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
The Creativity Choice: The Science of Making Decisions to Turn Ideas into Action
Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
Marc Brackett, Ph.D.
Founding director, Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and professor, Child Study Center, Yale University
ON ZOOM
Everybody’s Fly: Art, Music, and Changing the Culture
Fab 5 Freddy
Artist, Filmmaker, and Architect of Hip-Hop Culture
Theaster Gates
Artist, archivist, curator, and professor and Special Advisor to the President at the University of Chicago
Evanston Township High School Auditorium
Note: Event start time is Central Time (CT).
NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED.

Born to Flourish: How New Science and Ancient Wisdom Reveal a Simple Path to Thriving
Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.
William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Cortland Dahl, Ph.D.
Chief Contemplative Officer at Humin and research scientist at UW-Madison's Center for Healthy Minds
Jacqueline Moreno
Chief Service Officer of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission
ON ZOOM


