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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

#81

Post by matwood »

lsmarigo wrote: post #59
bit_logic wrote: post #53

Something that helps a lot is to be ruthless with notifications on a smartphone. I basically have it set to only bother me for calls, SMS, and chat apps. Everything else is turned off. And whenever I get a new phone, it surprising how bad the defaults are. Basically every apps default is to spam notifications.

Twitter on ios mobile has given me such a headache with those highlights notifications. No way to disable them, infuriating.

You can turn highlight notifications off in the Twitter iOS app settings.

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

#82

Post by gnaritas »

ShabbosGoy wrote: post #25
dugditches wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Or maybe those who grow up with it will be better able to control themselves. Get hooked at young ages, and their tastes develop around the overly sweet/salty foods. Thus becoming adults still addicted to them. Especially with marketing to young children(Animals, Colorful packaging, etc). Combined with the both parents working, 'busier' modern lifestyle lots of families don't have time to cook 'real' food or dinners…

> Get hooked at young ages, and their tastes develop around the overly sweet/salty foods. Thus becoming adults still addicted to them. Anecdotal, but I've noticed that higher caliber restaurants have very subtle flavors. As opposed to mass produced/fast food that tend have very strong flavors.

Subtle aka bland.

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

#83

Post by [deleted] »

tfha wrote: post #21

I have become afraid of my feeds. YouTube has started to shape my hobbies and interests, my political leanings, my dietary patterns. If Google is getting paid to steer me towards certain products, I probably have no idea and it's probably working very well. YouTube can make overnight superstars just through the recommendation system.

[deleted]

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

#84

Post by MoBattah »

nether wrote: post #74
jgibson wrote: post #4

Does anyone see an analogy with highly processed, sugary foods? Highly addictive, thought to be miracles of convenience, but ultimately detrimental when consumed in excess, and now we are starting to realise that and demand better. I wonder if society will go through the same rejection phase with attention-seeking media consumption. Or maybe those who grow up with it will be better able to control themselves.

Not too long ago, we had this story, "Social Media is the New Smoking" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14851057 . The mathematician Ted Kaczynski said decades ago, "humans with technology is like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine."

The same Ted that's the Unabomber?

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

#85

Post by vanattab »

nether wrote: post #74
jgibson wrote: post #4

Does anyone see an analogy with highly processed, sugary foods? Highly addictive, thought to be miracles of convenience, but ultimately detrimental when consumed in excess, and now we are starting to realise that and demand better. I wonder if society will go through the same rejection phase with attention-seeking media consumption. Or maybe those who grow up with it will be better able to control themselves.

Not too long ago, we had this story, "Social Media is the New Smoking" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14851057 . The mathematician Ted Kaczynski said decades ago, "humans with technology is like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine."

For those that don't get the reference Ted Kaczynski aka the Unabomber.

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

#86

Post by gt_ »

pdkl95 wrote: post #45
aaron-lebo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

David Foster Wallace had the same belief about TV 20 years ago. He seemed more addicted to it than the average bear, more along the lines of how you see people tethered to smartphones today. He very much saw TV as candy - sweet, addictive, not sustaining, and unhealthy without moderation. He talked about it in multiple places, but Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself (an interview) discusses it a lot. http…

In Pat Cadigan's anthology of short works "Patterns", she included this introduction to her short story[1] with the same name: > Television will achieve its apotheosis when it is interactive. > Of course, some people think they have that now. For some people, TV reality is as much of a reality as what they move through most of the day. I remember listening to two people I used to work with discussing the horrible bur…

Here he addresses the topic in the article directly:

http://www.marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/lecture/1977-man-and-me...

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

#87

Post by muninn_ »

vonnik wrote: post #47

This excellent article fails to mention artificial intelligence. Facebook has recruited one of the world’s top AI teams, led by Yann LeCun. Their work and Google's are the equivalent of tobacco companies engineering cigarettes to ensure that nicotine hits a smoker's brain more quickly. Facebook and other social networks are the cigarette companies of the mind. Cigarettes blackened our lungs with tar, and social media…

This was great besides the pot-shot at “capitalism”.

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

#88

Post by Bucephalus355 »

vonnik wrote: post #47

This excellent article fails to mention artificial intelligence. Facebook has recruited one of the world’s top AI teams, led by Yann LeCun. Their work and Google's are the equivalent of tobacco companies engineering cigarettes to ensure that nicotine hits a smoker's brain more quickly. Facebook and other social networks are the cigarette companies of the mind. Cigarettes blackened our lungs with tar, and social media…

Your analogy of cigarette companies and Facebook was accurate but deeply shocking, I felt a chill in my hands and almost lost my grip on my phone.

I’ve always wondered if in the near future, working for Facebook and Google might be considered shameful, just like how working for Big Tobacco became. I remember one person from college who got a job with a tobacco company promoting Reynolds brands cigarettes to his regions Walgreens and Gas Stations. Despite making more than me (and I’m a Linux / AWS Engineer), he was ashamed, didn’t have a LinkedIn, and would tell people he was unemployed.

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

#89

Post by evanlivingston »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #36
evanlivingston wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the problem I faced as well, and I ultimately decided to quit a line of work that required being constantly connected to the latest developments. I realized I wanted to pursue a line of work with a bit more permanence and, for lack of a better word, timelessness.

You became a Fortran programer who works on mainframes?

Woodworker
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