My Name is Nir, an enterprenur from Israel, I founded a company that makes the world free from phone distractions. We are dealing with phone notification and controlling them.
I believe, that we need to improve our relationship with our phone:
As parents, we need to give attention to our children when we are at home.
As couples, we need to concentrate more on each other.
As drivers, we need to be focused on the roads and save more souls.
we need to put our phone away and concentrate in the present.
In Israel, those are the topics that need to be fixed.
where are you from?
what do you think that need to be fixed in our relationship with the phone?
Hello and welcome!
Im a student in the United States and we have the same issues with technology that you listed, especially with young adults from my generation. I think education and creating greater importance around tech ethics is the best way to correct this. What about you?
Hello @nir, itâs great to hear that there are people working towards digital well-being. I am a researcher in this field. Those are three great points you mentioned! Jordan Peterson in â12 Rules For Lifeâ says âset your house in perfect order before you criticise the world.â
Addictive overuse is linked to obesity, as people tend to become sedentary for long and snack on finger-foods. Also: Avoiding stress, eating local, fresh, organic, home-cooked food, and getting good sleep.
@sidnya, great point! Being a responsible digital citizen is the need of the hour.
An internet free spaces I think is one way of tackling phone distraction and other concerns of being online all the time. And encourage us to put our phone away. And give us a pause and a message that beyond our device there are things more important in our lives. ( relationship, experiences, soulcare, etc.)
This doesnât seem logical to me, just like quite a few of the other things this person says, it also seems anti-democratic. There is no such thing as perfect, people can have order while lacking logic or compassion, people should always be open and encouraged to criticise when warranted. When this person says illogical things, and continues to say them even after numerous people point them out, you have to wonder if he is really interested in the truth at all or has ulterior motives, such as self-promotion or radical politics in this case.
Yes exactly! Thank you. Overuse is also a problem in itself, right? There is a big divide between what is healthy and what many or most people do. Thatâs why I like the idea of human flourishing as the end goal of technology use. We need to try to change technology so that people know when it their use has a positive effect, so that people can then make better decisions on when and how to use it.
We have very similar proverb in my country (sweep in front of your house before you criticize mess in front of your neighborsâ houses) and it seems to me perfectly logical and democratic. It does not says that it is not allowed to criticize and it does not describe what is perfect order (there is no such thing as perfect). Only what it says is that it is strange to do that and people tend to not trust you if you do that (logically)âŚ
Few examples:
If I criticize my daughters about overuse of phones with phone in my hand and even not looking at them but typing something really âimportantâ during this conversation âŚnot sure about impactâŚit might be quite opposite. (Even If I do that properly with fully human interaction it does not mean that I am always perfect)
What would be the message of HTC or CHT to public or big tech regarding manipulation and making profit over human flourishing if HTC or CHT manipulate and making profit of followers and users? There were several (democratic) discussions in this forum about not doing things which we are trying to criticize (and often we are not perfect as we have to use big tech or manipulative services). It does not mean we can not do thatâŚit just means nobody will trust us (logically)âŚand we do not have to be perfect, at least we should try to do our best and try to improve during our journey.
Imagine two identical persons with the same voice intonation etc⌠saying this sentence to you: âYou should not smoke. It is unhealthy for youâ âŚwhile one person is smoking during this conversation. Both persons have democratic right to tell this, but logically (maybe not âŚmaybe more emotionally) I will trust and listen the person without cigarette in mouthâŚ
Well though similar, thatâs a substantially different quote in many ways.
I think what Shiv meant was along the lines of: Before we tell other people not to overuse phones, we should not overuse phones ourselves.
Again I donât see the logic in these kinds of statements. For example Iâm sure weâve all met the smoker who tells us, donât start smoking. Would you tell that smoker to shut up because sheâs doing something different from what she is saying? Of course not. The same logic applies to phone overuse.
Iâm working on a solution. Itâs a personal, structured, notebook that fits in your pocket. Together with a dumbphone, itâs really all you need. Iâm using it for a month now and itâs really really helpful. It changed my life.
