From the South China Morning Post's Inkstone vertical:
Like alcohol and cigarette big business, tech giants should be legally bound to warn users of addiction dangers, says expert.
Tech giants should join the ranks of big tobacco and alcohol corporations in being forced to mitigate the damage done to users, says a New York University professor.
Adam Alter, an author and professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, believes that modern technology has never been so “efficient and addictive.”
He warned that tech companies’ ability to prey on “behavioral addiction” could have devastating long-term effects on the relationships and mental health of users and called out for their protection by making those companies legally responsible.
As tobacco and alcohol companies are bound in many countries to warn consumers about the dangers of consuming addictive substances - often through display and packaging regulations - so too should technology giants be, says Alter.
“Morally and ethically, I think they have the same responsibility that big tobacco companies and alcohol companies have: to mitigate the harm they’re doing, and pay economic or other penalties to address whatever harms they cause,” he said.
The consequences of technology addiction disrupt people’s lives, preventing them from spending quality time with their loved ones.
He said that children were particularly impacted by excessive internet use that could limit their attention spans and understanding of how to navigate the social world.
“We thought addiction was mostly related to chemical substances: heroin, cocaine, and yet Snapchat boasts that its youthful users open their app more than 18 times a day,” says Alter.
In his 2017 book, Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, he describes the problems of widespread behavioral addiction and the calculated ways games, apps and other tech products get and hold our attention.
In a Ted Talk he gave in April 2017, titled ‘Why Screens Make Us Less Happy,’ he said Jobs’ decision struck him as unusual because one of the golden rules in business holds that executives should use their own products.When Alter read that Apple co-founder and tech titan Steve Jobs refused to let his children use the iPad when it was released, he decided to investigate further.
If I’m addicted, the minute I start firing up the game,my brain will look like the brain of someone who’saddicted to heroin and is preparing the next hit.
New
York Fed On "Anxiety, Overconfidence, and Excessive Risk Taking"
(pathological gambling and self-manipulation with booze and blow)
Ethanol: "Why Coffee, Cigarettes and Booze Can Be Good For You"
Your Brain and Financial Bubbles
"Your genes affect your betting behavior"
The Internet, Deflation and Depression
There was a story out last week that purported to show a correlation between time spent on the www and changes in brain physiology. I'm dubious.
As Britain's NHS News put it:
...Several news headlines have suggested that internet addiction can cause changes to the brain, but this description is inappropriate, as the study design did not look at changes over time. It looked at how the brains of problem internet users differed from those of people who did not report such a problem. Therefore, it is entirely possible that the heavy users had particular brain structures that made them susceptible to addictions, rather than that the internet actively changed their brain structures....Further, the newspapers likened the changes to those seen in cocaine abusers but went on to describe something quite different from my understanding of what blow does to the reward pathways, overexciting the dopamine cascade until the various D receptors no longer react to dopamine and eventually leading to anhedonia. The big A is often concurrent with and like anxiety, may even kindle for depression.
Don't worry, be happy.
See also "Pleasure Dissociative Orgasmic Disorder"And many more.
