Why our screens make us less happy | Adam Alter

Translator: Rahadiani Prasetianti Reviewer: Reno Kanti Riananda

Beberapa tahun lalu aku mendengar gosip menarik.

Konon, pimpinan perusahaan makanan hewan piaraan

pergi ke pertemuan tahunan pemegang saham

So, a few years ago I heard an interesting rumor.

dengan sekaleng makanan hewan.

Ia lalu memakan makanan anjing tersebut.

Apparently, the head of a large pet food company

Ini caranya meyakinkan orang,

jika produk itu baik untuknya, begitu juga untuk peliharaan mereka.

would go into the annual shareholder's meeting

with can of dog food.

Strategi ini sekarang dikenal sebagai ”makanan anjing”,

And he would eat the can of dog food.

dan ini strategi umum di dunia bisnis.

And this was his way of convincing them that if it was good enough for him,

Tak berarti semua orang mau memakan makanan anjing,

it was good enough for their pets.

tetapi para pebisnis akan memakai produk mereka

This strategy is now known as "dogfooding,"

untuk menunjukkan bahwa

and it's a common strategy in the business world.

mereka yakin akan produk mereka.

It doesn't mean everyone goes in and eats dog food,

Ini adalah praktik yang umum dilakukan,

tetapi menariknya, ada pengecualian dari praktik ini.

but businesspeople will use their own products

to demonstrate that they feel --

Saat Anda menemukan pelaku bisnis yang tidak memakai produknya sendiri.

that they're confident in them.

Now, this is a widespread practice,

Ternyata, ada satu industri di mana hal ini lazim,

but I think what's really interesting is when you find exceptions

dan umum terjadi,

to this rule,

when you find cases of businesses or people in businesses

yaitu industri teknologi berbasis-layar.

who don't use their own products.

Pada tahun 2010, ketika Steve Jobs merilis iPad,

Turns out there's one industry where this happens in a common way,

in a pretty regular way,

ia memaparkan iPad sebagai gawai yang “luar biasa.”

and that is the screen-based tech industry.

“Pengalaman menjelajah dunia maya terbaik;

So, in 2010, Steve Jobs, when he was releasing the iPad,

lebih baik dari laptop, lebih baik dari ponsel pintar.

described the iPad as a device that was "extraordinary."

Pengalaman yang istimewa.”

Beberapa bulan kemudian, seorang wartawan dari New York Times mendekatinya,

"The best browsing experience you've ever had;

way better than a laptop, way better than a smartphone.

dan mereka berbincang lama di telepon.

Di akhir pembicaraan,

It's an incredible experience."

wartawan itu melempar pertanyaan ringan.

A couple of months later, he was approached by a journalist

Ia berkata, “Anak-anakmu pasti suka iPad.”

from the New York Times,

and they had a long phone call.

At the end of the call,

Tentu jawabannya sudah jelas,

the journalist threw in a question that seemed like a sort of softball.

tetapi ucapan Jobs mengagetkan sang wartawan.

Ia terkejut,

He said to him, "Your kids must love the iPad."

karena Jobs menjawab, “Mereka belum memakainya.

There's an obvious answer to this,

Di rumah, kami membatasi penggunaan gawai oleh anak kami.”

but what Jobs said really staggered the journalist.

Ini adalah hal biasa terjadi di dunia teknologi.

He was very surprised,

because he said, "They haven't used it.

Faktanya, terdapat sekolah di dekat Silicon Valley

We limit how much technology our kids use at home."

bernama Waldorf School of the Peninsula,

This is a very common thing in the tech world.

dan mereka tak memperkenalkan gawai hingga kelas delapan.

In fact, there's a school quite near Silicon Valley

Yang menarik dari sekolah ini

adalah 75% siswa di sana

called the Waldorf School of the Peninsula,

adalah anak dari para eksekutif tingkat atas Silicon Valley.

and they don't introduce screens until the eighth grade.

