The Right to Attention in an Age of Distraction

Re:The Right to Attention in an Age of Distraction by ThrowAway123543 on Friday May 26, 2017 @03:16PM (#14426465)

Dopamine seems to be an API that automates and optimizes the display of "rewards" (positive messages or images) in an app to increase usage, right? And there's ML to optimize timing of the rewards, but it's basically exploiting the same effect seen with randomized rewards, i.e. the thing that makes gambling addictive, right? Is that a fair summary? That doesn't seem like it's giving "an individual autonomy over attention". It seems like the exact opposite.

I don't understand what the other thing, Space, does. Does it just interrupt social media apps periodically? It seems more like an attempt at viral marketing for Dopamine than something that's intended for real people to use, but I can't tell what it does and I'm not on iOS.

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Re:The Right to Attention in an Age of Distraction by c54 on Friday May 26, 2017 @04:28PM (#14426897)

Just installed it. It generates a link on your homescreen from the app you need space from (ie twitter, in my case). Link looks like the twitter app icon.

When I tap it it loads the browser on a page saying "breath with me" for a second or two, and then loads the twitter app.

I can imagine 1) needing the breath and that working out, 2) ditching the process of loading twitter if i'm asked to breath

both would be good outcomes

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Re:The Right to Attention in an Age of Distraction by tdaltonc on Friday May 26, 2017 @04:45PM (#14427030)

Glad you like it!

There's a third benefit too. Putting a lag between the action and the reward rewires the brains wanting system. That itch at the back of your brain or the impulse to reach for your phone at the briefest hint of boredom doesn't have to be there. Using space will kill that wanting impulse.

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Re:The Right to Attention in an Age of Distraction by akkartik on Friday May 26, 2017 @08:17PM (#14428145)

Very interesting idea. I wonder how hard it would be to write a plugin to do this transparently on my browser.

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