3 Criteria of Humane Technology

You hit the nail on the head – the core of humane technology is transparency. I love the way you elaborated on this concept. Some of the points you made were also brought up by people at the meeting.

Even though I’ve devoted myself to fighting internet addiction, I agree that addictive technology isn’t bad ipso facto. I only think it is problematic in three circumstances:

  1. When people have no idea the tech they’re using is built to addict them. This is particularly true when tech companies try to hide this fact from the public.

  2. When tech services which are essential to live and work are needlessly designed to be addictive. A large proportion of the population must use email, text messaging, search engines, and workspace chat programs for their jobs. If these products are addictive they violate the right to opt-out I outlined in my original post.

  3. When addictive tech is targeted at groups that don’t have the capacity to make informed decisions (i.e. young children).

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