How Apple Could Help Us Reclaim Our Attention
We believe technology should help us live well. It can and should be designed to help us be intentional, to do the things that truly matter.
Yesterday, iOS 15 was introduced to the world. It's an exciting update, and includes meaningful steps towards more comprehensive tools for digital wellbeing, like modes and better notifications.
And yet, Apple could do a lot more to help us be more intentional.
Somewhere along the way, ads got in the way. And with ads came the imperative to maximize engagement. Which led to a trillion-dollar industry built on extracting human attention.
For social media companies with an ad-based business model, addiction is good for business. Even when it comes at the expense of our shared well-being, democracy, and capacity for solving the world's hardest problems.
Apple is a uniquely positioned company. The core of Apple's DNA is about empowering world-changing creativity. Its business is not built around ads. Our lifetime-value is higher for Apple if we get to live meaningful and creative lives and solve the worlds hardest problems.
As the provider of iOS and the AppStore, Apple makes the rules for that ecosystem. We believe Apple can and should give users more awareness and control over how they're being manipulated.
With "Ask app not to track" Apple recently changed the game of privacy, at the dismay at the global advertisement industry.
We think they could go even further: