Well the first step is realizing that you "have a problem" so I will at least give these students some credit for that. Blaming a phone maker for their addictive habits goest too far of course. Perhaps phone companies will apply a sticker to their products warning users that their devices may lead to addiction problems to get off the hook from future litigation. Reward apps such as Facebook, Instagram, etc... are built on "users" (which meant something pretty addictive years ago) constantly checking who is following them, commented on their comment or whatever are the true culprits. However the very anti-social nature of staring at a phone all day and night, never interacting with the humans around you is really just what the people who created these apps are all about, now they have a billion just like themselves.
I'm not sure if this will play in the US, but it's interesting - especially when they visit the SF based company specializing in helping app developers with engagement.
Dear neighborhood crack dealer: I will not be buying any more crack and in fact will be checking myself into rehab, in protest of your existence.
Actually a better analogy would be: Dear Krispy Kreme, I will not be buying any more donuts and plan on going on a diet of healthy fruits and vegetables in protest of how your donuts clearly contribute to my weight problem.
Months later... Dear both: I now need neither of you. Showed you!
ps: keep me on your mailing list in case you run any specials
How about some self control? Take some responsibility for your own action. Don't bring your phone to meals. Turn off your phone. Leave it in the other room.
So do these Snowflakes need GOVERNMENT to help them control their own phone usage?
As they they, you're on your Desktop for hours, your Smartphone for Minutes and your Smartwatch for Seconds. So if you think of things like this, Get a Smart Watch. That's what I did. A Apple Watch, instead of turning into another Phone Zombie. See You get a DING on your Smart Phone and just have to see what it is. So you pull out your Smartphone and look, and now since it's already out, you check your social Media Sites like Facebook and Twitter and whatever else. Before you know it, what should have taken 30 seconds, takes 30 minutes or longer!!! Every time your phone DINGS, you go look once again.
With the Apple Watch, I get a DING, it's a quick glance as then back to what I was doing once again. DONE!! I also limit what will pop up on my Watch, just iMessages, and a couple Important Apps to know when someone is coming or going from my house. That's it!!! NO SOCIAL MEDIA. That crap can wait when you're done with everything else and have some free time. My Facebook time is limited to 1 or 2 times a month. I don't need to show the world what I'm doing 24 hours a day.
Get some self control. It's sure not Apple's fault. Apple has ZERO reason to help people with their lack of self control. Maybe this is better then Drugs and Alcohol, which may have what these people used in the past.
Just to add to what others are saying, there's nothing about these DEVICES that is addicting. The problem is social media APPS. Blaming Apple for peoples' inability to pry themselves away from the fake little world they live inside vicariously through social media apps is like blaming the makers of bottles and cans that may be used to store alcohol that is being abused by alcoholics. Going after Apple's iPhone is like going after bottle and can makers.
If this is the best today's silver spoon fed collegestudents can do to advance social conscienceless it's utterly and laughably pathetic. They should consider taking a cue from some of today's high school students who have shown that they have the chops to affect awareness and generate discussion around social issues that really matter. This is so weak. Maybe these Stanford students should consider backing away from their Facebook accounts for a while, laying off the selfies and Instagram for a few months, and developing some social relationships with real people who are in their everyday lives. Oh, and they should also do their homework and make sure they graduate with a degree that will allow them to get a job and become a productive member of society.
Sorry Stanford students for laughing at you, but you deserve it.
I have been reading this site for more than a decade but I have been more appalled by a comments section. I did not read every single comment here but the majority of the ones I did are basically saying: "these Stanford students are idiots/entitled brats/elitists..., and it's not Apple's responsibility, etc..." I also read the pamphlet, and while I agree the title "Apple is holding us captive" is a little (or a lot) hyperbolic, the contents are actually very reasonable and well presented.
First of all, the students are not saying that they themselves have an addiction problem, they are saying that 50% of teens have an addiction problem, and that's backed up by research articles that they have cited. I'm sure we all agree with the findings of this research that phone addiction leads to stress, harm in relationships, and loss of productivity.
Now, the strategy that most of you are suggesting, "get some self control and put stop using your phone that much", and other variations of this, does not work for people who are already addicted. If it did, drug addicts would have simply been told to stop taking drugs and sent on their merry way.
