HOOKED ON TECH

THE impact of technology, especially on younger minds, is a hotly debated subject. Thanks to a group of former employees from Facebook and Google we now have a better knowledge of how tech companies have been manipulating audiences to stay online continuously. At the forefront of the anti-tech addiction lobby is Tristan Harris, former Google Design Ethicist. In conjunction with John Steyer, chief executive and founder of Common Sense Media, Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook operations manager, Lynn Fox, a former Apple and Google communications executive, Dave Morin, a former Facebook executive, Justin Rosenstein, who created Facebook's Like button and Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook. Harris has created an awareness campaign called "Truth about Tech." Steyer, warns that tech companies' attention-grabbing business model is hurting “the social, emotional and cognitive development of kids.” Others, including Facebook's founding president, Sean Parker, have said that Facebook as a social network was a “social validation feedback loop” that gave users a ‘little dopamine hit” every time a like or a comment was made. He said the company knew from the outset it was creating something that exploits “vulnerability in human psychology”. “God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains.” Salesforce chief and billionaire Marc Benioff is another tech insider to raise alarm over social media's effect on society with comments at Davos recently. He believes that social networks should be regulated “exactly the same way that you regulate the cigarette industry”. The Truth about Tech initiative is a multi-year campaign to educate parents and students about the addictive quality of digital devices and also to come up with solutions that realign technology with humanity's best interests. Harris is planning to target at least 55,000 public schools in the USA.

Learn more: humanetech.com