Ketika mengetahuinya, kupikir hal ini menarik dan mengejutkan,

What's really interesting about the school

is that 75 percent of the kids who go there

dan mendorongku untuk menimbang apa pengaruh gawai untukku

have parents who are high-level Silicon Valley tech execs.

dan pada keluarga serta orang tercinta,

So when I heard about this, I thought it was interesting and surprising,

dan pada masyarakat luas.

Maka, lima tahun terakhir ini,

and it pushed me to consider what screens were doing to me

sebagai profesor bisnis dan psikologi,

aku mempelajari efek gawai pada hidup kita.

and to my family and the people I loved,

and to people at large.

Aku mulai dengan fokus pada berapa banyak waktu tersita dari kita,

So for the last five years,

as a professor of business and psychology,

lalu kita bisa bicara tentang bagaimana wujudnya.

I've been studying the effect of screens on our lives.

Berikut ini adalah gambaran umum 24 jam di hari kerja

And I want to start by just focusing on how much time they take from us,

pada tiga era dalam sejarah:

and then we can talk about what that time looks like.

2007 -- 10 tahun lalu --

2015

What I'm showing you here is the average 24-hour workday

lalu data yang baru terkumpul minggu lalu.

at three different points in history:

Kebanyakan hal belum terlalu banyak berubah.

2007 -- 10 years ago --

2015

Kita tidur tujuh-setengah hingga delapan jam per hari;

and then data that I collected, actually, only last week.

sebagian bilang jam tidurnya sedikit berkurang, tapi tak banyak.

And a lot of things haven't changed

all that much.

Kita bekerja delapan-setengah hingga sembilan jam sehari.

We sleep roughly seven-and-a-half to eight hours a day;

Kita berusaha bertahan hidup --

some people say that's declined slightly, but it hasn't changed much.

kegiatan seperti makan, mandi, dan mengurus anak --

We work eight-and-a-half to nine hours a day.

sekitar tiga jam sehari.

Yang tersisa bagian putih ini.

Itulah waktu pribadi kita.

We engage in survival activities --

Waktu pribadi sangat penting bagi kita.

these are things like eating and bathing and looking after kids --

Itu adalah waktu kita melakukan hal yang membentuk pribadi.

about three hours a day.

That leaves this white space.

Waktu untuk mengerjakan hobi, menjalin hubungan dekat,

That's our personal time.

That space is incredibly important to us.

waktu untuk merenungi hidup, waktu untuk berkreasi,

That's the space where we do things that make us individuals.

di mana kita menengok ke belakang,

lalu memikirkan makna hidup kita.

That's where hobbies happen, where we have close relationships,

Kita juga mendapatnya dari pekerjaan,

where we really think about our lives, where we get creative,

tapi ketika orang melihat hidup mereka

dan berpikir tentang hidup yang dijalani

where we zoom back and try to work out

whether our lives have been meaningful.

di akhir hayat mereka,

Anda lihat kalimat terakhir mereka,

We get some of that from work as well,

mereka bicara tentang momen di kotak putih pribadi.

but when people look back on their lives

and wonder what their lives have been like

Jadi, itu sakral, itu penting bagi kita.

at the end of their lives,

you look at the last things they say --

Sekarang, saya ingin memperlihatkan

they are talking about those moments that happen in that white personal space.

berapa banyak waktu yang tersita oleh gawai sepanjang sejarah.

Pada 2007,

So it's sacred; it's important to us.

sebanyak ini.

Ini tahun di mana Apple pertama kali memperkenalkan iPhone.

Now, what I'm going to do is show you

how much of that space is taken up by screens across time.

Delapan tahun kemudian,

sebanyak ini.

In 2007,

Sekarang, sebanyak ini.

this much.

That was the year that Apple introduced the first iPhone.

Sebanyak itulah waktu kosong kita dihabiskan di depan layar.

Eight years later,

Area kuning tipis ini adalah tempat keajaiban terjadi.

this much.

Now, this much.

Di sini letak kemanusiawian kita.

That's how much time we spend of that free time in front of our screens.

Kini ia di dalam kotak yang sempit.

Apa yang harus kita lakukan?

This yellow area, this thin sliver, is where the magic happens.

