Why Gadgets Make Us Unhappy
Cannot spend 2 minutes without a phone, constantly update the newsfeed of social networks, and are afraid for the safety of your gadget more than for your health? Perhaps, it is worth remembering that outside the gadget, there is also life, and you have become a hostage to one of the most harmful habits of our time.
The psychologist Adam Alter studies how much time we actually spend reading posts on Facebook, checking mail, and looking through new photos on Instagram, and I am sure that all this can have negative consequences. In this video, he tells why we are used to living our lives through a camera on a smartphone, consciously choosing applications that make us unhappy and why we cannot stop in time, having angst to miss something important in the newsfeed. Alter gives some tips on how to change this.
How to Get Rid of Fear for the Future Together
Today, the world is at its turning point. Controversial elections, divided societies, and the growth of extremism – all these are accompanied by concern and uncertainty. The British rabbi and spiritual leader Jonathan Sacks is ready to share his vision of the future and how each of us can decrease the level of fear for our common future. The cult of one's own “self” makes us vulnerable and lonely. Sacks offers a small experiment that can change not only your life but the world: every time you say or write "I", replace it with "others." After all, we can get rid of fear only by feeling the support of each other.
Why Big Data Does not Always Help to Make the Right Decisions
In ancient Greece, before making important decisions, people applied to the oracle for help. In the modern world, this function was taken over by Big Data. Companies have access to an incredible amount of information, but still manage to make fool decisions. Trisha Wong reveals the pitfalls of this phrase by the example of such giants as Nokia and Netflix. She also explains why corporations should pay attention to Thick Data to make the right business decisions (Thick Data is the data that allows them to better understand their target audience and modify the strategy in accordance with its preferences).
Why Journalists Should Ask Questions to Government Officials
In August 2015, presidential candidate Donald Trump turned out one of the most famous Hispanic journalists and the presenter of Univision channel Jorge Ramos from Trump’s press conference. However, he was unable to silence the reporter with 30 years of experience. Ramos' speech at the April TED conference caused a storm of applause. He tells why asking officials questions and criticizing them is one of the duties of a journalist. Moreover, he is sure that in some situations journalists should still choose one of the parties and clearly pronounce their position, and neutrality is not always a guarantee of truth.
How Technological Giants Manipulate Our Attention
We are easily persuaded in the network – we read the news that the social network algorithm gives us, we watch videos that automatically offer an application, or we prove our point of view in another one Internet battle. However, what you will think about and feel tomorrow are already managed today by a small group of employees of technology companies. Maybe, it sounds like science fiction. But the former specialist in design thinking in Google Tristan Harris knows what he is talking about. He reveals several insights on how Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and other giants are fighting for the attention of Internet users and using our psychology of behavior for their own purposes.
