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Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

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141–150 of 166 posts

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I search a definition I get three results: 1. Behavior or treatment in which physical force is exerted for the purpose of causing damage or injury. In the case of the shooting examples the idea is to destroy the clay pots or damage the target. Baseball isn't quite on that level. I'm not sure what a gun can be aimed at without intent to damage it. 2. Intense force or great power, as in natural phenomena. A gunsho…

> In the case of the shooting examples the idea is to destroy the clay pots or damage the target. Baseball isn't quite on that level. I'm not sure what a gun can be aimed at without intent to damage it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Hunt 1984. The point of clay target shooting isn't to destroy something, it's to build a skill and test yourself against an impartial system. That's what Duck Hunt captures and what…

> Plenty of social reasons too, beyond hunting and self-defense, it can serve comradery and grounding. Some folks practice archery. Some folks fish. Some folks practice martial arts which they hope never to have to use in anger, but which they find calming, centering, and empowering.

I'm not debating that. I have no moral issue with shooting a clay duck, I just see using explosives to shoot anything as an act of violence. I would say the same about fishing and archery. There seems to be some confusion here about the moral aspect of this, I'm not saying it's anti-social or anything like that, only that the use of guns is inherently violent.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#142
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s very obviously not that simple.

It actually is, but creating these kinds of environments and promoting healthy social lives is extremely not profitable. We'd have to dramatically lower the cost of living for everyone and make huge investments in infrastructure and subsidize the creation of third places.

Ok I guess we’re hallucinating all the addicts who have/had those things. Mental health is never part of the problem either.

Claiming the problem of addiction has zero nuance is one of the silliest takes I’ve ever read on here.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The endless counter examples.

It’s a nuanced issue not a simple issue. Mental health is often involved but I guess your simple cure works for mental health too?

People read some articles about a few studies and not only form but propagate reductive takes with absolute certainty… It’s baffling to see people operate this way.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#144
post #75

> sharing biometric data through pre-loaded health and wellness apps. I've been thinking about finally getting a smartwatch to keep tabs on my sleep and encourage me to do more exercise, like jogging for a certain amount of time or something. Suggestions for privacy respecting, ideally FOSS solutions?

https://pine64.org/devices/pinetime/

This was a really helpful answer, thank you. I'm not sure why you've been downvoted.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“what it does” describes the actions taken - cancer wards work to treat cancer (which is their purpose). Outcomes of what they do isn’t relevant to the point. The purpose of most social media companies is to manipulate people for financial and political gain which is what they do.

I think that "manipulate people for financial and political gain" is an outcome of what social media companies actually do - I was under the belief that in a general sense, they want to maximise the time people spend on their apps so that they can sell this attention to advertisers, independent of whether or not a given ad buyer wants to manipulate people.

> they want to maximise the time people spend on their apps so that they can sell this attention to advertisers

This is where they manipulate in my mind. They maximize that time by exploiting human psychology, manipulating people into scrolling their feeds endlessly eh?

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the case of the shooting examples the idea is to destroy the clay pots or damage the target. Baseball isn't quite on that level. I'm not sure what a gun can be aimed at without intent to damage it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Hunt 1984. The point of clay target shooting isn't to destroy something, it's to build a skill and test yourself against an impartial system. That's what Duck Hunt captures and what…

> Plenty of social reasons too, beyond hunting and self-defense, it can serve comradery and grounding. Some folks practice archery. Some folks fish. Some folks practice martial arts which they hope never to have to use in anger, but which they find calming, centering, and empowering. I'm not debating that. I have no moral issue with shooting a clay duck, I just see using explosives to shoot anything as an act of viol…

You seem to be making some sort of qualitative argument about weapons (bullets, arrows... fishing rods?) vs non-weapons (baseballs), but I'm not seeing what makes archery categorically different from, say, playing darts, or shot-put (in all cases, a sport involving rapidly accelerating a projectile towards a goal of some kind)

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the case of the shooting examples the idea is to destroy the clay pots or damage the target. Baseball isn't quite on that level. I'm not sure what a gun can be aimed at without intent to damage it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Hunt 1984. The point of clay target shooting isn't to destroy something, it's to build a skill and test yourself against an impartial system. That's what Duck Hunt captures and what…

> Plenty of social reasons too, beyond hunting and self-defense, it can serve comradery and grounding. Some folks practice archery. Some folks fish. Some folks practice martial arts which they hope never to have to use in anger, but which they find calming, centering, and empowering. I'm not debating that. I have no moral issue with shooting a clay duck, I just see using explosives to shoot anything as an act of viol…

All tools have potential use for violence. Hammers are as good at smashing heads as building houses. Even nuclear weapons have been used for constructive purposes. No tool is inherently good or evil, safe or violent. Those are properties of verbs. Everything is in the application and choices of the user.

Blaming a tool does seem like a convenient way to avoid personal responsibility.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#148
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It actually is, but creating these kinds of environments and promoting healthy social lives is extremely not profitable. We'd have to dramatically lower the cost of living for everyone and make huge investments in infrastructure and subsidize the creation of third places.

Ok I guess we’re hallucinating all the addicts who have/had those things. Mental health is never part of the problem either. Claiming the problem of addiction has zero nuance is one of the silliest takes I’ve ever read on here.

Idk what part of "make society affordable for everyone and ensure that everyone has access to adequate care and social support" sounds like an easy or reductive fix.

Maybe my use of the world "simple" is causing some hangups. This is obviously a prerequisite for curing addiction worldwide. Lacking support, care, and social ties is a strong indicator that an addict will relapse in any case. You can't even start treating the really pathological cases without a comprehensive healthy environment for everyone.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#149
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok I guess we’re hallucinating all the addicts who have/had those things. Mental health is never part of the problem either. Claiming the problem of addiction has zero nuance is one of the silliest takes I’ve ever read on here.

Idk what part of "make society affordable for everyone and ensure that everyone has access to adequate care and social support" sounds like an easy or reductive fix. Maybe my use of the world "simple" is causing some hangups. This is obviously a prerequisite for curing addiction worldwide. Lacking support, care, and social ties is a strong indicator that an addict will relapse in any case. You can't even start treati…

The summation of the problem is reductive and your fix won’t fix it, although there’s no doubt it would help. No one is claiming your solution is bad, on the contrary it’s the best solution, but to claim it would completely eliminate addiction is preposterous.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#150

Let's be clear. It is not the actual smartphones that do this; machines are designed and programmed by humans. Companies can choose to use technology to manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes, and many do choose just that, often for financial gain.

Indeed. Delete everything that doesn't respect your time and attention and a funny thing happens: your phone becomes a tool again.
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