Before watching the video from this week, I have read articles about how this ‘attention economy’ works. A colleague told me one of her friends works in one of the big technology firms just to do that. To program and design algorithm to follow and track user data and how many seconds they stay and look at that the same page. Also, the incident I mentioned in task 3 shows how Siri is constantly ‘listening’ to my conversations.
As for the ‘User Inyerface‘ , I tried many times and failed all of them until I sent it to my friends and ask them to give a try. The name of the game sounds like ‘user, in your face’, which has shown me how much it enjoys destroying people.
I was so frustrated and surprised at the same about how others can get it done. I even tried to tricked my way through the game by typing everything out and just copied and pasted them in. Even that couldn’t beat the time limit. I could not move or close the timing box, I was going to write a reflection about how I failed this game until my friend got it done and told me there’s close button. : (
This game is a good example of dark pattern UI design. It sets limits everywhere and creates UI that you do not want to click big and clear if you want to continue the game. The UIs and web design interfere the habits the internet has nurtured for years. This game, other than always using the opposite meaning UI (the ones you don’t want to click), it also makes sure to always has extra steps like the step where you have to enter your birth date and manually select your age. 
I’m not going to analyze the game itself too much because I know we should have pretty much the same experience. However, this game is like a wake up call for us to think about this whole ‘we are being manipulated’ thing. When I got stuck and couldn’t get rid of the timer, I thought to myself, ‘maybe just keep manipulating me, just end this torture’. And I guess I’m not alone to this feeling.
In the Youtube video, ‘The history of advertising in 60 seconds’ (Mashable Brand X, 2014), it says “consumers are able to choose the ads they see based on their own tastes”. So we thought we had choices, but maybe we are just in the process of another round of exhaustive record of our online data and businesses are getting ready to sell us something else.
Harris (2017) said, ” technology is not neutral”. I disagree, I think he magnify the problem by aiming at the wrong target. To me, technology, and any other abiotic objects, is like an unweighted node. It is people who give it weight and direction. This makes me feel like we are in an I, Robot (2004) situation. However, Harris (2017) himself offer his ideas on how could we solve this problem, which is to create renaissance, to protect and empower ourselves and to redirect this timeline and think about what do we want for our lives.
"Our best defense against the dark pattern is to be aware of them and shame the companies who utilize them."
References:
Harris, T. (2017). How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/tristan_harris_the_manipulative_tricks_tech_companies_use_to_capture_your_attention?language=en
Mashable Brand X. (2014, October 3). The History of Advertising in 60 Seconds [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d3VAYGnXjY&feature=youtu.be
Nerdwriter1. (2018, March 28). How Dark Patterns Trick You Online [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxkrdLI6e6M&feature=youtu.be
Wikipedia. (2022, July 21). I, Robot (film). Wikipedia. Retrieved July 24, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot_(film)