How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day | Tristan Harris

A handful of people working at a handful of tech companies steer the thoughts of billions of people every day, says design thinker Tristan Harris. From Facebook notifications to Snapstreaks to YouTube autoplays, they’re all competing for one thing: your attention. Harris shares how these companies prey on our psychology for their own profit and calls for a design renaissance in which our tech instead encourages us to live out the timeline we want. Tristan Harris co-hosts “Your Undivided Attention“, a podcast from the TED Audio Collective that explores the incredible power that technology has over our lives — and how we can use it to catalyze a humane future. Subscribe to the TED Audio Collective at If you love watching TED Talks like this one, become a TED Member to support our mission of spreading ideas: Follow TED! Twitter: Instagram: Facebook: LinkedIn: TikTok: @tedtoks The TED Talks channel features talks, performances and original series from the world’s leading thinkers and doers. Subscribe to our channel for videos on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. TED’s videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at