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Authors Imran Rashid and Soren Kenner have sparked an international debate by revealing the "mind hacks" Facebook, Apple, Google, and Instagram use to get you and your children hooked on their products.

In Offline, they deliver an eye-opening research-based journey into the world of tech giants, smartphones, social engineering, and subconscious manipulation. This provocative work shows you how digital devices change individuals and communities for better and worse.

A must-read if you or your kids use smartphones or tablets and spend time browsing social networks, playing online games or even just browsing sites with news and entertainment.


Learn how to recognize 'mind hacks' and avoid the potentially disastrous side-effects of digital pollution. Unplug from the matrix. Learn digital habits that work for you.

Offline: Free Your Mind from Smartphone and Social Media Stress

Acknowledgments xi





Introduction: Offline 1





Are You Being Digitally Manipulated? 5





Access to Your Attention Has Become a Commodity 8





Technology Is Good. But Use it Carefully! 10





HowThis Book Is Structured 15





Chapter One 17





A Tsunami of Technological Transformation 17





Imperceptible Change 19





Because Your Eyeballs Are Worth It 21





Social Media: The Global Village 23





Tackling the Onslaught of Information 26





Chapter Two 30





A Fire upon the Deep 30





Developing Bigger Brains Was an Evolutionary Gamble 31





The Three Layers of Your Brain 33





Prefiltering and Neuroplasticity: Your Adaptable Brain 45





Is Your Consciousness Time-Shifted? 47





To Be or Not to Be Conscious 49





Out of Control 51





Is Consciousness a Question of Being in the Spotlight? 53





Models Are Not Reality 54





The Hard Question of Consciousness 55





The Social Brain 56





Chapter Three 63





The Billion Dollar Question 63





Dopamine: Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll? 65





Oxytocin: Humans Need Humans 67





Does Your Family Suffer from Technoference? 69





Being Able to Defer Gratification Is Crucial 72





What We Actually Do Know about Impulse Control-and About Losing It! 74





Do Smartphones Affect Human Self-Control? 76





Chapter Four 80





The Human Information Factory 82





The Limited Working Memory 82





The Sorting Task 83





Information Processing 84





Would You Dare to Be a Passenger in a Car Driven by a Distracted You? 86





Excuse Me, Do You Have a Minute? 87





Smartphones and Feelings 88





A Quick Pit-Stop before Heading into the Land of Dragons 89





Chapter Five 95





One Great Big Online Market 95





B.J. Fogg and the Stanford Persuasion Lab 96





Let's Take a Look at B.J. Fogg's Model as It Is Being Used Today... 98





Your Phone Is a Slot Machine! 101





What Do the Companies Targeting You See? 103





Your Personality Can Be Predicted with Great Accuracy 107





The Cambridge Analytica Scandal 109





How You Are Captured and Converted 111





Multivariate Testing-Helping Consumers Capture Themselves 113





The StrangeWorld of Tracking Pixels, Cookies and Remarketing 115





All aboard the Consumer Journey Train 118





The Horrible Dark Patterns 120





How Google Skews Your Search Results 121





Chapter Six 125





Stress, Low Self-Esteem, Anxiety and Sleep Disturbances 126





Smartphones and Social Media Can Lead to ADHD in Adolescents 128





Can Use of Social Media Be Addictive? 128





When Addictive Design and Basic Human Social Traits Clash 130





The Effects Are Not Just Physiological or Psychological 132





Echo Chambers and Confirmation Bias 133





When Confirmation Bias Leads to Cognitive Dissonance 138





The Sharp Decline in Empathy 141





The Changing World of Youngsters 144





Cyberbullying 146





In Conclusion: The Road Ahead Is All About the Choices You Make! 148





Chapter Seven 157





Making Changes Is Not Easy! 157





Change Means Doing Things Differently 159





Step 1: Life Stories 160





Step 2: Mapping out Your Habits and How You Spend Your Time 164





Step 3: Identify Triggers & Cues 164





Step 4: Plan Your Countermove and Start Acting 167





Troubleshoot Failure 169





In Summary: It's Not Rocket Science, but it's Not All That Easy Either 170





Teaching Your Children Sensible and Healthy Digital Habits 172





The Underlying Psychological Principles 174





Entering the Zone-Learning to Focus 177





Deliberate Practice 179





In Conclusion: It's Simple, but it's Not Easy 182





Epilogue 187





Index 193