Insights
Technologies built in good faith Your mobile phone vibrates, displays notifications and makes sounds. Time to take the pill prescribed by the doctor; go to the gym to burn a specific number of calories; walk for an hour to supplement deficient vitamin D; go to bed to sleep long enough; start meditating to reduce stress. Can the apps of the future be effective, but also transparent, ethical and based on values important for people instead of using psychological tricks? Dopamine as a source of market success An effective app does not let you forget about it. It must fight for our limited attention while competition from oth-
OSOZ World 2020
er apps grows. The most successful apps use the principles of behavioral psychology to get us hooked. Dopamine increases automatically every time someone likes our photo on Facebook or Instagram. The
level of this happiness neurotransmitter is regulated in the brain by the dopamine system. The more likes under a selfie, the greater the satisfaction. When a message on Twitter is popular, it increases our sense of worth and the impression of social acceptance. This is the main reason behind the success of social media. Other mobile apps must also play on our emotions and needs - otherwise they end up in the recycling bin like the vast majority of downloaded apps. This power of technology over us is ethically ambiguous and can lead to many negative effects in real life. This is different in the case of health apps. They are mainly about turning a single