Pertanyaan pertama adalah:

Terlihat seperti apa area merah itu?

That's where your humanity lives.

Tentu, gawai memang suatu keajaiban

And right now, it's in a very small box.

dalam banyak hal.

So what do we do about this?

Aku tinggal di New York,

Well, the first question is:

sebagian keluargaku tinggal di Australia,

What does that red space look like?

dan anakku berusia setahun.

Now, of course, screens are miraculous

Aku bisa memperkenalkan anakku pada mereka melalui gawai.

in a lot of ways.

I live in New York,

15 atau 20 tahun lalu, hal seperti ini

a lot of my family lives in Australia,

and I have a one-year-old son.

tak mungkin terjadi.

Maka, gawai memiliki banyak hal positif.

The way I've been able to introduce them to him is with screens.

Kita bisa bertanya pada diri sendiri:

Apa yang terjadi pada waktu itu?

I couldn't have done that 15 or 20 years ago

Seberapa berfaedah aplikasi yang kita gunakan?

in quite the same way.

So there's a lot of good that comes from them.

Beberapa memang berfaedah.

One thing you can do is ask yourself:

Jika Anda bertanya pada penggunanya,

What goes on during that time?

“Apa yang Anda rasakan sekarang,”

How enriching are the apps that we're using?

mereka berkata mereka puas dengan aplikasi ini --

aplikasi yang berfokus pada relaksasi, olahraga, cuaca, bacaan,

And some are enriching.

If you stop people while they're using them and say,

"Tell us how you feel right now,"

pendidikan dan kesehatan.

Rata-rata mereka memakai 9 menit per hari untuk aplikasi di atas.

they say they feel pretty good about these apps --

those that focus on relaxation, exercise, weather, reading,

Aplikasi tersebut membuat mereka kurang bahagia.

Ketika Anda tiba-tiba bertanya pada sebagian orang, “Bagaimana perasaanmu?”

education and health.

They spend an average of nine minutes a day on each of these.

mereka berkata tak nyaman memakainya.

These apps make them much less happy.

Hal yang menarik seperti ini --

About half the people, when you interrupt them and say, "How do you feel?"

kencan, jejaring sosial, gim,

hiburan, berita, jelajah web --

say they don't feel good about using them.

mereka memakai 27 menit per hari untuk aplikasi ini.

What's interesting about these --

Kita menghabiskan waktu 3 kali lebih lama untuk aplikasi yang tak membahagiakan.

dating, social networking, gaming,

entertainment, news, web browsing --

Terlihat kurang bijak, bukan?

people spend 27 minutes a day on each of these.

Salah satu alasan kita membuang waktu untuk aplikasi

We're spending three times longer on the apps that don't make us happy.

yang tak membahagiakan

ialah tiadanya isyarat berhenti.

Isyarat berhenti ada di mana-mana di abad ke-20.

That doesn't seem very wise.

One of the reasons we spend so much time on these apps

Tersemat pada apapun yang kita lakukan.

Isyarat berhenti adalah sinyal bahwa inilah waktu untuk beranjak,

that make us unhappy

is they rob us of stopping cues.

melakukan sesuatu yang baru dan berbeda.

Stopping cues were everywhere in the 20th century.

They were baked into everything we did.

Dan -- pikirkan sebuah koran; suatu saat akan berakhir,

A stopping cue is basically a signal that it's time to move on,

Anda melipat koran, menyisihkannya.

to do something new, to do something different.

Hal yang sama pada majalah dan buku, Anda akan tiba di akhir bab,

And -- think about newspapers; eventually you get to the end,

membuat Anda mempertimbangkan untuk melanjutkannya.

you fold the newspaper away, you put it aside.

Anda menonton acara TV yang suatu saat akan berakhir,

The same with magazines, books -- you get to the end of a chapter,

dan menunggu seminggu untuk episode selanjutnya.

prompts you to consider whether you want to continue.

Isyarat berhenti ada di mana-mana.

Namun, tak ada isyarat berhenti saat kita mengonsumsi media saat ini.

You watched a show on TV, eventually the show would end,

and then you'd have a week until the next one came.

