How do we measure tech’s impact on happiness?
Earlier this week, the United Nations celebrated the “International Day of Happiness.” The organization recognizes happiness as a “fundamental human goal” and calls for “a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes the happiness and well-being of all peoples.”
I couldn’t agree more – in fact, promoting human happiness and well-being is my North Star and is central to our purpose at Marco Polo. I also believe that we in the technology industry have a responsibility to be thinking deeply about these issues. After all, people spend huge chunks of their days using our products – whether it’s their phones, laptops, web browsers, work chat programs, streaming services, or social media apps.
A recent survey from Deloitte and the American Optometric Association showed that nearly 1 in 3 Americans spend more than seven hours a day looking at screens. A three-year longitudinal study conducted among adolescents found using cell phones to be a predictor of depression as they transition to emerging adulthood. I could keep going, listing statistics about how dependent we are on our devices, and how detrimental that can be. We’ve all heard these numbers.?
The question on my mind is: how do we, as tech leaders, help make time spent on screens good for us, or at least better for us? I encourage us not to wait for the government to force us to treat our customers better. We are best situated to determine how our products can best serve our customers. I urge us to stop focusing only on privacy and security in these conversations, and to expand them to include user happiness and well-being. My hope is that we ask: How do we, specifically, fulfill that mandate articulated by the UN of growing our businesses in a way that’s equitable and good for humanity? How do we know we’re on the right track??
The first step is measuring our products’ impact
I want to share what we do at Marco Polo to hold ourselves accountable when it comes to prioritizing our community’s well-being. For us, this effort is just the start, we’re really hoping to broaden it as we grow.?
For the last four years, we’ve conducted a research study to make sure we continue making a positive difference in our community members’ lives. We check in to see if we are delivering on the purpose of the company, which is to help people feel close.
We ask participants to recruit a partner and track communications with them on Marco Polo every day for two weeks. Here are some specifics from our December 2023 study:?
We also want to know: is Marco Polo improving our members’ happiness?
We ask our participants to check in with themselves to see how they are feeling before using Marco Polo, and after. They report that their mood improves after each time they use the app, and also consistently over the course of the study, suggesting a very clear, continued correlation:?
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We were heartened to see that people’s moods improve with meaningful communication with their loved ones. And I don’t mean here that momentary hit of dopamine or that quick ego boost offered by a superficial interaction. We’re finding sustained, overall satisfaction – a tangible feeling of “this makes me feel better.”??
Our finding is also backed by much larger research. Every year, on the Day of International Happiness, the United Nations releases the results of its own World Happiness Report, a robust, global happiness ranking. Social support, social interactions, and loneliness are all key measures the researchers employ to assess people’s happiness. Last year, the organization set out a 10-year Happiness Agenda. The authors write: “A clear finding of well-being research is the massive role of social connections in promoting well-being.”?
Why am I sharing these results with you??
Colleagues in the tech industry often comment that they don’t know how to tackle the enormity of the issues surrounding tech and well-being. I wanted to share some of our research to show that you can start quite small and that an important step is simply getting started (okay, yes, and because I’m proud!). Our starting point was our articulated purpose, and a desire to hold ourselves accountable. Then it was a matter of defining a metric and finding a relatively simple way of surveying participants, using third party researchers to help keep results as unbiased as possible. As I mentioned, this is just our first step, but we’re very encouraged by the results.?
What can the tech community do
In my last newsletter, I shared what members of our community – and more broadly, users of technology – can do to make sure tech companies are paying attention to the impact they’re having on people’s well-being. This time, I want to hone in on what we, as tech leaders, can do:?
Investors and shareholders can broaden what metrics they ask CEOs to report on. Usually this includes monthly active users (MAUs), user retention, revenues. Let's start designing and including measures of impact on user well-being. I'm not suggesting that we organize our businesses around this metric, I'm asking that we use it as a guardrail to ensure that people who use our products remain our main focus.
Company leadership can measure the impact of their products on people’s well-being, even if nobody is asking them to do so. It feels good to take steps that safeguard the wellbeing of people who use our products. In fact, we can do more to understand our products’ impact. Wouldn’t it be great, for instance, if Alphabet (Google) assessed on a regular basis (and shared publicly) if they are living up to their promise of “doing the right thing” (formerly “don’t be evil”)??
Our primary focus, as tech leaders, cannot only be ever increasing profits. It's important that we consider the cost of having a culture where, with every quarter and every year, there is a demand for greater profit at the expense of societal health. The two are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, I believe that the long term health and profitability of our businesses requires the continued well-being of our customers.?
Please share in comments your ideas about what else we can do to advance a movement around technology that is good for you!
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Great points on the role of tech leaders in fostering happiness and well-being! It’s inspiring to see discussions like this that highlight the positive impact we can have on people’s lives. What initiatives do you think would be most effective in making a difference?