I know everyone who commented here has self control and it's not a problem for them to say "These facebook notifications are getting annoying so let me just delete the app, and my facebook account while I'm at it (that's what I did many years ago)", but we are talking about children here, they don't have the same self control we do. They can't just put down the phone, or put it in airplane mode or something, they live in that world, so they don't want to put down the phone. I know the easiest thing to say to that is that it was the responsibility of the parents to make sure their kids don't get addicted, but guess what, many children don't have that kind of parent. Some parents are just bad parents, others are overworked, or simply don't know better. I am personally very involved in controlling how much screen time my children are getting, but I am fortunate enough to be able to do that. I have a job that allows me to spend enough time with my children so I am deeply involved in the process of raising them. Unfortunately not everyone is as fortunate as I am, and while some of you may be even more well-off than me, the majority of people are not, and we need to think about this from the perspective of the people who have the addiction problem. If you don't have the problem, then congratulations to you, but how about thinking of those who are not as fortunate as we are. That's what the Stanford students are doing.
Finally, what does all this have to do with Apple? Look around, every smartphone on the planet is either an iPhone or an iPhone clone, and when Apple does something, the others follow. Take end-to-end encryption for example, nobody was doing it until Apple started doing it. It wasn't even a thing before that. When Apple says: "we are serious about the privacy/security/etc... of our users", other companies start copying that, and even though they may not be doing as good a job as Apple is in that respect, at least these concerns are now in the conversation.
I imagine if Apple said "hey, this is what we are doing to protect our users agains addiction", other companies will start copying that. Long story short, the word "responsibility" has different meanings. You may be guilty of some crime, and you are responsible for fixing the damages. There is also social responsibility. This is the kind of responsibility that Apple has, which is that as a leader in the field, they have to do what is right and what is good for their users.
Going back to the privacy and security for a moment. Imagine if Apple's devices were not secure and they did not respect your privacy. Many people here will complain that Apple is not doing enough to protect our privacy when we use their device. Imagine at that point if someone told you "Grow up and get some self control. If you are worried about that piece of data going public, don't put it on your phone". The truth however is that we can't. Too much of our minds are now stored in the phone, so we couldn't possibly keep ALL sensitive information off the device. Thankfully Apple has done something to address this problem and we can be, at least to a certain degree, confident that our sensitive data will not be misused. Hopefully they will also do something about the phone addiction problem, which is clearly a problem for kids these days (not all kids, but a large percentage) and Apple doing something is their best shot.
Idiotic issue, grow up. The device is too much fun and useful - give me a break. Of all the issues to get excited about this places less than dead last.
Well the first step is realizing that you "have a problem" so I will at least give these students some credit for that. Blaming a phone maker for their addictive habits goest too far of course.
- The students have taken a very small first step. - Smartphone use can be addicting like obsessive TV watching/computer gaming or compulsive gambling. - A phone app is not going to stop hardcore phone internet/social network browsing. * The iPhone already has things in the OS which track hours of use (between charges) & there are alarms in the OS which can be set to remind the user to turn off their device. ** Hard core addiction goes back to the user who should seek some kind of treatment/support. It can be with therapy or support groups with the goal of changing the behavior of the user. * The user needs to get to a point where they can turn off their phone and leave it off when they need to. Only the user can do that.
I DARE them to put it down for good. Let’s see if they can last a week.
Kids in my local community college have claimed the same problem, so are they "elitist" too?
claiming the problem - ie its hard to stop checking your iPhone is ok. Its the owners problem, I dont believe your community college kids claim its apples fault for making use of an iPhone 'addictive'. Some articles are not worth publishing - I think this is one of them - surely there are more problems. I used to be addicted to checking my email every 5 minutes until I realized id stopped being productive. Now I check 2 or 3 times in the morning, 3 or 4 times in the afternoon.
I DARE them to put it down for good. Let’s see if they can last a week.
Kids in my local community college have claimed the same problem, so are they "elitist" too?
Yes, if that is a problem for them. Otherwise, they would be talking about something more important. For them - that is the most important problem they see, hence the “elitist”. They are (statistically speaking) an elite of the world. They are 0.1%-ers of the world
Sounds similar like the people blaming the tobacco industry for giving them lung cancer. #itsyourownresponsibility
Yeah no. The tobacco companies made a concerted effort to hide the known carcinogenic properties of cigarettes just to make a buck. They even hired doctors to say it was good for you.
So then the 20-somethings I see today smoking cigarettes are within their right to sue tobacco companies for being too stupid to know better?
