The cynical part of me thinks that they’re only doing this to make themselves look better in the face of reducing the quality of life of their customers.
Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity
121–130 of 245 posts
Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity
#122I’m glad to see this getting ridiculed on this forum. I would be happy to see more critique of the attitude that the problems created by irresponsible technology can be solved with more technology. The driver of the “phone addiction” problem is obviously direct economics. Companies are organized around profit, and more phone time means more profit (especially in ad-driven models like Facebook). So how about addressin…
Exactly, so what if a company/product's source of profit was helping people get off their phones?
Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A month or so ago, I took a two week trip across France and Spain, it was one of the most lovely experiences of my life, staying in great places, eating amazing food, etc. It was honestly about as wonderful and stimulating of an experience as I've ever had. But were they really? The thing I'm no longer afraid to admit about myself - I don't enjoy such stuff. I don't derive much pleasure from views of nature, don't…
Yes they were really. It really was, literally, the thing in life I like to do the most. I live to travel and see new places, it's the favorite activity I ever engage in. I just disagree with this whole idea that there HAS to be some "missing hole" that phones fill. These apps are addictive, that's not really a secret they are designed to be by teams of brilliant people. It's possible that many heroin addicts have "h…
Fair enough.
> I just disagree with this whole idea that there HAS to be some "missing hole" that phones fill.
I don't think there is one either. I think there's a general sense of ennui growing in our society that is partly responsible here.
Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity
#124A lot of people here are skeptical, saying basically "if people don't want to be addicted to technology they should just stop using it", but I think that's simplistic.
You could say the same thing about eating, "if you're not happy with your weight then just stop eating so much" The fact that's technically true doesn't mean there's no market for diet books or people should have to do it all on their own. Weight watchers, for example, has a 4B market cap.
Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A month or so ago, I took a two week trip across France and Spain, it was one of the most lovely experiences of my life, staying in great places, eating amazing food, etc. It was honestly about as wonderful and stimulating of an experience as I've ever had. But were they really? The thing I'm no longer afraid to admit about myself - I don't enjoy such stuff. I don't derive much pleasure from views of nature, don't…
>I prefer regular commercial-grade pizza Have you considered you like commercial grade food because of the possibly addictive ingredients they use, like excessive sugar and salt?
I have considered it and, seeing such pizza made many times, I discounted it. They use the same ingredients you'd buy to put in your sandwitch; the same ingredients you get in "local cousine" when you travel.
Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity
#126In my own experience struggling with addiction I've found that it is a symptom rather than a cause. Once you craft a life that is actually stimulating the tech loses its hold over you pretty quickly, if not instantly (for example when you go on a weekend outing in nature and completely forget your phone). Of course, the time and energy wasted due to the dysfunctional behavior presents a chicken-and-egg roadblock agai…
I'm a gamer and about as attached to tech as you can be without actually having mental issues over it. My wife and I recently bought a house and I've been finding that I'd rather spend time fixing it up than playing games or doing other stuff with electronics much of the time. That doesn't mean that I've quit wholesale, though. I eventually get physically or mentally tired and want to just relax, and it's back to the…
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Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity
#127> An application could provide a user frequent alerts to get back to work or put the phone down if they’ve been using it for 10 minutes or more. Taking the idea further, there could be some financial or other incentive (maybe the user escrows some money toward buying something they want) if they hit their goal.
I recall an application made for college students that rewarded them for not using their phone during their lectures. I believe it it called Pocket Points [0].
[0]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-points-college-reward...
Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity
#128How many businesses can I remember around addictions? What s the most famous anti-TV addiction company? Anti-cigarettes? Anti-sex addiction? If it's none, then the opportunity is not underappreciated. Making an anti-addiction product is by its nature the opposite of a sellable product. And the people who have the frontal lobe to willingly go against their addiction, have already solved their problem.
Great point.
But ... you can sell to parents. Their _job_ is to place helpful limits on their kids due to the fact that the kids' frontal lobes can't (yet?) do it for themselves.
And "tech addiction" is a huge problem among teens.
Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity
#129> The real answer to solving technology addiction is the answer to sustainably solving most problems: innovation spurred by capitalism.
On the contrary -- innovation spurred by capitalism is what sublimated the addictive aspects of human nature into a profit-making mechanism for the tech giants.
Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity
#130I am going to create a Digital detox Startup and I am going to call it Camping. Hahahaha.... I promise no phone signal for 30 days.
Funny ... they have it for teens, and they call it "Wilderness Therapy." (To be fair, it also involves focused therapy from professionals).