Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

theconversation.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 166 posts

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#61

Post by godelski »

NoPicklez wrote: post #53
godelski wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't want what? To get rid of their smartphone? To be tracked? To have the problem solved? There's too many ways to interpret your sentence, you need to be more specific

They don't really want to get rid of their smartphone and get for example a dumb phone. I can't speak on behalf of others but whilst I do spend a little too much time scrolling, I would like it taken away from me too. But that doesn't fix anything, before endless scrolling we simply had more and more pages of information. Smartphones were not always as addictive as they once were, the tiktok, reels, shorts have reall…

Honestly, it seems like you agree with me...

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#62

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

quacked wrote: post #5

Bo Burnham put it succinctly, although he was talking about children on apps: "When they go to sleep at night, they have to choose between all of the information ever published in the history of the world, or the back of their eyelids." The smartphone is a perverted implementation of the goal that people use to fantasize about back in the early days of the computer revolution: a personal terminal to the world of audi…

>"When they go to sleep at night, they have to choose between all of the information ever published in the history of the world, or the back of their eyelids."

But when they power the device on, instead of reading all the information ever published in the history of the world, they watch vacuous tiktok videos where losers talk in the most annoying voices possible TAP LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE.

This should be obvious, I suppose. Gluttons aren't eating pounds of filet mignon and bags of truffles, they're chowing down on pseudo-manufactured crunchythings that are only distantly related to food.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#63

Post by whycome »

lijok wrote: post #11

Notice under “Managing dependency”, the focus is exclusively on technological solutions. There is no technological solution to this. We have the equivalent of unlimited crack in everyone’s pocket 24/7 with no possible oversight over its use and no way to reel it back in. The genie has been out of the bottle for a while now. Just like gluttony, there is no solution, only management strategies and they’re all very huma…

Government mandated rehab

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#64

Post by actionfromafar »

r14c wrote: post #57
array_key_first wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We actually don't know that there isn't a solution to gluttony, addiction, and other self-destructive and compulsive behaviors. The brain is somewhat stupid and can be tricked by very primitive things, like bright lights. We might also be able to un-trick it, maybe with medication. That's kind of what were seeing with GLP-1 agonists.

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.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#65

Post by e-khadem »

user2722 wrote: post #25

But solutions? Here's my take, will gladly take input (Android): Two profiles: profile 1 has no notifications, reading apps (ebooks) and shouldn't have a browser (mine does and shouldn't); profile 2 has all apps, inclusively all of profile 1 apps. Idea: have an "offline" phone. Good for battery. Whenever I need IoT or something else, I shrug and change profile. Use desktop apps/desktop browser: should work. Doesn't m…

If this works for you, then great, do it as long as it works. But for me this will never work. What actually has worked though, is being in an enjoyable environment (surrounded by friends and family, lab / hobby equipment, quality books and poetry, or just spending a couple of hours outside) that can grab my attention better than those social media apps. Also, I regularly delete and recreate my social media accounts.

Additionally, a very effective way of becoming less attached to the phone is to occasionally "forget" to bring it out with you, but that only works if you for example don't need maps or aren't expected to take a phone call. The key-point here is the irregularity, because then over time you will get used to replacing smartphone usage with some other joyful (or idle) activities instead of just moving the dopamine rush hour around. Furthermore I believe that embracing boredom is a must, and I just accept that sometimes I will be bored with nothing to do for a couple of hours and that's when I get most creative.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#66

Post by zahirbmirza »

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.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#67

Post by heikkilevanto »

Fnoord wrote: post #45
user2722 wrote: post #25

But solutions? Here's my take, will gladly take input (Android): Two profiles: profile 1 has no notifications, reading apps (ebooks) and shouldn't have a browser (mine does and shouldn't); profile 2 has all apps, inclusively all of profile 1 apps. Idea: have an "offline" phone. Good for battery. Whenever I need IoT or something else, I shrug and change profile. Use desktop apps/desktop browser: should work. Doesn't m…

Fairphone (with Fairphone Moments) has a focus mode [1]. I should write a bit about it here instead of merely linking to it, but I do not have the Fairphone 6 with this mode so I feel like I cannot comment on it the way I'd like to (I've owned Fairphone 2, 3, 4, 5). They're not the first though, see e.g. Lightphone [2]. What I want (and I suppose this is kind of possible with Island or equivalent application) is a gu…

FairPhone Moments looks like a good idea. But why does it require a mechanical switch? I am not going to upgrade my FP4 just for that, but might be willing to install an app that does the same kind of thing

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#68

Post by b00ty4breakfast »

easton wrote: post #33
hugh-avherald wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 1980s Star Trek it was used for porn. (TNG: The Perfect Mate , Hollow Pursuits )

And the Replicator was locked out from producing mass amounts of unhealthy food (unless you told it not to). Maybe the lesson we should learn is our hardware should come with built in limits on use to keep our brains intact? That sounds dystopian.

the freedom to be able to choose to engorge yourself on twinkies is maybe a good thing, the fact that some folks are willing and able to indulge that impulse is probably less good

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#69

Post by solumunus »

r14c wrote: post #57
array_key_first wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We actually don't know that there isn't a solution to gluttony, addiction, and other self-destructive and compulsive behaviors. The brain is somewhat stupid and can be tricked by very primitive things, like bright lights. We might also be able to un-trick it, maybe with medication. That's kind of what were seeing with GLP-1 agonists.

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.

Re: Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes

#70

Post by fsflover »

NoPicklez wrote: post #53
godelski wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't want what? To get rid of their smartphone? To be tracked? To have the problem solved? There's too many ways to interpret your sentence, you need to be more specific

They don't really want to get rid of their smartphone and get for example a dumb phone. I can't speak on behalf of others but whilst I do spend a little too much time scrolling, I would like it taken away from me too. But that doesn't fix anything, before endless scrolling we simply had more and more pages of information. Smartphones were not always as addictive as they once were, the tiktok, reels, shorts have reall…

> They don't really want to get rid of their smartphone

> Its another avenue which is addictive like gaming, gambling, alcoholism etc

So people can't moderate themselves due to the addiction, which is completely different from "don't really want". This is not at all surprising given that a huge industry is dedicated to make the addiction stronger. The latter is the actual problem, not people or smartphones.

Post reply on HN