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'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

theguardian.com

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Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#241

Post by rangibaby »

ironic_ali wrote: post #237
archiepeach wrote: post #228

As noted multiple times in the article, the unethical design we’re seeing in popular apps and services today is largely a result of the widespread use of advertising as a revenue model. This is an appropriate time to show appreciation and support for the companies who are trying to demonstrate successful revenue models which are NOT based on advertising: Medium - the replacement of “Recommends” with “Claps” was to al…

After 18 years as a (mainly contract) BA with some PM work on govt and big Corp business and/or software solution contracts, I'd had enough and did a diploma in enology and viticulture (wine making and growing). In one of my first assignments I referenced Wikipedia on malolactic fermentation and sent it in for marking. The lecturer gave me a b+ and went on to berate me for using Wikipedia as a source that was not to…

Sorry but in “serious” writing you should never cite Wikipedia. Check and cite the original sources instead; every claim on Wikipedia should have a corresponding source per their no original research policy.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#242

Post by deepGem »

amazingman wrote: post #172
deepGem wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the program controls the users, and the developer controls the program, then the program is an instrument of unjust power. I'd modify this statement as the program can potentially be an instrument of unjust power. I like to believe that the opposite of this will most likely occur. What if such a program manipulates people's minds towards the good, what if it can turn terrorists against terrorism. Whenever we think…

I think you’re fundamentally failing to interact with the scale of the problems arising from the attention economy, basically handwaving with the word “just”. Even if I were to grant—though I don’t—your claim that addiction isn’t necessarily bad, it wouldn’t follow that it’s perfectly fine for businesses to boundlessly seek more effective ways to capture more human attention more of the time. ”Just” run the simulatio…

True, but I don't think social media addiction is as bad as addiction to tobacco, heroin etc.I will look into specific data points about the points that you have raised.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#243

Post by Chathamization »

archiepeach wrote: post #228

As noted multiple times in the article, the unethical design we’re seeing in popular apps and services today is largely a result of the widespread use of advertising as a revenue model. This is an appropriate time to show appreciation and support for the companies who are trying to demonstrate successful revenue models which are NOT based on advertising: Medium - the replacement of “Recommends” with “Claps” was to al…

Though I have my issues with it, I'd put Meetup[1] on there. Since it's relying on fees and not advertisements, it's more focused on using the internet to get people to meet in real life and not on getting people to avoid real life to spend more time on the site.

That's the type of stuff smartphones and the web should be used for - supplements that make us have a richer real life, not addictive junk food that competes with reality.

[1] https://www.meetup.com/

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#244

Post by hk__2 »

barrkel wrote: post #239
archiepeach wrote: post #228

As noted multiple times in the article, the unethical design we’re seeing in popular apps and services today is largely a result of the widespread use of advertising as a revenue model. This is an appropriate time to show appreciation and support for the companies who are trying to demonstrate successful revenue models which are NOT based on advertising: Medium - the replacement of “Recommends” with “Claps” was to al…

I somewhat agree with your examples, except Wikipedia. It has no business being much more than a server farm and software tweaker. That's not something that needs large ongoing investment by many people. http://wikipediocracy.com/2014/09/21/wikipedia-keeping-it-fr...

> It has no business being much more than a server farm and software tweaker

Isn’t that true for literally all Web-based businesses? Is Twitter "much more than a server farm and software tweaker"?

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#245

Post by hk__2 »

[deleted] wrote: post #175
hodgesrm wrote: post #144

I don't buy the idea that smartphones are extinguishing the life of the mind. Sure, smartphones provide access to almost unlimited trash. But they also provide access to Wikipedia, perhaps the most successful encyclopedia ever developed by humans. They can show you newspapers from across the planet. They let you read Latin histories of the Norman conquest of Southern Italy in the middle ages. [0] C'mon folks, this is…

[deleted]

There’s no evidence Einstein ever said that: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/02/know-where-to-find/

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#246

Post by Cenk »

rangibaby wrote: post #241
ironic_ali wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 18 years as a (mainly contract) BA with some PM work on govt and big Corp business and/or software solution contracts, I'd had enough and did a diploma in enology and viticulture (wine making and growing). In one of my first assignments I referenced Wikipedia on malolactic fermentation and sent it in for marking. The lecturer gave me a b+ and went on to berate me for using Wikipedia as a source that was not to…

Sorry but in “serious” writing you should never cite Wikipedia. Check and cite the original sources instead; every claim on Wikipedia should have a corresponding source per their no original research policy.

Exactly. You wouldn't cite a different Encyclopedia either.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#247

Post by FeepingCreature »

MrQuincle wrote: post #171
alansammarone wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think all of these are a problem per se. The problem is (and probably always was) people with empty minds. Sure, now they can fill it more easily with junk, but the whole point of technology is to make life easier after all. If you're learning or working on something you love and you want to have more time to do, its a perfectly reasonable choice to outsource "what I'm I going to eat next" or "how do you I ge…

In my opinion you are conflating two roles for technology. I quote from the article itself: "Finally, Eyal confided the lengths he goes to protect his own family. He has installed in his house an outlet timer connected to a router that cuts off access to the internet at a set time every day. “The idea is to remember that we are not powerless,” he said. “We are in control.”" In an admittedly handwaving manner, there i…

So instead of the internet being in control, he's in control. I'm not sure this is an improvement.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#248

Post by FeepingCreature »

Chathamization wrote: post #240
TeMPOraL wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're going to be totally honest, then first, let's call social media primarily talking to your friends and family . Which is one of the most deeply and fundamentally human things you can do. And it is also critical to doing anything together with other people. The Internet has lifted constraints of time and geography from communication - which is why you see people on IM in situations where, without the phone, th…

> If we're going to be totally honest, then first, let's call social media primarily talking to your friends and family. Which is one of the most deeply and fundamentally human things you can do. I disagree. Pre-social media, people would talk with friends and family using e-mail and programs like AIM, and there would actually be deep and meaningful conversations. This has been supplanted by social media, which is of…

> I disagree. Pre-social media, people would talk with friends and family using e-mail and programs like AIM, and there would actually be deep and meaningful conversations.

This seems hilariously false.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#250

Post by [deleted] »

hodgesrm wrote: post #144

I don't buy the idea that smartphones are extinguishing the life of the mind. Sure, smartphones provide access to almost unlimited trash. But they also provide access to Wikipedia, perhaps the most successful encyclopedia ever developed by humans. They can show you newspapers from across the planet. They let you read Latin histories of the Norman conquest of Southern Italy in the middle ages. [0] C'mon folks, this is…

[deleted]
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