have gotten buried in an avalanche of Snapchat streaks and fixation on Instagramable moments. I am vigilant and well informed when it comes to the issues surrounding our teenagers and social media mind-numbing addiction and YET, I still am somehow losing the battle in my household. My positive role modeling, rational discussion and authority (?) cannot compete with the peer pressure, the FOMO, and the irrational need to be connected 100% of the time. So even when the technology breaks are forced upon my daughter, she is lost and pretty much useless. Family phone contracts and discussions are not successful because we don’t have her “buy in.” She knows when she is off her screen for just an hour she is missing 50 snaps, 25 new posts, and 15 texts. She won’t be able to catch up or be a part of the group conversation she missed. What we need now, is not just her buy in, but the buy in of her whole community- because they are more important right now to her than anything else. My daughter is bright and savvy enough to not get caught up in a scam, and without working too hard she can get pretty good grades. My concern is that her brilliance and creativity have been shut down, her motivation is nonexistent and her self esteem has been flushed to the deepest shallows. She’s not Kardashian enough. Surprisingly, she is 100% aware of this, and is willing to continue on this path because “everyone else” is on the same path and “this is the way it is now.”
I have another teenager, a 17 year old son who is a high functioning special needs kid. He HATES technology because it overwhelms and overstimulates his brain, it has gotten him into trouble. He finally was able to delete his FB account (which was very difficult by the way) and has given up his phone entirely from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon. It works for him, but he had to destroy 6 phones and 3 DS’s to finally figure it out for himself.
So the daily running loop in my head is how can we continue live with this destructive technology? There are days when the only solution seems to be to disconnect almost completely. Move to a farm with no WiFi.
How can I get my community of parents and educators on board with real change? How can we get the kids to see how destructive it is? Tell me what to do and I will do it.
Max, we have you booked at our school soon. Hoping for a miracle, or at least a sign that there is hope for the future.
Hello all and THANK YOU, THANK YOU Center of Humane Technology!
I have been trying to find something like this for quite a while. I am a 25-year-old writer living in LA, no ties to the tech industry - just frankly sick and tired of my friends, family and loved ones living their best lives on social media instead of the in the real thing. Luckily I was born a few years too early to be a digital native, so am thankful for childhood memories when every life moment didn’t come with a pause button for someone to document it, but I certainly feel like a voice crying in the wilderness in terms of romanticizing that these days…
I believe in this movement of course for its advocacy for our attention, but also for its reclamation of authenticity in our lives. Over the years, I have seen Facebook evolve from a great social connector into a playing field of astronomical liking and flame wars. More disturbing yet is how, despite the obvious manipulation of social media images to picture perfect status, people are ready to accept this fakery into their lives and keep liking them more and more! I don’t think it’s that people can’t see through the curation of these images - I think they know they’re artifice, but the need to like to be liked overrides this. While there’s a lot of talk about being woke these days, how can you be awake if you aren’t aware that your attention is being bought second by second by a corporate system designed to addict us? I dream that a day will come, a bit like how the tobacco industry is viewed nowadays, when our grandchildren will say to us: “How strange things were in the olden days, I can’t believe nobody knew that was bad for them!”
How are there not more of these groups around? It seems that although Facebook has been in many of our lives for over a decade, most people still don’t find it a serious concern that so many of their waking hours are spent scrolling, scrolling, blankly…clearly there is work to be done! Since the beginning of time humans have been designed to live in the world interacting with other people and species, not staring at screens the whole day - ironically, my profession involves me doing just that, which is why I’m keen on making sure I live plenty real life outside of it
“Our life is frittered away by detail…Simplify, simplify!” as our friend Henry David Thoreau said - wish he was around to see some of this and write a particularly bristling tract on it.
Hi there!
I’m a software developer and roboticist. I’ve been concerned about the impact of technology on our attention and minds for some time before stumbling into Tristan Harris on Sam Harris’ Waking Up podcast which eventually led me to you fine folks!
I’m trying to study the lessons learned from this generation of manipulative tech and extrapolate the problems that may present themselves in upcoming and rapidly expanding technologies including robotics, virtual reality, AI and gamification.
I have the bones of a few articles on some of the above topics and will share them with you all as soon as they available.
My name is Alfredo Pupillo. I’m a Human Resources Consultant.
I have worked as advisor for technologies companies, so the subject about technology and human behavior was always in front of me.
I think that what in the recent past was like a promised land of advance, in some point turned into a land of confusion.
Nowadays, I feel people stressed because over communication, full of no important data that produces not focused skills, replacing decision meetings by -not just in time- messaging groups.
Frequently new conflicts appear because there is less personal communication, losing a lot of emotional information that only you’ll have by looking the face and body of people.
