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It is wholly interesting that such a tool is needed. We need a new generation motivated by self-control and at an early age be critical of how technology trigge

It is wholly interesting that such a tool is needed. We need a new generation motivated by self-control and at an early age be critical of how technology triggers dopamine responses. I would be interested in seeing clinical classification of app addictions as a real health issue that deserves treatment. The real answer is to put down the phone. We (in this industry) are all complicit in the creation and promulgation of this problem.

542354234235 3y ago
I would disagree. I don’t think it is on people to just be more “motivated by self-control”. I think it is an industry making a highly addictive product that needs to be properly regulated. Similar to regulating the tobacco industry in how much nicotine could be in cigarettes, the marketing to children, the restriction of the most addictive flavors, etc. The answer cannot just be “to put down the phone” the same as it wasn’t/isn’t just to put down the cigarette. I think that digital devices/apps/etc. need left and right limits on addictive mechanisms like variable reinforcement schedules. Or maybe it is too late for that and the genie is out of the bottle. Maybe it is impossible to regulate, and big data and deep learning will allow apps to exploit deeper and deeper psychological mechanisms in our minds to highjack our attention until it is impossible to break out of it. The digital equivalent of fentanyl in a world were we evolved to handle opium poppy plants.
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jahewson 3y ago
Why build an app when you can just replace humanity with something different and not reflective of actual humans?
diehunde 3y ago
Wouldn't it be easier not to give kids phones or tables until they are a certain age? I feel like the only reason my friends and I aren't addicted to apps is because we didn't grow up having a smartphone available all day. I got my first smartphone when I was about 20, so I never developed the compulsion of having it around me all the time

542354234235 3y ago

I would disagree. I don’t think it is on people to just be more “motivated by self-control”. I think it is an industry making a highly addictive product that needs to be properly regulated. Similar to regulating the tobacco industry in how much nicotine could be in cigarettes, the marketing to children, the restriction of the most addictive flavors, etc. The answer cannot just be “to put down the phone” the same as it wasn’t/isn’t just to put down the cigarette. I think that digital devices/apps/etc. need left and right limits on addictive mechanisms like variable reinforcement schedules. Or maybe it is too late for that and the genie is out of the bottle. Maybe it is impossible to regulate, and big data and deep learning will allow apps to exploit deeper and deeper psychological mechanisms in our minds to highjack our attention until it is impossible to break out of it. The digital equivalent of fentanyl in a world were we evolved to handle opium poppy plants.

deleted 3y ago
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jahewson 3y ago

Why build an app when you can just replace humanity with something different and not reflective of actual humans?

diehunde 3y ago

Wouldn't it be easier not to give kids phones or tables until they are a certain age? I feel like the only reason my friends and I aren't addicted to apps is because we didn't grow up having a smartphone available all day. I got my first smartphone when I was about 20, so I never developed the compulsion of having it around me all the time