Style of language
The style of language used by Tristan Harris in his talk “How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day” is a mix of formal and informal. This combination is successful and makes Harris seem knowledgeable, but also approachable.
For example, when it comes to informal features, he uses some elements of spoken language when he talks about teenagers being influenced by Snapchat:
And they have, like, 30 of these things, and so they have to get through taking photos of just pictures or walls or ceilings just to get through their day. So it’s not even like they’re having real conversations. We have a temptation to think about this as, oh, they’re just using, you know, Snapchat the way we used to gossip on the telephone. It’s probably OK. Well, what this misses is… (ll. 39-42)
In this example, phrases like “oh”, “like”, “you know”, and “wel...