In a few words, there is a lot of misunderstanding and not functional situations in working teams every day.
The situation is even worst with kids, and nobody knows certainly what to do
I was an early adopter of new technologies during more than 10 years and then I was very happy and proud of that, ‘till the point I felt my privacy invaded.
But like in another time some people was reactive to new technologies, in some point they changed to addict, and if you say that you are choosing social nets, and blocking some functions in your cellular phone, they think you are really crazy. Surely, not everybody is addict, but we see this like a trend. And I can see that in occasions I couldn’t stop using nets, when I really need it or really wanted.
Fortunately last year I spent my holidays in San Francisco Bay Area and I saw how this feeling of freedom about how to use technologies was increasing. And I was surprised that I’m not the only one that was changing his mind.
From then I was looking for another people in my country that share what is really happening, but unfortunately I found very few who did it.
When I noticed about Washington DC meeting, last 7th February, I became very interested in this movement, and so I am here.
I think this is an excellent opportunity to learn, to share, and to create a healthy future.
Have a nice day !!!
Great to meet everyone! I’m an app designer and the founder of parallel.social, a project aimed at creating a “half-decentralized” social experience. I’m extremely interested in creating a sustainable business around the values of transparency, ownership, identity, accountability, and community. I look forward to participating in the community here!
I grew up in the Silicon Valley but now live in a smaller tech hub out-of-state. I met my wife on an internet forum in the early 2000s, learned design in print and have been working on tech projects since 2013.
I’m a software engineer and product designer. I left medical school to pursue building software products for our health. I was appalled by the absence of patient-centered considerations in clinical practice and the information asymmetry imposed by the medical industry.
I believe most problems in society are rooted in artificial asymmetries that organizations create in order to extract rents from the economy. Whether it’s Google and Facebook selling opaque personalized ads, the American Medical Association rigging prices for clinical services, or the police and lawyers protecting themselves from the crimes they prosecute, these industries profit by generating opacity and artificial scarcity.
I’m looking to learn from the community how to build systems that thrive on transparency and empower individuals to control their data and digital experiences.
To Max, Tristan, James, and the rest of the team, kudos for fighting the good fight!
A little bit about me- I’m Ferjohn, a 23 year old, self-taught product designer from Daly City.
For most of my life, I was addicted to video games. MMORPGs, MOBAs- you name it. It was up until 2012 when I had the sudden realization that I wasn’t spending my time wisely. My father passed away from liver cancer that year, which turned my world upside down. There were plenty of opportunities for me to spend more quality time with him, but I didn’t because I was hooked. I had my regrets.
Fast-forward several years later- I’m now rallying against similarly-addictive technologies that do not enhance our overall quality of life by building products that strengthen human connection (www.civility.social) and by joining initiatives that aim to help us become more mindful of the present moment rather than distract us from it.
Any company or product that treats our attention as an infinite resource to mine from by optimizing for addiction is pure evil. As my father used to say, “Time is Gold”. So let’s treat it that way.
Nice to meet you and excited to hear about the thoughts of others on this subject.
About me-I’m in my mid 20s working for an Enterprise focused technology company in NYC. I’ve tried to detach my from a dependence on technology since High School but also recognize that consumer focused technology today is very addictive. Even with awareness, I can still be tied to technology more than I prefer.
I am interested in this group as a way to meet like minded people, hear the thoughts and opinions of others, and learn additional ways to live a healthier life and create a healthier world.
I am a 3rd Year Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies Major, studying at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. This unique program that I am a part of allows students to choose an Engineering concentration and Liberal Arts concentration; for these I have chose Comptuer Science (my previous major) and Psychology.
I am currently looking for guidance on where to go – both academically and career wise. I know that my goal is to become an expert in Human Tech, which I believe will put me more on the psychology side. However, after I graduate from Cal Poly next year I’m not sure where to go next. I’m most likely going for a Master’s in HCI, but also considering a Ph.D and potentially doing Cognitive Science. The top two graduate schools I’m looking into are Carnegie Mellon University and Georgia Tech.
I look forward to gaining the skills to be part of Humane Design and am open to any suggestions from the community that help me shape my academic and career path!
My name is Sami, and I am a designer at a advanced design studio Nordkapp I also co-founded a decade ago. We’re based in Helsinki, Finland and Amsterdam, Netherlands but work on projects from Silicon Valley to Senegal. We work on combining Foresight, Strategy and Design on things people use in industries like sustainable energy, fintech, mobility and consumer electronics and in general try to leave the world a bit better than we found it.
Before, I worked at Nokia for two years, building forward looking ideas and concept based on foresight and ethnography. I left six months after the iPhone because I could see the ripple effects to come already at that point. However, I have my fair share of colleagues from Nokia still working with me as either colleagues or clients.
