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1)Comparing the tech industry's effects to the tobacco industry is a bad joke. 2)Of course monopolies exist in tech and are bad, but that's the nature of the p
by otalp 9y ago
1)Comparing the tech industry's effects to the tobacco industry is a bad joke.
2)Of course monopolies exist in tech and are bad, but that's the nature of the protectionist state capitalism in the US over the last few decades, and is not restricted to technology alone. Unfortunately corporations have more influence on the working of the government than the people, and we're now into an era of unprecedented corporate mergers and monopolies.
3)"Imagine if instead of claiming to offer us the best things in life, tech merely saw itself as providing efficiency devices. Its innovations can save us time on lower-level tasks so we can get offline and there experience the best things in life."
That's what a lot of companies do. Apple and Microsoft market themselves as selling productivity devices that help you get work done quicker. Jony Ive is on record saying that people use iPhones too much.
It's also not reasonable to sweep in hardware companies like Apple, who don't particularly care how much time you spend using their products as long as you buy them regularly, to facebook, who very much care about how long you spend on their site, since this is inherently linked to their profitability. What are facebook going to do, encourage people to log off so that they can live happy lives while facebook's profits decline? The purpose of a corporation is to maximise profits, you cannot expect companies which compete in the attention economy to compromise on that even if their services are addictive and not useful to the people who use them or productive to society.
If you really think monopolies and corporations like facebook are harming humans without offering any competing benefits, you'd have to question the whole system of corporate capitalism and whether we should allow corporations freedom to function without public influence over their activities.
- confounded 9y ago> ... whether we should allow corporations freedom to function without public influence over their activities. We don’t.
- otalp 9y agoThe vast majority of people support net neutrality. Yet ISPs have supported and successfully lobbied it's repeal. Do people have influence over them? In case of monopolies, or essential monopolies, the public has virtually no influence on what a corporation does.
- wpietri 9y ago> Comparing the tech industry's effects to the tobacco industry is a bad joke Nah. Even people in the industry are starting to wake up to the ethical questions that come with making addictive products. E.g., this thoughtful piece from a game company on why they're abandoning the free-to-play model: http://www.clickerheroes2.com/paytowin.php http://www.clickerheroes2.com/paytowin.php
- otalp 9y agoThere's a huge difference between addiction from games and apps, and actual severe physical addiction from a drug like tobacco that also leads to cancer. I'm not saying app addiction is inconsequential: it is not. But comparing it to something that literally causes cancer is hyperbole.
- bambax 9y agoDepression, suicide and social isolation are real problems; it's not just people wasting time in pointless apps.
- otalp 9y agoAnd these are not caused by apps in isolation; suicide rates today in the US are lower than what they were in the 70s. Young people are the least likeliest groups to commit suicide or have depression. Again, that is not to say that there have never been cases where social media and apps have caused suicides or severe depression. It's just not a significant driver of deaths like illness like tobacco.
- TrickyRick 9y agoAlso poverty. Not claiming that poverty is caused by addictive games but it sure doesn't help to spend money on what is essentially a gambling addiction.
- wpietri 9y agoSure. It's hyperbolic, but it's definitely not a joke. Also, the two aren't as far apart as they seem at first. There are a variety of groups for helping people quit games. [1] I've had friends say it was easier to quit smoking than it was to quite Warcraft. And when doctors say, "sitting is the new smoking", they aren't just whistling dixie. [2] [1] E.g.: https://gamequitters.com/ https://gamequitters.com/ or http://www.olganon.org/ http://www.olganon.org/ or http://cgaa.info/ http://cgaa.info/ [2] http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/11/health/sitting-increases-risk-of-death-study/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/11/health/sitting-increases-risk-...