Berita mengalir tanpa henti,

There were stopping cues everywhere.

dan segalanya tak berujung: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,

But the way we consume media today is such that there are no stopping cues.

surel, pesan singkat, berita.

The news feed just rolls on,

Ketika Anda mengecek sumber lain,

and everything's bottomless: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,

Anda akan terus melanjutkannya, lagi dan lagi.

email, text messaging, the news.

Mencontoh dari Eropa Barat, kita bisa tahu apa yang harus dilakukan,

And when you do check all sorts of other sources,

mereka memiliki beberapa ide di tempat kerja yang menarik.

you can just keep going on and on and on.

So, we can get a cue about what to do from Western Europe,

Inilah contohnya. Sebuah studio desain Belanda.

Ini yang mereka lakukan, mengaitkan meja ke plafon

where they seem to have a number of pretty good ideas in the workplace.

Setiap jam 6 sore,

tak peduli sedang apa atau siapa yang Anda kirimi surel,

Here's one example. This is a Dutch design firm.

meja akan terangkat ke plafon.

And what they've done is rigged the desks to the ceiling.

(Tertawa)

(Tepuk tangan)

Empat hari dalam seminggu, ruangan ini menjadi studio yoga,

And at 6pm every day,

it doesn't matter who you're emailing or what you're doing,

the desks rise to the ceiling.

seminggu sekali, menjadi klub dansa.

(Laughter)

Terserah Anda mau mengikuti yang mana.

(Applause)

Four days a week, the space turns into a yoga studio,

Inilah isyarat berhenti yang baik,

karena saat jam kerja berakhir,

semua berhenti, tak mungkin terus bekerja.

one day a week, into a dance club.

It's really up to you which ones you stick around for.

Daimler, perusahaan otomotif Jerman, memiliki strategi lain yang baik.

But this is a great stopping rule,

Saat Anda mengambil cuti,

because it means at the end of the day,

alih-alih berkata, “Karyawan ini sedang cuti,

everything stops, there's no way to work.

kami akan menghubungi Anda kembali,”

At Daimler, the German car company, they've got another great strategy.

mereka berkata, “Karyawan ini sedang cuti, surel Anda akan terhapus.

When you go on vacation,

Yang bersangkutan tak akan membaca surel Anda.”

instead of saying, "This person's on vacation,

(Tertawa)

they'll get back to you eventually,"

“Anda dapat mengirim surel beberapa minggu lagi,

they say, "This person's on vacation, so we've deleted your email.

atau hubungilah orang lain.”

This person will never see the email you just sent."

(Tertawa)

Maka --

(Tepuk tangan)

(Laughter)

"You can email back in a couple of weeks,

or you can email someone else."

Dapat Anda bayangkan seperti apa.

(Laughter)

And so --

Anda mengambil cuti, dan benar-benar berlibur.

(Applause)

Para karyawan perusahaan ini merasa bahwa

mereka mendapat rehat dari pekerjaan.

You can imagine what that's like.

Tentu saja, itu belum memberi tahu yang harus kita lakukan di rumah,

You go on vacation, and you're actually on vacation.

The people who work at this company feel

maka aku ingin memberi saran.

that they actually get a break from work.

Mudah untuk berkata, aku tak memakai ponsel jam 5-6 sore.

But of course, that doesn't tell us much

about what we should do at home in our own lives,

Masalahnya, kondisi jam 5-6 sore akan berbeda setiap harinya.

so I want to make some suggestions.

Kupikir lebih tepat bila berkata,

It's easy to say, between 5 and 6pm, I'm going to not use my phone.

kukerjakan hal tertentu tiap hari,

ada beberapa hal yang terjadi tiap hari,

The problem is, 5 and 6pm looks different on different days.

seperti makan malam.

Kadang seorang diri,

I think a far better strategy is to say,

kadang bersama orang lain,

I do certain things every day,

kadang di restoran,

there are certain occasions that happen every day,

kadang di rumah,

namun ada satu aturan: aku tidak akan menggunakan ponsel di meja makan.

like eating dinner.