I’ve been working on all things internet since the late 90s, as a freelancer and in media and music industries. I did a short stint in digital marketing around 2002-03 and learned it’s not for me. I want to solve real problems for real people.
I also co-founded IxDA’s Helsinki/Finnish chapter in 2008 and co-chaired Interaction 16 in Helsinki two years ago. I am involved in IxDA and other design organizations like Ico-D on local and global level because that helps me understand how societies and states work from within and maybe inject a bit of positive change every now & then. I am a big fan of Stewart Brand’s Pace Layering theory because it helps me understand change in a completely different light and act when needed.
I also have two kids at home who we’re trying to grow into good people. They don’t use any social media yet but learn things with technology when suitable.
What’s quite exciting about this community is how this feels like a return to my roots. Between 1999-2001 I was a member of dreamless.org, a ”secret” online community founded by Joshua Davis. At the time it had huge chunk of people working on digital design as a profession worldwide who had a profound effect on who I am and what I do. Not to mention numerous friendships with people some of whom I still haven’t met in real life. To me this is a testament of the positive side of online communities. Excited to see what comes out of this!
Hi everyone, it’s lovely to meet you all. I’m Matthew, a first-year university student in London.
I’ve been struggling with the role of technology in my life, and the negative impact it is having on the world. I want to contribute to companies building technology that will improve people’s lives.
In 21st-century America we are undone less by the things we hate and fear, and more by the things we love and trust and invite into our homes. – Jeff Einstein
Greetings,
My name is Jeff Einstein. I’m a former digital media pioneer long ago turned Digital Apostate. In early February I posted my first feature video, Brave New Digital World: The Revelation, about a dystopian society ruled and controlled by a state-sanctioned meta-addiction to all things media and all things digital. “What happens to our time and money and freedom,” I ask, “when addiction emerges as the default social condition, the rule rather than the exception?”
While I applaud the effort and intent behind this initiative, I have serious reservations about the efficacy of any attempt to re-engineer human nature, especially in digital scale, and worry that all of today’s utopian plans for technology (think dot com era) will evolve as tomorrow’s dystopia – precisely because of digital scale.
Thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself.
Hi, I’m John Fallot, and I’m pursuing a certificate in UX/UI Mobile Design from the Pratt Institute in NYC. I’m also an asset designer for dot io games that are big with kids, such as deeeep.io.
I started thinking about what I’ve called satiated UX Design as opposed to persuasive UX about as early as this past year. I have Asperger’s Syndrome, and even from the late 1990s I could attest to how much time computers sucked away. I can’t even begin to fathom what kind of impact modern technologies are having on kids, and I would love to help develop a set of Satiated Design Heuristics, to ensure that folks, especially kids, don’t miss out on being human amidst all this tech.
Hi, my name is Byron and I am a teacher based in London. I have always had a passion for technology, especially the implementation of it into the classroom to both support and enhance the learning experience. However, having recently listened to Tristan Harris in a number of podcasts, the message he has shared is an urgent one, and I feel that it is my duty as an educator to adequately prepare those children that I teach for the inevitable relationship they will have with technology. I look forward to meeting like-minded people to discuss strategies for ensuring that children’s time on screen is indeed, Time Well Spent.
Hi, name’s Kel. I’m so passionate about this stuff that it burns like fire in my belly. I’m really pleased to have found this community because I was starting to feel exasperated at not being able to find other people who are intensely interested in this too.
My name is Leilani and I am a 36 year old Australian mother of a two and a four year old. I have been trying to absorb as much as I can about the potential affect modern technology can have on children as technology has been a personal haunt of mine for a very long time. I recognised that television had major negative impacts on my health and state of mind at the age of 22 and ceased having one until I met my now husband when I was 27. We only have one television in our home and I do watch it occasionally but would be quite happy if it exploded and we never got another.
My household does not have ipads or tablets and I do not allow our children to use our smartphones. I have been trying to get off Facebook for years, I recognised that it had a very similar (worse) affect on me than television back in 2012 but I do feel quite frowned upon for trying to step back from it almost as though I am judging everyone on it and a I feel lot of pressure from friends and family that I will be in some way left out or left behind - also it is the only form of advertising that I have used for my little business quite successfully over the last three years.
I have been seeking other parents around my region (I am in Western Australia) with similar thoughts and concerns about social media and technology with children, however, I have had quite a bit of trouble as most of my friend’s children have ipads, tablets and/or phones and I feel putting a post up on Facebook about it would just create a target for attack.
I have babbled far too much.
Seeking other parents to discuss thoughts, ideas, concerns about tech and social media so I don’t feel like a crazy old dinosaur determined to stay stuck in the dark ages.
