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Is "smartphone usage" merely a proxy for "social media usage"? When I got my first smartphone almost two decades ago as a 16yo, I used it mostly to play with t
by seba_dos1 11mo ago
Is "smartphone usage" merely a proxy for "social media usage"?
When I got my first smartphone almost two decades ago as a 16yo, I used it mostly to play with the system, write my own UIs, debug system daemon issues, tinker with bootloaders and ended up contributing to a community distro for it. It was a fun computer in my pocket that taught me a lot and a massive upgrade over earlier phones where I had to use Opera Mini and Bombus via J2ME.
The vast majority of smartphones of today are toys with very little potential to tinker, and even when it's there, the entry barriers are enormous. Compiling Android is a huge undertaking, while as a teenager, I could already launch vim on my phone screen in a tram and hack on a SMS daemon written in Python. It's incomparable, and even if you do start, you quickly encounter hard barriers like device attestation.
These days I'm not immune to social media either, as evidenced by me writing this on my phone right now - but wouldn't these "worse mental health outcomes" be rather connected with social media usage, media consumption in general, intrusive notifications etc. that are commonly associated with but aren't inherently necessary part of smartphone usage? At the same time, my mental health isn't becoming immune to social media damage when I doomscroll on a PC just because I used a bigger screen with a physical keyboard.
- ksynwa 11mo agoIt is and it is an accurate proxy. 99.9% of smartphone users are not doing hackerman stuff on the phone.
- seba_dos1 11mo agoLooking at sibling comments going "it doesn't affect me cause I browse social media on big screen", it seems like using this proxy brings more confusion than good.
- SapporoChris 11mo agoI use my smartphone for primarily for: email, phone calls, text messages, second-factor authentication, calendar, camera and photo viewing. I don't use it for social media.
- hapidjus 11mo agoYou are the 0.01%
- chasing0entropy 11mo agoI am also the .01%
- johnisgood 11mo agoSeems like I am in the 0.01%, too, then! Yay.
- tremon 11mo agoSame, but different. I don't use my smartphone for email, but I do use it for navigation.
- isodev 11mo ago> Is "smartphone usage" merely a proxy for "social media usage"? I think yes, since the App Store and anything involving likes/up-down votes/karma (sorry) and basically any form of reward for posting or consuming content.
- binary132 11mo agoand do you usually doomscroll on your PC or on the nightmare rectangle you carry with you everywhere, even to the bathroom?
- seba_dos1 11mo agoMy PC, of course. Scrolling on the phone happens mostly in bed or in transit. Carrying it to the bathroom is gross :P
- fuzzy_biscuit 11mo agoIt seems like a reasonable proxy, but I would assume that general reduction of smartphone usage improves mental health.