Sometimes I'll be alone,

sometimes with other people,

Aku letakkan jauh-jauh,

sometimes in a restaurant,

sejauh mungkin.

sometimes at home,

Karena kita sulit menolak godaan.

but the rule that I've adopted is: I will never use my phone at the table.

Ketika Anda punya tanda berhenti, setiap waktu makan malam,

It's far away,

Anda jauhkan ponsel,

as far away as possible.

Anda sekaligus menghindari godaan.

Because we're really bad at resisting temptation.

Awalnya terasa sulit.

Saya takut ketinggalan tren.

But when you have a stopping cue that, every time dinner begins,

(Tertawa)

Saya kesulitan.

my phone goes far away,

Namun, Anda jadi makin terbiasa.

you avoid temptation all together.

Anda mengatasi ketagihan, seperti mengatasi kecanduan narkoba,

At first, it hurts.

I had massive FOMO.

dan akibatnya, hidup jadi makin berwarna, makin kaya,

(Laughter)

I struggled.

makin menarik --

But what happens is, you get used to it.

Perbincangan jadi lebih menarik.

You overcome the withdrawal the same way you would from a drug,

Anda benar-benar terhubung dengan orang sekitar Anda.

and what happens is, life becomes more colorful, richer,

Kupikir itu strategi fantastis,

kita tahu itu berhasil, karena jika dilakukan --

more interesting --

you have better conversations.

dan aku menelusuri orang-orang yang mencobanya --

You really connect with the people who are there with you.

hal ini akan meluas.

I think it's a fantastic strategy,

Mereka merasa puas,

and we know it works, because when people do this --

ini adalah hal pertama yang mereka lakukan di pagi hari.

and I've tracked a lot of people who have tried this --

Mereka mulai memakai mode non-aktif di akhir pekan.

it expands.

They feel so good about it,

Kamera ponsel tetap terpakai, tapi kegunaan lain ponsel tak berfungsi.

they start doing it for the first hour of the day in the morning.

Ini adalah ide luar biasa,

They start putting their phones on airplane mode on the weekend.

dan kita tahu mereka merasa hidupnya lebih baik saat melakukannya.

That way, your phone remains a camera, but it's no longer a phone.

Jadi, apa kesimpulannya?

Aku pernah berkata, gawai memang menakjubkan;

It's a really powerful idea,

and we know people feel much better about their lives when they do this.

dan kupikir itu benar.

Namun, cara kita menggunakan gawai seperti mengemudi di jalan tol

So what's the take home here?

Screens are miraculous; I've already said that,

dan akselerator ditekan sampai mentok,

and I feel that it's true.

akan sulit untuk menginjak rem.

But the way we use them is a lot like driving down a really fast, long road,

Anda punya pilihan.

and you're in a car where the accelerator is mashed to the floor,

Anda dapat melintas melewati panorama laut yang indah

it's kind of hard to reach the brake pedal.

dan mengambil foto dari jendela -- hal yang mudah dilakukan --

You've got a choice.

atau Anda bisa melakukan usaha ekstra, menggerakkan mobil ke pinggir jalan,

You can either glide by, past, say, the beautiful ocean scenes

menginjak rem,

and take snaps out the window -- that's the easy thing to do --

keluar dari mobil,

melepas kaus kaki dan sepatu,

or you can go out of your way to move the car to the side of the road,

melangkah di atas pasir,

merasakan sensasi pasir di kaki Anda,

to push that brake pedal,

to get out,

berjalan ke lautan,

take off your shoes and socks,

dan membiarkan ombak membasuh kaki.

take a couple of steps onto the sand,

Hidup Anda akan lebih kaya dan bermakna

feel what the sand feels like under your feet,

karena Anda meresapi pengalaman itu,

walk to the ocean,

dan karena Anda meninggalkan ponsel di mobil.

and let the ocean lap at your ankles.

Terima kasih.

Your life will be richer and more meaningful

(Tepuk tangan)

because you breathe in that experience,

and because you've left your phone in the car.

Thank you.

(Applause)