Rubén Baler, neuroscientist: ‘We are guinea pigs. Our attention has become a profitable commodity’
Rubén Baler, neuroscientist: ‘We are guinea pigs. Our attention has become a profitable commodity’
The expert from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) warns that overexposure to screens from an early age can have a negative impact on health
I fully agree.
*continues staring at screen for the next 15 hours
105at least lemmy has the spirit of not being manipulated again.
33It will be. We are just not sure yet how because it precisely doesn't work like reddit or Facebook. But I am sure there are ways to manipulate here too, it may just be more elaborate.
4
Hahaha that’s crazy
scrolls
31
My 2 cents on this.
Stay off your phone.
Gaming consoles offer a better experience than the low-quality entertainment on phones and tablets.
Spending time on toxic social media is like feeding your brain junk food.
It's all designed to quickly exploit you.
I'd prefer my kids use a gaming console like the Switch instead of an iPad.
37Gaming consoles just mean you've already bought into their walled garden. They don't need to use the same tactics the mobile games use; you're already trapped. Hell, you're probably already paying a monthly subscription for online play, and then there's still nothing stopping individual game publishers from further enshittifying on top of that!
No, what you should really be doing is gaming on PC (Linux), ideally with games bought DRM-free (e.g. from GoG) or even by only playing Free Software games. I personally compromise enough to accept Steam, but that really is at the absolute limits of acceptability (and only then because of factoring goodwill from all their work on Linux compatibility for games).
28It's how you use the tools that count, and I think both types need (self-)restrictions placed upon them to be maximally effective and fun. Even a gun has a use, within certain bounds e.g. Ukraine can put them to great use.
11idk I use my phone to play chess, wingspan, Root, all kinds of games. There are a lot of really cool text adventures on mobile, plus Pokemon Go is mobile only. You can even play Minecraft on your phone ...
On Instagram I usually just see pictures about my friends lives, news, local events. The most well informed people I know are all active on social media. If all your kids are doing is playing console video games, they'll be disconnected. The most cutting edge news is on social media, and has been for years now. My phone is just a more comfortable way to do things. I could play chess and read the news on my laptop, but I don't want to.
This just reads like moral panic over tech you don't like ... you know, people used to fear-monger about books being too addictive and bad for you.
3Doomscrolling on reddit, imgur, and twatter destroyed my mental health over a ~4-year period. I went cold turkey on all three about a year ago and there is a remarkable difference. They caused a great deal of anxiety, I just didn't realise it at the time.
It was also a near-addiction when I could just flick the mouse wheel and more content would show up, and oh my, suddenly it's 4am and I have work in 4 hours. r/ouchmyballs and r/watchpeopledieinside were particularly problematic.
9
Yea wow. As a 90s kid I’d never thought of comparing smart phones to consoles. Great point. Gaming together on the couch or a truly fun and social activity and way more wholesome than doom scrolling
2On a phone, I actually rarely get stuck for hours. Not only because most of my personal data has to stay off of it (it cannot have LineageOS or similar), but also because it is inconvenient af. No keyboard, small screen, everything is slow. The problem of infinitely going into rabbit holes solves itself, while on the laptop there has to be a lot more self-control - it is far more comfortable.
1
You guys ever notice how people only recommend movies/entertainment made in [CURRENT YEAR]?
Whenever I see someone recommend a movie, I immediately look up the year and discard their recommendation if it was released in the current year.
Too many great things go unnoticed because of useful idiots with more money than sense.
10Similar with music. I am absolutely sure that the best music did not enter existence in the last year.
2I get the sentiment, but that implies nothing good is being made. And even if the sentiment “nothing good is being pushed” were true, that wouldn’t be that same as not being made. Still tons of artists out there putting work in.
2
I didn't know that guinea pigs are common for lab rats.
3What they haven’t realized is paying for living quarters for their tests. Give a homeless person a roof for watching ads all day?
3I don't think the homeless are a typically sought-after demographic. Maybe for loan sharks?
9Real estate agents love the homeless.
1
One issue though, the Homeless person can't buy products
4I think I could tolerate it for a couple months at most. The problem is that good advertising doesn't exist very often so it's all just fucking annoying
2Dang, that is a dystopian scenario for affordable housing. That's some black mirror Fifteen Million Merits stuff.
2
Full on conspiracy?
there are hidden interests and hands that pull the strings of the dynamics that are harmful
1The conspiracy take would be that someone wants the specific negative outcome we have and is deliberately calibrating their actions to achieve it
“Hidden interests and hands” in this case more charitably refers to the vast complex system of distributed incentives that different actors in the system have. If everyone washes their hands of their own little corner of the problem and refuses to take accountability at any level, in aggregate it leads to negative outcomes at scale. And of course no individual actor would want to publicise knowingly looking the other way: thus, hidden interests and hands
4
Permanently Deleted
0A Bo Burnham fan I see
-1Everything's a tool, you can hit a nail with a hammer or crack your own head its how you use it and not the tools problem unless its specifically made for doing an evil thing like the evilinator or somethin . also being a neuroscientist doesn't instantly make anyone right people like to spread their opinions as facts because they have some kind of authority so don't be sheep and use your own head sometimes which most people clearly don't do as we can see in the upvotes.
-7its how you use it and not the tools problem unless its specifically made for doing an evil thing like the evilinator or somethin
Okay, but hypothetically speaking, what if internet applications were designed to be addictive?
Hell, what if highly functional tools were deliberately degraded as a means of increasing monetized interactions?
being a neuroscientist doesn’t instantly make anyone right
Constantly telling my doctor this, whenever she provides me with medical advice on my splitting headaches and nose bleeds.
3Constantly telling my doctor this, whenever she provides me with medical advice on my splitting headaches and nose bleeds.
You know thats not what I meant .
Okay, but hypothetically speaking, what if internet applications were designed to be addictive?
Hell, what if highly functional tools were deliberately degraded as a means of increasing monetized interactions?
The evilinator thing was a phineas and ferb reference .
-2