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Are smart phones destroying our mental health?
(interestingengineering.com)
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this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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It's just a tool. If there is someone who destroys your mental health it's you or sometimes other people.
Heroin is just a painkiller. A slotmachine is just a game. Guns don't kill people. A cigarette is just a plant leaf in a piece of paper.
While all true, there are clear merits to regulate them.
Are smartphones bad? I don't know. But I wouldn't reject the idea on the spot. I don't think it's the device perse, it's how we use them. There are assholes among us.
Exactly.
The libertarian paradise of Somalia has never really appealed to me.
As for smartphones, it's no secret that App designers pull every trick they can to increase engagement a.k.a. addiction.
I can definitely see a future where some of the more sinister tricks have mandatory opt-out or opt-in options.
What does "regulate them" look like? It's not phones doing it. It's the social media apps doing it, as far as phones are concerned.
it's an awfully convenient and accessible tool though.
A knife is convenient and accessible as well true, but it is easy to understand that swinging a knife will hurt yourself and/or others.
While social media doesn't have that, we don't automatically identify social media as dangerous unlike swinging a knife or pointing a gun.
I do understand your point that the user is still responsible in some way, I just think that knowledge of its danger be more widespread.
If you ever read any of the thousands of terms and conditions you agree to when you pick up your phone, you would see that choosing how you use it, is most certainly not up to you.
It's a tool that opens up a lot of dangers (bullying/misinformation/addiction loops created by companies). Oddly, we don't seem to educate kids on how to handle the tool properly.