JD Photography

How Tech Companies Value Your Time

Have you ever learned something and it makes you feel dirty? In learning about the manipulation that happens between tech companies and the general public I feel dirty. Actually, I feel a little sick.

Johann Hari writes in Stolen Focus Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again, “Facebook makes more money for every extra second you are staring through a screen at their site, and they lose money every time you put the screen down.”

In all fairness it’s all the tech giants who have this business model. The sleazy part isn’t just about harvesting your time to keep scrolling, it’s actually more scary.

“Every time you send a message or status update on Facebook, or Snapchat, or Twitter, and every time you search for something on Google, everything you say is being scanned and sorted and stored. These companies are building up a profile of you, to sell advertisers who want to target you,” writes Hari.

Here I was living my life thinking I had privacy. The only privacy I have is when all my devices are off, I talk in a whisper [on the off chance I forget about a device] (TV, radio, or speaker) and it’s listening to me, and turn off my WiFi. I’m a tin foil hat away from full on paranoia.

These companies are building up a profile of you, to sell advertisers who want to target you

Hari writes, “We’ve all had one kind of experience of searching online for something. I recently tried to buy an exercise bike, and still, a month later, I am endlessly being served advertisements for exercise bikes by Google and Facebook, until I want to scream, ‘I bought one already!’ But the systems are getting more sophisticated every year. Aza told me:’ It’s getting to be so good that whenever I give a presentation, I’ll ask the audience how many think Facebook is listening to their conversations, because there’s some ad that’s been served that’s just too accurate. It’s about a specific thing they have never mentioned before {but happened to have talked about offline} to a friend the day before. Now, it’s generally one-half to two-thirds of the audience that raises their hands. The truth is creepier. It’s not that they are listening and then they can do target ad serving. It’s that their model of you is so accurate that it’s making predictions about you that you think are magic.’”

Where’s the foil?

In all seriousness, it concerns me that things I like, search, or engage with are used to make others a profit. I miss the days of building a farm and sharing an update with other friends and family building a farm. Those days are gone, and even if you think you don’t engage, you are, because they can track what you pause on and feed you more of that, again to keep you looking.

I feel like I’m being manipulated to even gaslit.

It’s that their model of you is so accurate that it’s making predictions about you that you think are magic.

On his website drgeorgesimon.com, Dr. George Simon writes, “The subtlest manipulation occurs when someone seems really attentive to your concerns. Knowing what you want/need, etc., skilled manipulators are pleased to give you exactly what they understand you’re looking for. But what initially appears a generous gift on their part actually comes at a hefty cost. Subtle manipulators are always looking for something in return that they don’t want you to fully recognize. As a result, you don’t realize what the attention they gave you has cost you until well after the fact.”

My time is being harvested by tech companies through search engines, social media, and smart devices to sell to advertisers things they think I will buy. They in turn try and keep me on said device so they can make more money and I’m left feeling crazy for thinking big brother is eavesdropping on me.

The equation is simple, You x Time = Financial Value for Tech Companies (TC);
Y(T)= V(TC)

It’s a crude equation, but I’m not a mathematician, however, I feel I need to value my own time as much as the tech companies value my time.

I tracked my social media usage this week. I know I spend a lot of time wasting away scrolling. On Monday I spent over three hours on social media. Tuesday I actively tried to stay away from all social media and it was a success mere minutes were spent. I got lazy, but still in a reasonable range about a half hour. I let my guard down by Thursday and was scrolling for over an hour. I got my head back in the game and finished strong staying below an hour of usage per day.

What I learned was that I had more focus on my work when I wasn’t fiending for my phone and scrolling. I finished some major projects at work this week instead of pushing them off because I ran out of time.

This eyeopener has taught me that indeed, my time for myself is so much more valuable and precious than to just waste it away on an endless scroll.