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.

Acknowledgments xiIntroduction: Offline 1Are You Being Digitally Manipulated? 5Access to Your Attention Has Become a Commodity 8Technology Is Good. But Use it Carefully! 10HowThis Book Is Structured 15Chapter One 17A Tsunami of Technological Transformation 17Imperceptible Change 19Because Your Eyeballs Are Worth It 21Social Media: The Global Village 23Tackling the Onslaught of Information 26Chapter Two 30A Fire upon the Deep 30Developing Bigger Brains Was an Evolutionary Gamble 31The Three Layers of Your Brain 33Prefiltering and Neuroplasticity: Your Adaptable Brain 45Is Your Consciousness Time-Shifted? 47To Be or Not to Be Conscious 49Out of Control 51Is Consciousness a Question of Being in the Spotlight? 53Models Are Not Reality 54The Hard Question of Consciousness 55The Social Brain 56Chapter Three 63The Billion Dollar Question 63Dopamine: Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll? 65Oxytocin: Humans Need Humans 67Does Your Family Suffer from Technoference? 69Being Able to Defer Gratification Is Crucial 72What We Actually Do Know about Impulse Control--and About Losing It! 74Do Smartphones Affect Human Self-Control? 76Chapter Four 80The Human Information Factory 82The Limited Working Memory 82The Sorting Task 83Information Processing 84Would You Dare to Be a Passenger in a Car Driven by a Distracted You? 86Excuse Me, Do You Have a Minute? 87Smartphones and Feelings 88A Quick Pit-Stop before Heading into the Land of Dragons 89Chapter Five 95One Great Big Online Market 95B.J. Fogg and the Stanford Persuasion Lab 96Let's Take a Look at B.J. Fogg's Model as It Is Being Used Today... 98Your Phone Is a Slot Machine! 101What Do the Companies Targeting You See? 103Your Personality Can Be Predicted with Great Accuracy 107The Cambridge Analytica Scandal 109How You Are Captured and Converted 111Multivariate Testing--Helping Consumers Capture Themselves 113The StrangeWorld of Tracking Pixels, Cookies and Remarketing 115All aboard the Consumer Journey Train 118The Horrible Dark Patterns 120How Google Skews Your Search Results 121Chapter Six 125Stress, Low Self-Esteem, Anxiety and Sleep Disturbances 126Smartphones and Social Media Can Lead to ADHD in Adolescents 128Can Use of Social Media Be Addictive? 128When Addictive Design and Basic Human Social Traits Clash 130The Effects Are Not Just Physiological or Psychological 132Echo Chambers and Confirmation Bias 133When Confirmation Bias Leads to Cognitive Dissonance 138The Sharp Decline in Empathy 141The Changing World of Youngsters 144Cyberbullying 146In Conclusion: The Road Ahead Is All About the Choices You Make! 148Chapter Seven 157Making Changes Is Not Easy! 157Change Means Doing Things Differently 159Step 1: Life Stories 160Step 2: Mapping out Your Habits and How You Spend Your Time 164Step 3: Identify Triggers & Cues 164Step 4: Plan Your Countermove and Start Acting 167Troubleshoot Failure 169In Summary: It's Not Rocket Science, but it's Not All That Easy Either 170Teaching Your Children Sensible and Healthy Digital Habits 172The Underlying Psychological Principles 174Entering the Zone--Learning to Focus 177Deliberate Practice 179In Conclusion: It's Simple, but it's Not Easy 182Epilogue 187Index 193