Modern times have seen a golden era of technology. With a gradually increasing speed towards development and innovation, it has become a basic need for today’s lifestyle, so much so that some people have inevitably developed a tech addiction. Former Google and Facebook employees, however, are working to stop it.
This effort to curb the excessive use of technology, especially in youngsters, has now a leading head known as the Center for Humane Technology. They work to educate people about the ill effects of the excessive use of smartphones and social networks that plague our day to day.
A couple of years ago, social networks had its big come up, turning into an everyday feature for most of the modern world. On Monday, the Center launched a new campaign called The Truth About Tech to reach further audiences that might be unaware of the effects of social network abuse.
What is The Truth About Tech all about?
With support from many groups, media watchdog Common Sense Media teamed up with the Center for Humane Technology to launch their awareness campaigns targeting mainly public schools in all of the U.S territory. The lobbying effort started on February 4th with an additional ad campaign named The Truth About Tech, and its efforts will be supported with millions of dollars mainly from Common Sense Media.
This initiative will try to educate parents, teachers, and students about the hazards of heavy social media use and smartphone technology, with first-hand testimonies of former Google and Facebook employees. The head of the awareness group, Tristan Harris, a former Google ethicist and employee, stated that these companies were designed to convince people to consume more and more media.
Harris is also the founder of the Time Well Spent organization, which advocates for people to be aware of how media-related companies design products without regard for the consequences that devices or products may cause on individuals and society.
Harris said “We were on the inside. We know what the companies measure. We know how they talk, and we know how the engineering works.”
Social media and tech addiction are a real problem
Media and technology addiction has been a hot topic in the recent months. Studies show that technology doesn’t take much time to develop, it may be well related to underlying common genetic issues like anxiety and depression which are in fact not rare to find in people, the problem actually begins when these faculties are filled with massive media consumption, making individuals a bit more numb to interaction.
In December 2017, a former Facebook employee accused the company of “ripping society apart”, Harris added to this statement “All the tech companies profit the more attention they extract out of human vessels.”
Source: The New York Times