Three billion people now own a smartphone, democratized from 2007; and spend more and more time there. Why do we open it 221 times a day (according to a pre-lockdown study of 2,000 users)? Why are message notifications so irresistible? How can you end up spending eight hours straight on Instagram or TikTok? You too are asking yourself these questions and it's not for a friend?
Welcome to Dopamine, Arte's pop web series, and now documentary, the 52-minute film, Dopamine. How apps trick our brains, broadcast on Arte.tv this May 27. It extends the experience of the web series, of which seven new episodes are released on May 31.
This season, we will discover how the designers of WhatsApp, Amazon, LinkedIn, TikTok, Vinted, Waze or Twitch think about applications so that they secrete the neurotransmitter of pleasure. With a common thread: you work for them as much, maybe even more, than they work for you. This will help you understand how Amazon turns you into a compulsive buyer or what motivates you so much to complete your profile on LinkedIn.
The human cognitive biases that are commercially exploited are identified, named, deciphered… We feel less weak, less airheaded and we stop looking for ADHD (attention deficit disorder) than anyone, surprisingly (? ), had been unable to diagnose until now. And we laugh at our gregarious behavior.
Attention multinationals
The success of this web series of public utility and the documentary that complements it is based on careful production and a lively parodic spirit. "We made it a rule not to shoot anything," says author Léo Favier. All the images you see are therefore "pretext" images, retrieved from databases, such as the press uses. "We worked on the Koulechov effect: the narration suggests and we add images, either that stick to the primary meaning, or by working on a shift", explains Arnaud Viémont, co-director and editor of the web series.
A delicious dialogue, meticulously paced, is built between diverted images and the text, rich in lessons in neuroscience, funny and rigorously interpreted by the dashing voice actor (and philosopher) Elisabeth Ventura. The two authors have fun and it is communicative.
But how do we regain control of our lives in the face of these attention multinationals? These practices of optimized neurocognitive manipulation form a flourishing economic model, to the detriment of our mental health and fair working conditions. Some clever answers emerge in the film, without eclipsing the political question.
