“Connect” was first presented by Cynthia Savard Saucier for Creative Mornings Montreal on September 27, 2013. How many times do you look at your phone when it vibrates, knowing full well that it’s the email you sent yourself 30 seconds ago? Reflex causes us to compulsively reach for our iPhone the second that it makes the tiniest of noises. Have you ever heard of Pavlov’s dogs? The similarity between Pavlov’s experiments and our reaction to the ringer poses no stretch of the imagination. The telephone is addictive, caused by the same reward patterns as drugs, sex and good food. Telephone addiction is already talked about as a real disorder. Even though new technologies come with addictive and disruptive properties, they can’t be eliminated from our lives. Because being connected is way too important! Some of the benefits of technology include: bridging distances and language barriers, increasing autonomy and a sense of accomplishment, supporting the depressed, teaching us new things and, most importantly, helping us stay in touch with loved ones. We must therefore find solutions that create connections, without creating an addiction to the things that connect us. What’s at stake with “mobile” technologies such as glasses and watches, which contribute to never-ending notifications? Should we adopt an ethical code to deal with this phenomenon, or take advantage of the user’s addiction to develop profitable services, such as Farmville and Facebook? “Connect” is a call to creative people, decision makers and users, encouraging them to explore new opportunities for making the world a better connected place.

1. CONNECT
CYNTHIA
Savard Saucier
UX Designer

2. - ANONYMOUS
“Sometimes, I send myself an
email to remind myself of
something, and when I feel the
phone vibrate, I still get excited.”

3. 88%
sometimes feel
vibrations
PHANTOM

4. 1.0 CONDITIONING Am I really
as gullible as a
CHICKEN?

5. ACTION STIMULUS REWARD

6. ACTION STIMULUS REWARD

7. - Said no one ever
“I have never used my
telephone in an
inappropriate moment.”

8. 2.0 ADDICTION
Who among you can keep your
mobile in your box until the
end of this presentation? Until
the end of the day? How about
the end of the week?

9. DOPAMINE
Dopamine is released when you
anticipate pleasure, whether it
be food, sex, text messages or a
new post on Facebook...

10. PLEASURE
Note: This graphic is in no way scientific.
STIMULUS
REWARD

11. PLEASURE
THE DOPAMINE LOOP

12. 3.0 PAY THE PRICE
What keeps us all from being
addicted when the rewards are
so satisfying? Paying the price.
It’s socially unacceptable to
take out your mobile during a
romantic dinner.

13. Internet of
THINGS,
checking your
With the
is far too
EASY
... and can be done subtly enough so
that people around you don’t notice.
Slipping a device out of your pocket
and checking it is a new behaviour,
but checking your watch isn’t.
Reducing the “price to pay” for
interaction ensures that the
behaviour will increase.
messages

14. Does that mean we should deter
people from using new technologies?
NO!

15. SAVE LIVES4.0
Because
HELP TO
new technologies
When a new technology
becomes available, creative
people immediately leverage it
to make incredible discoveries!

16. 卡尔库洛肾
Kidney stone
Chinese
Even more so when you’re a
DOCTOR
Understanding a foreign language is great.

17. Especially when you need to apply
CPR
Who doesn’t need an extra hand in the kitchen?

18. 5.0 SMALL PLEASURES
Beyond the “magical”
solutions that save lives, there
are other small pleasures that
help us feel connected.

19. “Daddy, my nose is running.”
Hearing that my grandmother
thinks I’m pretty. That my father
is proud of me. Or hearing my
godson say his first sentence:

20. It’s all too beautiful to fade away...

21. 5.0 SOLUTIONS
How can we build
connections, without creating
monsters?

22. Technology that respects time
Use the “Do not disturb”
and “Snooze” functions.
At all costs - avoid letting
the user know when
messages were read!

23. Technology that respects
context
Enable users to set limits
according to their context.
Your mobile phone could
block calls when it knows
you’re in a conference.

24. Technology that is not disruptive
Noisy stimuli can be very
aggravating. The ideal:
gradually attract the user’s
attention with a blinking
light, then vibrations and if
all else fails, a progressively
louder ringtone.

25. If you leave your mobile in your box
more often, you just may enjoy it more
the next time you use it.
Thank you!

26. References
The Role of Dopamine
http://kristapeckms.com/2013/01/dopamine-internet/
Internet Gratifications and Internet Addiction: On the Uses and Abuses of New Media
Indeok Song, Robert Larose, Matthew S. Eastin, and Carolyn A. Lin. CyberPsychology & Behavior. August 2004, 7(4): 384-394. doi:
10.1089/cpb.2004.7.384.
Loneliness, Social Contacts and Internet Addiction: A Cross-lagged Panel Study
Mike Z. Yao, Zhi-jin Zhong
Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 30, January 2014, Pages 164–170
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.08.007
A Study to Evaluate Mobile Phone Dependence Among Students of a Medical College and Associated Hospital of
Central India
Indian J Community Med. 2010 April; 35(2): 339–341. doi: 10.4103/0970-0218.66878 PMCID: PMC2940198
Sanjay Dixit, Harish Shukla, AK Bhagwat, Arpita Bindal, Abhilasha Goyal, Alia K Zaidi, and Akansha Shrivastava
Copyright © Indian Journal of Community Medicine
The Phone That Wasn't There: 11 Things You Need to Know About Phantom Vibrations
ROBINSON MEYER
JUL 10 2012, 3:59 PM ET
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/the-phone-that-wasnt-there-11-things-you-need-to-know-about-phantom-
vibrations/259638/
Effet de la dopamine (French only)
http://www.info-tabac.ca/bull25/chimie.html
Mobile video:
http://vimeo.com/8118831
Images:
http://www.unsplash.com
Thanks!
Samuel Marchand
Baptiste Macaire
Patrick Williams
Jean-Yves Perrodin
Frédérique Malignon
The Creative Mornings team