Time On Site

 

We often delude ourselves into believing we have control over the use of our mobile technologies

 

What you do not realize is, behind the screen, there are over a thousand Engineers and Developers whose jobs is to keep you addicted to that screen

 

It’s called Time On Site

 

Time On Site is the currency with which the performance of web and application Platforms – mobile app, app, websites etc are being rated on. It measures how long a visitor stays on the user interface of the site, which further translates into how successful that site interests and involves you, and every other user.

 

Web platforms don’t just want you to cursorily browse through their sites, they want you to spend a great amount of your time resources, not just once, but repeatedly.

 

So, think YouTube, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Snapchat & Twitter.

 

These Tech companies most likely have a Chief Psychology Officer or some social scientists, whose job is to tell Engineers and Developers how to build persuasive algorithms into these platforms. Persuasive algorithms that can alter your habit and behavior.

 

The more you stay glued to a site, the more successful the platform provider is expected to be, in terms of campaign and site visitation to the site. Web analytics calculate this ToS almost accurately.

 

Web analytics do not calculate the period you have a page open but dozed off on your seat. Neither does it consider the time you are downloading a movie file or reading a site content

 

Time on Site record all requests and engagement on the site.

 

You think you’re in control?

Someone somewhere is making a decision that will affect your life.

 

You think you can get rid of your habits?

There are people more intelligent behind the screen whose job is to keep you persuaded and distracted

 

Have you noticed on your Facebook mobile app, that when you click the back button to exit the app – believing you’re done gossiping on family & friends’ pictures and timeline stories – the app doesn’t close, but instead scrolls up to display timelines of other friends you may have missed?

 

Have you noticed that when you’re done watching an episode on Netflix, the next episode shows in a small box and a timer starts to count down – persuading you to stay on watching?

Or a new related movie is suggested, based on your movie choice?

 

Think about how YouTube automatically plays the next music video – trying to persuade you to stay on the app.

 

Think about all the notifications from Twitter, Netflix and Snapchat, you wake up to see on your mobile device, in the morning.

 

These social platforms wake you up in the morning, to divide your daily time resource into time slots, each taking a block of your time, away.

 

Don’t you just love it when these Platforms do exactly what you desire or do things on your behalf that you didn’t even think of?

Yup! Those are deliberate designs and persuasive algorithms built into our technologies

#TimeOnSite is all #Hammjustsaying