Tristan Harris (/trɪsˈtɑːn/) is an American technology ethicist. He is the executive director and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology.
Early in his career, Harris worked as a design ethicist at Google. He received his baccalaureate degree from Stanford University, where he studied computer science.
Harris has appeared in the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. The film features Harris and other former tech employees explaining how the design of social media platforms nurtures addiction to maximize profit and manipulates people's views, emotions, and behavior. The film also examines social media's effect on mental health, particularly of adolescents.
Early life and education
Harris was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He studied computer science at Stanford University while interning at Apple Inc. He then embarked on a master's degree at Stanford with a focus on Human–Computer Interaction, where he took a class from B. J. Fogg, who runs the Persuasive Technology Lab, before dropping out. At Stanford, Harris was classmates with one of Instagram's founders, Kevin Systrom, and helped create a demo app with the other founder, Mike Krieger.