I view an addiction as behavior that interferes with my productivity; smartphone distraction qualifies.
We have control, even if the manual doesn’t say it.
1. Define the relationship: the phone serves me - not the other way around. It is for me to reach others, not for others to reach me.
Calls from unknown numbers, business, recruiters —> voicemail.
WhatsApp group that disturbed me while I was at work —> mute 1 or 8 hours.
2. Family members with emergencies will call me. Friends have that privilege but if they abuse it even once —> voicemail.
3. Disable notifications for any app that has ever disturbed me —> *BAM* notifications neutered. No 2nd chances! - Facebook - Twitter - TED Talks (“watch this!” No! Go away!) - YouTube - heart rate variance monitor (“time to measure yourself” No! Time to chop off your notifications!) - any ad - any pity message (“we haven’t heard from you in a while” Yes! That’s the last we’ll hear of each other!)
These companies profit from our Fear Of Missing Out.
The worst offender, by far, is the company that starts with F and ends with K. I consider 2 Factor Authentication a good thing, but they insist I use SMS, and then they spammed me, with no way to turn it off. I’m not signing up for that kind of abuse. No more 2FA with you, and no way I’m using you for OAuth. And no, even if you fix it, you already lost me due to the blatant disrespect. Get your dirty hands off my attention!
Sounds similar like the people blaming the tobacco industry for giving them lung cancer. #itsyourownresponsibility
Yeah no. The tobacco companies made a concerted effort to hide the known carcinogenic properties of cigarettes just to make a buck. They even hired doctors to say it was good for you.
So then the 20-somethings I see today smoking cigarettes are within their right to sue tobacco companies for being too stupid to know better?
No, because, thanks to "draconian government interventionist legislation" all packets of cigarettes are now labelled "WARNING: SMOKING MAY SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH". The problem isn't entirely mitigated, and the tobacco companies are still trying to work their way round the various restrictions placed on them in order to cling to a share of a dwindling market, but in this day and age, you've a job convincing a jury that all the labels and advertising about the health risks of smoking somehow didn't register with you.
Apple could take the Alcohol industry approach and just put labels on their devices saying "Use responsibly". Harder would be enforcing rules about sale to "obviously addicted individuals".
"I'd like to buy an iPhone, please"
"I'm sorry, sir. Don't you think you've had enough already?"
"Nonsense, I've only had a little one. I just want another for the road."
Comments
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2017-2018/addicted-to-your-phone
Actually a better analogy would be:
Dear Krispy Kreme, I will not be buying any more donuts and plan on going on a diet of healthy fruits and vegetables in protest of how your donuts clearly contribute to my weight problem.
Months later...
Dear both: I now need neither of you. Showed you!
ps: keep me on your mailing list in case you run any specials
Well, that is different. The tobacco industry is guilty of deliberately making tobacco products more addictive through chemical additives.
So do these Snowflakes need GOVERNMENT to help them control their own phone usage?
As they they, you're on your Desktop for hours, your Smartphone for Minutes and your Smartwatch for Seconds. So if you think of things like this, Get a Smart Watch. That's what I did. A Apple Watch, instead of turning into another Phone Zombie. See You get a DING on your Smart Phone and just have to see what it is. So you pull out your Smartphone and look, and now since it's already out, you check your social Media Sites like Facebook and Twitter and whatever else. Before you know it, what should have taken 30 seconds, takes 30 minutes or longer!!! Every time your phone DINGS, you go look once again.
With the Apple Watch, I get a DING, it's a quick glance as then back to what I was doing once again. DONE!! I also limit what will pop up on my Watch, just iMessages, and a couple Important Apps to know when someone is coming or going from my house. That's it!!! NO SOCIAL MEDIA. That crap can wait when you're done with everything else and have some free time. My Facebook time is limited to 1 or 2 times a month. I don't need to show the world what I'm doing 24 hours a day.
Get some self control. It's sure not Apple's fault. Apple has ZERO reason to help people with their lack of self control. Maybe this is better then Drugs and Alcohol, which may have what these people used in the past.
If this is the best today's silver spoon fed college students can do to advance social conscienceless it's utterly and laughably pathetic. They should consider taking a cue from some of today's high school students who have shown that they have the chops to affect awareness and generate discussion around social issues that really matter. This is so weak. Maybe these Stanford students should consider backing away from their Facebook accounts for a while, laying off the selfies and Instagram for a few months, and developing some social relationships with real people who are in their everyday lives. Oh, and they should also do their homework and make sure they graduate with a degree that will allow them to get a job and become a productive member of society.
