Apple execs, Facebook billionaires endorse ‘tech diets’
At Google, some employees use a tool that restricts time spent on email. A senior Apple executive says his wife uses a device that sets iPhone and iPad limits for their children. Members of a venture capital firm meditate before phone-free quarterly meetings. Slava Rubin, co-founder of the crowdfunding site Indiegogo, has a strict no-screen policy for gatherings and adopted a similar rule for his bedroom.
“The only electricity we use is one lamp,” he says.
Faced with a deluge of text messages, social-media updates, emails and other distractions, tech executives, entrepreneurs and rank-and-file workers in Silicon Valley are trying to limit their use of the devices and digital services they helped create. The efforts show how the industry is grappling with its own concerns about the attention-sapping effects of the smartphone age. A survey released this month by Microsoft acknowledged that new digital technology can make businesses less productive.
“It definitely took a long time and much misery before I figured out where to draw the line,” said Joe Hewitt, who led Facebook’s early efforts to put the social network on mobile phones. Hewitt said he used to fall into internet rabbit holes, debating people online and scrolling through Twitter. Now he mutes all but the few friends on Facebook who share his interest in gardening, and he rarely posts anything outside the occasional Instagram picture of a home-grown fig or artichoke.
Some Google employees use software called In Box When Ready. Downloadable for the Chrome browser, it lets people schedule “lockouts” so they can’t access messages during certain periods. It also hides notifications of new emails except for specific periods, removing the temptation to dive into a growing backlog. The tool also provides feedback about how much time a person is spending writing and reading messages, versus targets they set. “I’m using Inbox When Ready to protect my focus,” the emails say below user sign-offs.
At Facebook, woodworking and analogue art-making areas at the headquarters campus give employees the chance to step away from screens. In San Francisco, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, now running the business software company Asana, encourages younger employees to turn off notifications on their phones. Rudin of Indiegogo only checks email during designated times, limiting his messages to quick exchanges. Anything that takes longer he does in person or over the phone.
Alexander Ljung, the co-founder of SoundCloud, says he turns off all notifications on his phone outside of a messaging app that few people can reach. Thomas Meyerhoffer, a former Apple industrial designer, also blocks alerts on his phone and moved all apps off his iPhone X home screen. Among friends and colleagues, Meyerhoffer said conversations about the consequences of modern technology are common these days. Google searches for “smartphone addiction” hit an all-time high in January.
“There is an increasing awareness,” said Meyerhoffer, who now designs surfboards and co-founded the door-lock company Latch. “Every single person from every kind of occupation is talking about this.”
There’s a growing body of evidence about the harmful effects of social media and smartphones, particularly on younger people. A recent report by researchers at San Diego State University and the University of Georgia concluded teens who spend more time online are less happy than those who spend time on other activities.
Another report by Facebook’s own researchers last year found people who passively scroll through posts felt worse afterwards. A group of paediatric and mental health experts are lobbying Facebook to discontinue its Messenger Kids app. In Paris, schools are banning mobile phones altogether.
Meanwhile, prominent figures in the technology industry are criticising companies like Facebook. Sean Parker and Chamath Palihapitiya, former Facebook executives, have said the product is addictive and harmful to mental health. Apple CEO Tim Cook said he wouldn’t let his nephew on social media. Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff compared Facebook to cigarettes.
The warnings are beginning to reach boardrooms, too. Apple investors Jana Partners and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System recently asked Apple to study the harmful effects of smartphones on mental health and offer more protections for children.
Meanwhile, as “mindfulness” enters the Silicon Valley lexicon, the urge to unplug is creating new business opportunities. Digital detox retreats where people spend several days without technology are increasingly popular among tech workers, as is meditation. Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, recently finished a 10-day silent meditation that strictly prohibits any communication.
For those without time for a retreat or access to a dedicated space, apps including Calm and Mindfulness Daily are available.
Tony Fadell, a former Apple executive involved in the creation of the iPhone, believes Apple and Google, owners of the two largest smartphone operating systems, should offer apps that break down smartphone usage — time spent reading and writing texts, in apps such as Facebook, browsing the web, writing emails — similar to how their health apps show steps walked or hours slept each day.
“They have all that data, just give it back to us,” he said. “This isn’t like building a self-driving car, which is 10,000 times harder and costs way more.”
Companies are beginning to get the message. After its big investors demanded action in early January, Apple said it plans new features to give parents more control over how children use its devices. “We think deeply about how our products are used and the impact they have on users,” the company said in a statement.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is changing the company’s news feed to reduce mindless scrolling and increase meaningful interactions between friends and family. Google recently ran an ad highlighting the mental-health implications of smartphone and social-media use.
Regardless, many technology-industry veterans are taking their own measures. Fadell, whose family has no-screen Sundays, uses a product called Circle that sets online time limits and blocks certain content.
Rudin, of Indiegogo, said that if all else fails, religion can help. His family observes the Jewish custom of Shabbat every Friday night through Saturday, meaning technology use is restricted. “My wife will turn her phone and any other tech off for 25 hours straight,” he wrote in a weekday email. “I try to do the same, but it’s not always possible.”
Bloomberg
As “mindfulness” enters the Silicon Valley lexicon, the urge to unplug is creating new business opportunities. Digital detox retreats where people spend days without technology are popular