There's nothing in your life or in our collective problems that does not require our ability to put our attention where we care about. At the end of our lives, all we have is our attention and our time.
Tristan HarrisRead
Technology steers what 2 billion people are thinking and believing every day. It's possibly the largest source of influence over 2 billion people's thoughts that has ever been created. Religions and governments don't have that much influence over people's daily thoughts.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Technology significantly shapes the beliefs and thoughts of billions of people globally.
In this quote, Tristan Harris emphasizes the unparalleled influence of technology on society, noting that it affects the thoughts and beliefs of two billion individuals daily. He contrasts this influence with that of traditional institutions like religions and governments, suggesting that technology has become a dominant force in shaping human perception and behavior.
Themes
TechnologyInfluenceThoughtsBeliefsSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of social media on public opinion.
More from Tristan Harris
All quotes →You're either on, and you're connected and distracted all the time, or you're off, but then you're wondering, am I missing something important? In other words, you're either distracted or you have fear of missing out.
Tristan HarrisRead
Technology is causing a set of seemingly disconnected things - shortening of attention spans, polarization, outrage-ification of culture, mass narcissism, election engineering, addiction to technology.
Tristan HarrisRead
I'm an expert on how technology hijacks our psychological vulnerabilities. That's why I spent the last three years as a Design Ethicist at Google caring about how to design things in a way that defends a billion people's minds from getting hijacked.
Tristan HarrisRead
If we really wanted to have a reorientation of the tech industry toward what's best for people, then we would ask the second question, which is, what would be the most time well spent for the thing that people are trying to get out of that situation?
Tristan HarrisRead
With our Paleolithic instincts, we're simply unable to resist technology's gifts. But this doesn't just compromise our privacy. It also compromises our ability to take collective action.
Tristan HarrisRead
Similar quotes
You can't solve a problem with the management of technology with more technology.
Bill JoyRead
Technology enabled Rappler's fast growth starting in 2012, but we were also among the first victims when social media was weaponized in 2016.
Maria RessaRead
If we can put a man on the moon and sequence the human genome, we should be able to devise something close to a universal digital public library.
Peter SingerRead
Type 'What is th' and faster than you can find the 'e' Google is sending choices back at you: 'What is the cloud?' 'What is the mean?' 'What is the American dream?' 'What is the illuminati?' Google is trying to read your mind. Only it's not your mind. It's the World Brain.
James GleickRead
I should be able to pick which applications I use for managing my life, I should be able to pick which content I look at, and I should be able to pick which device I use, which company I use for supplying my internet, and I'd like those to be independent choices.
Tim Berners-LeeRead
There's a danger in the internet and social media. The notion that information is enough, that more and more information is enough, that you don't have to think, you just have to get more information - gets very dangerous.
Edward De BonoRead