Nir Eyal smells fishy
Th cynicism of the author of Hooked got us upset 

The Dutch newspaper NRC featured an interview with Nir Eyal this week. He's known as the author of the book Hooked and coined as the scientist who makes people addicted to apps. His book inspired a whole generation of developers to use techniques from Behavioural Psychology to get people "hooked" on apps. He has been at the heart of the ethical discussion on whether Silicon Valley is actually going too far in hijacking our brain and hijacking our attention. Every one of you who watches their smartphone 200 times a day knows that the answer to this question is yes. 

His cynical view is that you can't blame Facebook for your Facebook addiction. It's our own fault. We are free to quit Facebook and we should have paid more attention to our privacy settings. This is utter bullshit of course. The simple truth is that we humans are fighting an unfair battle against the powerful techniques these technology companies use to hijack our brains. They first did everything to get us addicted to the little dopamine shots of continuous social rewards, through likes, shares, comments, etc. And now the whole world is addicted, they treat their users like stupid addicts who should be blamed for not having enough character. 

This illusion of free choice is the biggest lie of this era. Choice is carefully designed and manipulated. And Nir Eyal told the world how to do this. Don't get me wrong:  I'm a big believer in using the power of behavioural psychology to create better products and services. But I also feel that humans always tend to take their new powers one step too far. And we should be much more aware of the undesired effects of our designs. 

Behavioural Design Fest (1)
We've got an incredible line-up!