Task 10

Task 10 - Attention Economy

Let's get straight to the point - I was enraged. Although it seemed like I did well, I kept restarting because I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the locked popup. I actually did this task, and then gave myself some time... days... to calm down so I could think rationally about the task instead of just seeing red. The one thing that struck me in reflection was how trained we are with the 'literacies' of the internet. This 'game' was designed to take all the patterns we already knew, that we were already trained on, and then make it basically the opposite. While Harris (2017) states that companies design their tools to have seamless interfaces, the User Inyerface is designed as the opposite. It goes against our trained brains and challenges it. Is our brains being trained just a literacy or a manipulation of these corporations? I turned to inputting random information as fast as I could so I could beat the popup that locked everything. I later found out, by clicking furiously, that you can actually close that, and it made the task suddenly doable. Many of the tasks had inherent pressure built in, from the timer, to the flashing, the red cookie bar, the window in the corner that was in the way but was hard to get rid of. These also were built to distract you from the task at had, red herrings, per say, such as buttons that don't work. The one that did not stump me was the check boxes. I instinctually scrolled down to see what else was involved, and when I scrolled up, the hidden set of check boxes were revealed. In considering the dark patterns, I was especially annoyed with the need to provide personal information, as well as a photo. It worries me that future generations (the selfie group) would have no issue uploading a real picture of themselves or their lives. I wonder how many in our course did so. As mentioned before, I just entered random information for all areas, and a random photo from the internet, but many would give out personal information without a thought on it's uses. Many of these misleading strategies were outlined by Brignull (2011) such as the double negatives, forced answers, misleading buttons (check boxes and ones that don't work). I see some of these tactics in other ways, where you get a pop up, or get asked for information and it's not clear how to 'skip' that part and the text is so light it is almost hidden to skip. I wonder how a different generation thinks of these tactics. I did not grow up with the internet, but was a teen when it was evolving. My family owns a tech company that my dad started out of the house, so I was fairly exposed to it, but I still hold a sense of suspicion with it. Though, I use social media, and know full well they are collecting my data, and I don't really care. If I am looking for boots and now I see ads that help me with that... I am okay with it! I think the importance is not to become numb, or mindless to the tactics online and make informed choices that we are each comfortable with.

References

Brignull, H. (2011). Dark Patterns: Deception vs. Honesty in UI Design. Interaction Design, Usability, 338.

Harris, T. (2017). How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/tristan_harris_the_manipulative_tricks_tech_companies_use_to_capture_your_attention?language=en