Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes • Hacker News Board

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#101

Post by ben_w » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 11:54 AM UTC

skeezyjefferson wrote: post #89

wlesieutre wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather than framing it as "protection from my own impulses," I think it's more fair to frame it as "protection from teams of professional researchers and engineers and marketers whose entire life's work is fine tuning how to most effectively profit from my impulses"

thats not true though is it. youre talking about a UI designer being some king of evil nazi... get real

Straw man.

There is a massive gap between "100k engineers have found a way to make most people in my demographic waste all their time by choosing to doomscroll" and "actually Nazis".

Both are bad, but as different as chronic fatigue and terminal cancer.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#102

Post by ben_w » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 12:02 PM UTC

noir_lord wrote: post #35

ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In real Star Trek the holo deck would be used for porn This is lampshaded in Lower Decks

DS9 had frequent if oblique references to it as well, Quark’s Bar had holodecks, I think Major Kira threatened to break his arm if she found out she featured as a character in one episode.

Possibly the same episode, but some creep was trying to get a holodeck session with her likeness, and when Quark managed to get her likeness, the revenge was to corrupt the holodeck program to put Quark's head on the body: https://www.reddit.com/r/startrekgifs/comments/i8hilq/cant_d...

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#103

Post by AlecSchueler » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 12:17 PM UTC

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #98

Rebuff5007 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like this response to poke a hole in the parent comment, but it is worth noting that smartphones and guns are different in a pretty massive way: Smartphones can be useful and valuable in many ways separate from the ways they can be used harmfully. Guns exist only for physical violence (or to threaten physical violence).

> Guns exist only for physical violence Skeet shooting? Targets? Most gun owners never kill anything.

Those are both acts of physical violence, just not against living creatures.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#104

Post by array_key_first » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 12:31 PM UTC

actionfromafar wrote: post #64

r14c wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We know how to cure addiction though, and its really low tech. People (and rats) with adequate social lives and decent living conditions are able to consistently overcome addiction. In fact, addiction has come to be understood as a coping mechanism for living in an unpleasant environment. Imo the issue with phones is really a symptom of our lack of leisure time, pleasant outside settings, and affordable third places.

It helps, but many prefer the phonecrack despite having access to all that.

IMO it could be a matter of perspective.

I think a lot of people turn to phonecrack instead of their social lives because they think phonecrack is their social lives. They've been told it's good, it's community, it's social.

And maybe it was at one point. But it's not anymore. There are no social media sites left, only media sites.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#105

Post by djoldman » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 12:38 PM UTC

Some say it's not the phone, it's the app a company makes.

So is it the company that is bad?

Company products and services are a result of the system of regulations. The market is a playground where companies survive, thrive, and die, always trying to maximize total future profit, which is dictated by the shape of what is allowed and what things humans will pay for.

The cause of "bad stuff" like "addiction" to a legal product/service is human nature. If a human will pay for something that is legal, there will be a market for it.

In other words: it's not the company, it's the system.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#106

Post by MangoToupe » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 12:41 PM UTC

djoldman wrote: post #105

Some say it's not the phone, it's the app a company makes. So is it the company that is bad? Company products and services are a result of the system of regulations. The market is a playground where companies survive, thrive, and die, always trying to maximize total future profit, which is dictated by the shape of what is allowed and what things humans will pay for. The cause of "bad stuff" like "addiction" to a lega…

Well thankfully the market is privately owned by a single entity via the app store, so we can just regulate the company.

Or they can just open their fucking platform and clean their hands of their curation of shitty apps, which has clearly failed.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#107

Post by podgorniy » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 12:51 PM UTC

> Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

Lol. What a way to steer understanding from the cause of this phenomenon.

Smartphone is merely a tool used by organisations for achieving own most often financial goals.

It's like to say "TV manipulate people's emotions" while talking about tv advertisement industry.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#108

Post by abc123abc123 » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 1:08 PM UTC

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #93

bognition wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you’re being coy or pushing the trope but you’re right guns don’t actually kill people. The bullets and blood loss tend to do that. That said, denying people access to guns does result in fewer gun related fatalities.

The fall didn’t kill him, it was the landing.

The landing didn't kill him, it was the impact.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#109

Post by abc123abc123 » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 1:10 PM UTC

bognition wrote: post #92

changadera wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Guns don't kill people..."

Not sure if you’re being coy or pushing the trope but you’re right guns don’t actually kill people. The bullets and blood loss tend to do that. That said, denying people access to guns does result in fewer gun related fatalities.

But note that this is deeply unethical and amounts to denying people the right to self-defense, and by extension, denying people the right to freedom.

The only thing that happens when guns are denied is the rise of corrupt and totalitarian politicians, and that the common man is either oppressed by them or by criminal gangs. Enter guns, and the common man can defend himself against both, which is a blessing.

Thankfully it is now possible to print your own guns and build one easily, so this will become less of an issue in the future, when everyone, if they want, can carry concealed guns.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#110

Post by chownie » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 1:17 PM UTC

solumunus wrote: post #69

r14c wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We know how to cure addiction though, and its really low tech. People (and rats) with adequate social lives and decent living conditions are able to consistently overcome addiction. In fact, addiction has come to be understood as a coping mechanism for living in an unpleasant environment. Imo the issue with phones is really a symptom of our lack of leisure time, pleasant outside settings, and affordable third places.

It’s very obviously not that simple.

It seems that simple to me.

Do you have a rationalisation for your disagreement, or is this a throw away comment you don't care about?