Iâm working on creating a prototype and a product out of this. Looking for testers and help!
Of course not. I do believe it is not about shutting up or ban somebodyâs valid (or even wrong) opinion⌠It is about gaining credibility and improving overall situation. Everybody has legitimate right express own opinion but counterpart has legitimate right to evaluate credibility of thoughts and actions. Drunken drug counselor has still right talk about danger of addiction. No doubt about that. I would never try to shut him up. I would point out his behavior. I just would be careful with his advises and I try to find somebody else if possible. I think it is natural way how we think and act.
Here are few examples:
Can NY Times organize Privacy project even when they have mess in their own house? Sure! But I guess you would not call them hypocrites if they clean up their house first and then organize such a project. Still good things to do but it would be better if they decrease ad and surveillance requests on their home page first. Credibility (and impact as a consequence) of their project and actions would increase if they decrease numbers of tracker in their house at the same time. And credibility of their project will logically decrease if they increase numbers of trackers in their home page at the same time with the privacy project. Otherwise people will constantly point out about mess in their own house and hardly trust them.
Can Zuckerberg criticize Googleâs privacy policy? Absolutely! But credibility of such critique would be very close to zero. And his point of view can be perfectly right because he knows very well how to corrupt userâs privacy. It would be just better if FB fix or at least try to fix own privacy issues and then advise to Google how to do things better.
And maybe you are right. Maybe it is not so much logical, maybe it is more emotional part of our behavior, which is still important part of our beings. If you think about love - not so much logical thing, but worth to do it. Intelligent machines are strictly logical and maybe this is reason why we tend to not trust them.
And really it is hard thing to do that (especially if somebody throwing trash to your yard all the time) but still worth to do that. Because if you add 0.001 positive thing to this world it is better than 0 or -1.
Hi Nir, I am from China and currently studying in Singapore. Phone distraction is a huge problem in Asia, particularly for my generation. I have seen, and still am seeing so many of my friends glued to their phone when they eat, walk and talk with each other.
There is one problem that particularly stands out based on my observation. Some young people prioritize their online relationship instead of real-life ones so they just keep refreshing their social media feed and checking their text messages. They will turn to their online friends when they are sad/depressed, but the social relationships they have on social media are superficial. The so-called friends on Instagram and Facebook are not that reliable and helpful when they really need emotional support. However, it seems that they are not willing to be open about their feelings in real life, so as a result, they choose to escape reality by using their phone more, making complaints online and become trapped in a vicious cycle.
In my opinion, they may know their phone is distracting, but their phone is always the first solution they will tun to. They are used to the movement of reaching out to their phone, unlocking it, opening an app and gaining that instant gratification of the information feed. Besides, so many of their life has already been shifted onto their phone: their interest, their data, their shopping cart etcâŚthis device has already become an artificial âorganâ of their body.
I believe they need more awareness. They, including me, are easily affected by the environment surrounding us. When everyone around them is looking at their phones, they are numb with the fact that it should not be this wayâŚso it is urgent that something needs to be done to raise their awareness, and this must be a long-term battle.
@Saiyu, thanks a lot for sharing your experience and perspective. And welcome in our community! One of our goal is raise awareness about all negative aspects of modern society and technology and offer a solution that allows humans to flourish and humanity to thrive.
You can check this thread and learn something about phone zombies.
And also this video which describe in artistic form most of your observation and urgency to improve current situation.
@Bozon Thank you for the welcoming message:). I am so glad that I found this community, and the discussions here are inspirational and thought-provoking. I hope that this community can grow bigger and make a difference!
We are very glad to hear that, @Saiyu, and you are indeed very welcome
You come at a good time too! We just reorganized our forum and are creating our Community Hub, and tomorrow The Center for Humane Technology will finally unroll their Roadmap to the world and together weâll put Humane Technology truly on the map. 2019 will be an exciting yearâŚ
@nir, hello back from Israel. Iâd like to connect and find out more about the kinds of solutions youâre developing. Is there a way to get in touch with you?
Iâd like to connect and find out more about the kinds of solutions youâre developing. Is there a way to get in touch with you?