“The more people stared at their phones, the more money these companies made. Period.”

Why it was said

Johann Hari writes this in Stolen Focus (2022), in his account of how the business model of the large technology companies works. It follows his conversations with former Silicon Valley insiders about why products are designed to hold attention for as long as possible.

What it actually means

The line moves the question of distraction from the individual to the incentive. If a company earns money from advertising sold against the time people spend on its product, every design decision is pulled toward keeping them there: infinite feeds, notifications, autoplay. Hari's argument is that this is not a conspiracy by bad people but the predictable result of how the revenue is earned, which is why personal willpower alone struggles against it. The claim about incentives is well grounded. How much of any decline in attention is caused by these products, as opposed to other pressures, is still debated by researchers, and Hari himself names many other causes, from stress and poor sleep to diet and pollution. The line is best used to understand what a product is optimised for before deciding how to use it.

How to use it

1. 1For each app on your phone's first screen, write down how the company behind it makes money, and move any that earn from your time off that screen.
2. 2Turn off every notification that is not from a person writing to you directly, and check after a week what you actually missed.