As a handful of tech giants have goosed the NASDAQ and market sentiment back to euphoric highs rivaling the 2000 tech bubble top, former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris helped delivered a dire warning this week to the advertising agencies, marketers, brands, tech companies, and social platforms gathered at a conference in the south of France: mobile-app addiction is fueling a public health crisis leading to developmental challenges for the youth, mental illness, loneliness and increased suicide. People are starting to ask “who paid for all this” harm? See Marketers risk a consumer backlash linked to mobile-tech addiction:
According to Harris, who went on to found the Center for Humane Technology, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google are caught in a zero-sum race for our finite attention. These platforms develop increasingly persuasive techniques using AI-driven news feeds, content, and notifications to continually learn how to hook us more deeply. And why are they doing it? Well, Google’s U.S. ad revenue is projected to hit almost $40 billion, while Facebook’s is expected to reach $21 billion.
Due to alarming statistics on the impact that mobile apps, particularly social networks, have on not just children and adolescents, but also adults, when it comes to addiction issues and even loneliness, Harris sees an impending public health crisis.
…brands could be faced with a massive backlash, impacting consumer trust and ultimately sales—which is what the ads are trying to boost in the first place.
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