I started programming when I was 8. A computer and video game system become a place for creativity and accomplishment. Fast forward to 2021 and today’s Internet-connected devices and massive multi-player video games doesn’t quite provide the same kind of focus.
I watched the documentary, The Social Dilemma, and learned about the Center for Humane Technology and their effort to advocate we be responsible about our technology use, esp in a world driven by a market economy.
We cannot blame computers because the algorithms we design are optimized to win and if the name of the game is to win your eyeballs, the computer wins, hands down, because one of our biggest weaknesses, as human beings, are our emotional triggers, especially our negative ones. This has unintended consequences with teenagers.
Teens around the world are lonelier than a decade ago. The reason may be smartphones.
In 2007, I was one of the first people to get an iPhone and I was undoubtedly one of the first to be using an iPhone in Thailand (I had it hacked so I could use local Thai cellular carriers).
I was in my 30s at the time and little did I know how attached the world would become to the little screen I was holding in my hand. I feel very fortunate to have built, over the course of 4 years, a vibrant life in Thailand with no shortage of people demanding face-to-face interactions (partly because they themselves did not have a smartphone, yet!).
In 2013, I did get to a place where I became very curious about the idea of a Tech Shabbat and after fiddling around with the practice quite a bit, it wasn’t until 2021, I would read the book 24/6 and learn about an effort to encourage parents to take a pledge to wait until 8th grade before giving their teens a smartphone.
As I dive deeper and deeper into Activism, it is efforts like this that feel meaningful while strengthening a case for a future that chooses technology efficiency over market efficiency.
In a world optimized for technology efficiency, how would a teen’s interactions look like with our smartphones? How would it differ from today?