Addictive Devices

We spend our days looking at them, talking to them, and touching them.

They increasingly consume our time, attention and money. We are addicted to our digital devices–or, more precisely, the digital experiences they give us.

Now, an article published in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, by SFU Beedie professor Leyland Pitt and his co-authors, analyzes the growing problem with digital addiction and how marketers as well as app developers contribute to this 21st-century phenomenon. The researchers also made several public policy recommendations to help with this problem.

According to Pitt, digital addiction is linked to promoting obesity, sleeplessness, increased anxiety, decreased productivity, and relationship issues. It is also a factor in physical dangers related to distracted driving, and walking.

“Digital experiences, like social media, are linked to decreased productivity in the workplace and it’s already costing the U.S. economy $997 billion,” says Pitt. “Today, texting while driving is now six times more dangerous than drinking and driving, and it’s costing the Canadian economy $25 billion.”

He adds, “If you’re checking a text for just five seconds while driving at 90 km/h, you’ve basically travelled the length of a football field blind-folded. That’s incredibly dangerous and foolish when you put it into prospective.”

The researchers say marketers and app developers work together to develop experiences that create an insatiable desire for users to keep returning to their apps. Companies achieve this by using various tactics such as the freemium model, gamification and making their app ubiquitous.

“It seems that digital addiction is impacting young adolescents the most, but that’s because they’ve grown up with digital devices,” says Pitt. “Addiction doesn’t know age. It can happen to anybody.”

Leyland sat down with SFU News recently to share his team’s recommendations for how we can curtail this growing epidemic through changes to public policy. Continue Reading…

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