Your Undivided Attention (Center for Humane Technology)
Platform algorithms
What can I learn?
Bi-weekly TED Audio Collective podcast with Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin on attention economy, recommender systems, and AI alignment. The deepest accessible treatment of how social media and AI are reshaping cognition and democracy.
Core insight
Social media platforms are not neutral tools — they are engagement- maximisation machines that reshape behaviour at scale, and understanding this mechanism helps you explain a lot of what clients experience online.
How to use it in daily work
Gives you the best available explanation of how recommendation algorithms and social media mechanics work on human psychology.
- When clients describe feeling addicted to their phone or confused by what they see online, you can explain the attention-economy mechanism rather than just suggesting 'use it less'.