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Former Google/Facebook/Mozilla Employees Will Fight Addictive Technologies (qz.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Quartz:
A new alliance made up of former Silicon Valley cronies has aseembled to challenge the technological Frankenstein they've collectively created. The Center for Humane Technology is a group comprising former employees and pals of Google, Facebook, and Mozilla. The nonprofit launches today (Feb. 4) in the hopes that it can raise awareness about the societal tolls of technology, which its members believe are inherently addictive. The group will lobby for a bill to research the effects of technology on children's health... On Feb. 7, the group's members will participate in a conference focused on digital health for kids, hosted by the nonprofit Common Sense.
The group also plans an anti-tech addiction ad campaign at 55,000 schools across America, and has another $50 million in media airtime donated by partners which include Comcast and DirecTV.
The group's co-founder, a former Google design ethicist, told Quartz that tech companies "profit by drilling into our brains to pull the attention out of it, by using persuasion techniques to keep [us] hooked." And the group's web page argues that "What began as a race to monetize our attention is now eroding the pillars of our society: mental health, democracy, social relationships, and our children."
The group also plans an anti-tech addiction ad campaign at 55,000 schools across America, and has another $50 million in media airtime donated by partners which include Comcast and DirecTV.
The group's co-founder, a former Google design ethicist, told Quartz that tech companies "profit by drilling into our brains to pull the attention out of it, by using persuasion techniques to keep [us] hooked." And the group's web page argues that "What began as a race to monetize our attention is now eroding the pillars of our society: mental health, democracy, social relationships, and our children."
the Google + team how they made their product so non-addictive.
It's like with the banks. You've got these talented and nerdy characters that first work for a big bank, ripping off people in legal ways, and then when they've made a lot of money they purify themselves by going to work for an organisation which monitors the banking system. I don't know if I should condemn them, they're not less moral than other people, but they're certainly no moral guides.
A fucking what? Is that what people do when they fail the exam to be UX facilitator?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Remember Douglas Engelbart? Apart from the famous "mother of all demos" there was his philosophy which loosely says that technology should help boost IQ not subvert or replace it, as has largely happened.
Having an option to do something, in this case something very trivial like posting in Facebook, does not make that something addictive.
It's trivial to get up and walk away from a card game, and yet thousands of addicts are sitting in Las Vegas right now unable to do just that.
And if this is a "trivial" problem in society, then it should be trivially easy to tell a social media junkie to quit cold turkey. Try that on a handful of your adult friends or their teenage children and see how that works out.
Bill Maher asks an interesting question here on ethics, and I don't think it was properly answered. How can you even be ethical when what you're doing is manipulating people?
Is it unethical to manipulate people away from eating laundry detergent pods?
How about encouraging good parenting?
I'm going to go way out on a limb here and suggest that good parenting requires good parents. Does this mean we should prevent people from having kids if they are unable to demonstrate that they would be good parents? Try getting elected on that platform and see how far you get.
They get to decide for themselves, addiction, fetish, whatever's in their minds and rights to want, so long as they aren't directly harming another person by their choices, or violating anyone else's freedom, I'm ok with.
It's pretty damn obvious for the family who lost a loved one due to an addict who couldn't put the phone down and drive that this IS directly harming others. The freedom to live a long and joyful life was taken in that scenario, and it's a scenario that seems to be playing out more and more these days. Addiction affects ones ability to make rational and safe decisions, which quite often creates innocent victims.
I no longer fear the drunk driver on the road. I fear the distracted social media junkie, because there's a shitload more of those addicts on the road, and driving a car is something that the overwhelming majority of us have to do on a daily basis. It's likely the most dangerous activity you do on a regular basis in your life, and 40,000 people in the US lose their life every year doing it.