3 ms·

>There are a few studies that show such functionality can have a negative effect on mental health, and as a result, Google is now turning them off by default on

>There are a few studies that show such functionality can have a negative effect on mental health, and as a result, Google is now turning them off by default on its own phones Google has all kinds of activity tracking enabled by default on Android phones. I wonder what impact that has on mental health.

Jarwain 6y ago
Unless you're someone who gets really anxious/paranoid about being tracked by a BigCo, I can't imagine it making an outsized impact. The weirdest thing might be how that activity tracking is used to try and sell stuff to you, and sometimes that advertising is pretty compelling as a result. But I'm not sure how that compares to the more active influence of "influences" and social media across the larger population.
- searchableguy 6y ago
  > Unless you're someone who gets really anxious/paranoid about being tracked by a BigCo, I can't imagine it making an outsized impact. I can't say anything with absolute numbers but subreddits such as privacy, privacytools, degoogle, minimalism, and alike places have seen massive growth in recent years and I regularly find people (especially teenagers) who are severely affected by this. So I wonder how long will it take google or any other tech companies to take an opt in approach to tracking.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  The problem with advertising overlaps wkth the problem with social media -- harming people's self-image to pressure them into "retail therapy".
- astrobe_ 6y ago
  When you know you are being watched, your behavior changes, for better or worse [1] [2]. But it's true it is a bit different for BigCo. Not only they watch, they also have an active role by modifying what you see - e.g. the ads and news they display [3]. Does this qualify as "outsized impact" or do you want moar? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect [2] https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2017/01/the-watchers https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2017/01/the-watchers |3] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/02/facebook-sorry-secret-psychological-experiment-users https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/02/facebook-...
  - Camillo 6y ago
    > Descriptions of the well-known and remarkable effect, which was discovered in the context of research conducted at the Hawthorne Western Electric plant, turned out to be fictional. > Workers experienced a series of lighting changes in which productivity was said to increase with almost any change in the lighting. This turned out not to be true. > ...a series of changes in work structure were implemented (e.g., changes in rest periods) in a group of five women. But this was a methodologically poor, uncontrolled study that did not permit any firm conclusions to be drawn.[4] > This interpretation was dubbed "the Hawthorne effect," although the data does not support that view. I guess that's par for the course.
    - astrobe_ 6y ago
      The original study was indeed subpar, but follow-up research research confirms the intuition that you are not the same when you know someone (something?) is watching you, as the "See Also" section demonstrates.

Jarwain 6y ago

Unless you're someone who gets really anxious/paranoid about being tracked by a BigCo, I can't imagine it making an outsized impact. The weirdest thing might be how that activity tracking is used to try and sell stuff to you, and sometimes that advertising is pretty compelling as a result. But I'm not sure how that compares to the more active influence of "influences" and social media across the larger population.

searchableguy 6y ago
> Unless you're someone who gets really anxious/paranoid about being tracked by a BigCo, I can't imagine it making an outsized impact. I can't say anything with absolute numbers but subreddits such as privacy, privacytools, degoogle, minimalism, and alike places have seen massive growth in recent years and I regularly find people (especially teenagers) who are severely affected by this. So I wonder how long will it take google or any other tech companies to take an opt in approach to tracking.
srtjstjsj 6y ago
The problem with advertising overlaps wkth the problem with social media -- harming people's self-image to pressure them into "retail therapy".
astrobe_ 6y ago
When you know you are being watched, your behavior changes, for better or worse [1] [2]. But it's true it is a bit different for BigCo. Not only they watch, they also have an active role by modifying what you see - e.g. the ads and news they display [3]. Does this qualify as "outsized impact" or do you want moar? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect [2] https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2017/01/the-watchers https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2017/01/the-watchers |3] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/02/facebook-sorry-secret-psychological-experiment-users https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/02/facebook-...
- Camillo 6y ago
  > Descriptions of the well-known and remarkable effect, which was discovered in the context of research conducted at the Hawthorne Western Electric plant, turned out to be fictional. > Workers experienced a series of lighting changes in which productivity was said to increase with almost any change in the lighting. This turned out not to be true. > ...a series of changes in work structure were implemented (e.g., changes in rest periods) in a group of five women. But this was a methodologically poor, uncontrolled study that did not permit any firm conclusions to be drawn.[4] > This interpretation was dubbed "the Hawthorne effect," although the data does not support that view. I guess that's par for the course.
  - astrobe_ 6y ago
    The original study was indeed subpar, but follow-up research research confirms the intuition that you are not the same when you know someone (something?) is watching you, as the "See Also" section demonstrates.