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From fitness tracking devices to search engines, it’s easy to think of personalised technologies as convenient shortcuts and useful tools for working towards goals. But, argues James Williams, a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute and a former Google employee, the primary aim of personalised tech is to keep users coming back by any means necessary – and often in a way that encourages empty distraction. In this brief animation featuring audio from a 2017 lecture at the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) in London, Williams makes the case that the consolidation of the ‘attention economy’ to just a handful of companies is an unprecedented and deeply fraught human experiment – and one that demands active, attentive resistance.
Video by the RSA
Director: Olga Makarchuk
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Stories and literature
Robert Frost’s poetic reflection on youth, as read in his unforgettable baritone
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Sex and sexuality
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Film and visual culture
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Language and linguistics
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Thinkers and theories
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Anthropology
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Subcultures
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Technology and the self
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Wellbeing
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