Adam Alter, Ph.D.
Professor of Marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business
Irresistible: Designing for Behavioral Addiction
Facebook has 1.5 billion users; Instagram users upload sixty million new photos every day. Twenty million people count and monitor every step with Fitbit. Two-thirds of all adults suffer from sleep deprivation, 95% use an electronic device that emits light in the hour before bed, and 60% of adults (ages 18-64) keep their phones next to them while they sleep. Some of the world’s greatest technocrats have the strictest limits on technology for their children. In 2010, when Steve Jobs, a low-tech parent, was asked if his kids loved the iPad, he replied, “They haven’t used it. We limit how much technology our kids use at home.” He knew the lure of his beautiful, tactile, absorbing, brilliant invention.
Technology designers are extremely skilled at creating interactive environments for consumers. The colors, fonts, and sounds are tested and polished and refined countless times, and the feel of the product, what it’s like in your hand or on your body, is key. Technology is intentionally designed to deeply engage its user. Is it any wonder that our attention span is evaporating?

Upcoming Events
Untethered: Creating Connected Families, Schools, and Communities to Raise a Resilient Generation
Doug Bolton, Ph.D.
Clinical psychologist and educational leader and consultant
Lisa Damour, Ph.D.
Psychologist, New York Times bestselling author, and "Ask Lisa" podcast co-host
ON ZOOM
Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life
Maggie Smith
Award-winning author and poet
Glory Edim
Author and Founder of Well-Read Black Girl, an online platform and book club celebrating the works of Black women authors
ON ZOOM
What We Value: The Neuroscience of Choice & Change
Emily Falk, Ph.D.
Professor of Communication, Psychology, Marketing, and Operations, Informatics, and Decisions (OID), University of Pennsylvania
Ethan Kross, Ph.D.
Professor, Management & Organizations, Ross School of Business, and Director of the Emotion and Self Control Lab, University of Michigan
ON ZOOM