The WHO has recently declared Smartphones a public health problem.
It’s interesting that the real problem here seems to be addictive and abusive algorithms deployed by social media and gaming companies but that’s not mentioned because those are where the capitalists make their money and it’s forbidden to interfere with their profit generation or point that out.
Instead they paint it as this vague addiction of which social media is depicted as merely a small part but the real problem is the hardware, the Smartphones and too much use and access to them. And the real issue is people are distracted at work (and school) and productivity is suffering.
And the solution is bans on use of smartphones at schools and crackdowns on use at work because we can’t have the proles enjoying the addictive treats we’ve made to distract them from their horrible lives while they’re supposed to be earning us money, those are for while they’re taking 2 hours in their commute to get to work or for while they’re at home too exhausted to cook or get up off the couch.
Just an interesting observation I had. I will be the opposite of shocked when they try and make smartphone lockers at work a thing or implement AI in cameras that detects smartphone usage outside of breaks and applies penalties.
Good observations. I tend to agree that these devices are a problem. It’s as you say, though. It’s the closed ecosystems that deny as much user creativity as possible and funnel attention through accepted channels.