Your smartphone is actually controlling your mind, expert warns

Most of us look at our smartphones for around five hours per day – checking the gadgets hundreds of times every day (and sometimes during the night).

Around 11% of people in Western countries are thought to suffer from some form of technology addiction, according to California State University researchers.

Tristan Harris, a former product manager at Google, says that the apps we use, such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are actually manipulating us to use them more.

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Harris, who is launching a project to hold the tech industry accountable for these tactics, says that ‘features’ such as Snapchat’s Snapstreaks and Facebook’s new auto-playing video are designed to manipulate us, with the simple goal of making us spend more time in the apps.

A TED talk he gave on the subject has now been watched 1.5 million times, according to MIT Technology Review.

Harris says, ‘It’s so invisible what we’re doing to ourselves. It’s like a public health crisis. It’s like cigarettes, except because we’re given so many benefits, people can’t actually see and admit the erosion of human thought that’s occurring at the same time.’