The Dark Side Of Tech
How phones, apps and social media are built to keep you using them — and what that is costing you.
Featured
Story: Four kids, Single and Addicted to Facebook...
Loneliness came first, then Facebook. Catherine Latimer, a single mother of four, on the years she spent there.
Where Are The Flying Cars?
Technology was supposed to make us happier and give us more time… what went wrong?
iPhone — The Dangerous, Jealous Bully
The strange story of the little dictator that took over your life.
Why Can't I Stop Scrolling? The Real Answer
Because stopping was never part of the design. Including the researchers who think this whole conversation is overblown — and why they have a point.
How Technology Companies Compete For Your Attention
There is nothing accidental about how hard your phone is to put down. The pull you feel is not a character flaw and it is not weakness — it is the intended output of some of the best-funded engineering on earth.
Articles
Devil's Breath — From Entranced
And from inside your own head you cannot feel the difference.
Infected — From Entranced
The effect of the internet seems to put me into a more grasping and dissatisfied state.
How To Stop Binge-Watching
A five-step stopping plan, three true stories and the evidence on sleep, loneliness and losing control of time.
Is Technology And Constant Consumption Making Us Happier?
Despite being far wealthier than previous generations, with vastly more opportunities and surrounded by an endless array of physical comforts, we are not happier for it.
Are We Living Inside A Simulation
Is this world real, or an elaborate virtual reality? Life is not what it seems.
How does social media and entertainment trap us?
The trap is not one thing. It is a stack of them, laid on top of each other so carefully that from the inside it just feels like a normal evening.
What You Miss While You Are Looking At A Screen
Patrik Wincent, a psychotherapist who treats internet addiction and had it himself, on what gets sacrificed for digital contact.
How Half the Developed World Got Hooked
It's not your screen you're addicted to — it's just the conduit for your high. NYU's Adam Alter on behavioural addiction.
The World of Persuasive Technology with Tristan Harris
How big tech companies design their apps to get you addicted and keep you coming back. An interview with Tristan Harris, ex-Google designer.
Moralizing Technology and the Ethics of Things
At TEDxTwenteU, Peter-Paul Verbeek talks about the ethics of behavior-influencing technologies.
The Most Human Human: What AI Reveals About Being Human
To prove he was human, Brian Christian competed against some of the world's most advanced AI.
Social Media Slavery
Modern indentured servants: how big companies get us to work for them for free. Six audio exposés.
Films & Videos
Wake Up Call Movies
Twelve short films that show you the water you're swimming in. They play here, not on YouTube.
The Future, It's Worse Than You Realize: The Dark Side of Facebook
Every year Facebook holds a developer conference called F8, where it tells the people who build on its platform what it intends to do next.
This Is Our World: A Short Film About Phones And Everyday Life
Steve Cutts draws what we have all half-noticed and mostly agreed not to mention. There is no lecture in it.
Awakened Detox Cartoons
Thirty-six cartoons about phones, screens and distraction. The lighter side of waking up.
Modern Educayshun - The Dark Side Of Social Media and Political Correc
Neel Kolhatkar's short film on the dangers of a hypersensitive culture bred by social media and political correctness.
Strange Beasts: A Short Film About Augmented Reality
A short film about augmented reality, a game, and what happens when a digital world is made to feel real.
Why Social Media Is Free
A short video about what technology companies gain from keeping people online.
Days Of Freedom — A Short Film
Unplugged, offline and going deep. A short film about the other way.
The Film: What Happened To The Future?
The video big tech companies don't want you to watch.
The Evidence
Books & Ebooks
Where to next
The Dark Side Library
Nearly five hours of audio on what's really going on behind your screen: the dark power, the spying, the evil genius playbook, the two brain states, and how to break free.
The Full Archive
- The World of Persuasive Technology — Tristan Harris
- How Half the Developed World Got Hooked
- The Dark Side of Facebook
- How Technology Companies Compete For Your Attention
- Modern Educayshun
- Strange Beasts — an augmented-reality short film
- Are We Living Inside A Simulation?
- This Is Our World — phones and everyday life
- Story: Four Kids, Single & Addicted to Facebook
- What Kind of Future Are We Creating For Our Kids?
- Learning to Look Up Again
- How Does Social Media Trap Us?
- Is Technology And Constant Consumption Making Us Happier?
- What You Are Missing…
- The Most Human Human — AI and being human
- Moralizing Technology
- How To Use Technology More Mindfully
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