Sorry Stanford students for laughing at you, but you deserve it.
First of all, the students are not saying that they themselves have an addiction problem, they are saying that 50% of teens have an addiction problem, and that's backed up by research articles that they have cited. I'm sure we all agree with the findings of this research that phone addiction leads to stress, harm in relationships, and loss of productivity.
Now, the strategy that most of you are suggesting, "get some self control and put stop using your phone that much", and other variations of this, does not work for people who are already addicted. If it did, drug addicts would have simply been told to stop taking drugs and sent on their merry way.
I know everyone who commented here has self control and it's not a problem for them to say "These facebook notifications are getting annoying so let me just delete the app, and my facebook account while I'm at it (that's what I did many years ago)", but we are talking about children here, they don't have the same self control we do. They can't just put down the phone, or put it in airplane mode or something, they live in that world, so they don't want to put down the phone. I know the easiest thing to say to that is that it was the responsibility of the parents to make sure their kids don't get addicted, but guess what, many children don't have that kind of parent. Some parents are just bad parents, others are overworked, or simply don't know better. I am personally very involved in controlling how much screen time my children are getting, but I am fortunate enough to be able to do that. I have a job that allows me to spend enough time with my children so I am deeply involved in the process of raising them. Unfortunately not everyone is as fortunate as I am, and while some of you may be even more well-off than me, the majority of people are not, and we need to think about this from the perspective of the people who have the addiction problem. If you don't have the problem, then congratulations to you, but how about thinking of those who are not as fortunate as we are. That's what the Stanford students are doing.
Finally, what does all this have to do with Apple? Look around, every smartphone on the planet is either an iPhone or an iPhone clone, and when Apple does something, the others follow. Take end-to-end encryption for example, nobody was doing it until Apple started doing it. It wasn't even a thing before that. When Apple says: "we are serious about the privacy/security/etc... of our users", other companies start copying that, and even though they may not be doing as good a job as Apple is in that respect, at least these concerns are now in the conversation.
I imagine if Apple said "hey, this is what we are doing to protect our users agains addiction", other companies will start copying that. Long story short, the word "responsibility" has different meanings. You may be guilty of some crime, and you are responsible for fixing the damages. There is also social responsibility. This is the kind of responsibility that Apple has, which is that as a leader in the field, they have to do what is right and what is good for their users.
Going back to the privacy and security for a moment. Imagine if Apple's devices were not secure and they did not respect your privacy. Many people here will complain that Apple is not doing enough to protect our privacy when we use their device. Imagine at that point if someone told you "Grow up and get some self control. If you are worried about that piece of data going public, don't put it on your phone". The truth however is that we can't. Too much of our minds are now stored in the phone, so we couldn't possibly keep ALL sensitive information off the device. Thankfully Apple has done something to address this problem and we can be, at least to a certain degree, confident that our sensitive data will not be misused. Hopefully they will also do something about the phone addiction problem, which is clearly a problem for kids these days (not all kids, but a large percentage) and Apple doing something is their best shot.
My apologies for the long post.
- Smartphone use can be addicting like obsessive TV watching/computer gaming or compulsive gambling.
- A phone app is not going to stop hardcore phone internet/social network browsing.
* The iPhone already has things in the OS which track hours of use (between charges) & there are alarms in the OS which can be set to remind the user to turn off their device.
** Hard core addiction goes back to the user who should seek some kind of treatment/support.
It can be with therapy or support groups with the goal of changing the behavior of the user.
* The user needs to get to a point where they can turn off their phone and leave it off when they need to.
Only the user can do that.
I dont believe your community college kids claim its apples fault for making use of an iPhone 'addictive'.
Some articles are not worth publishing - I think this is one of them - surely there are more problems.
I used to be addicted to checking my email every 5 minutes until I realized id stopped being productive. Now I check 2 or 3 times in the morning, 3 or 4 times in the afternoon.
No one is forcing them to use an iPhone. Heck buy any junk Android phone, or better yet, a $20 flip phone, or best bet... don't use a phone at all?!
So then the 20-somethings I see today smoking cigarettes are within their right to sue tobacco companies for being too stupid to know better?
(Of course, the mocking from techie boyz is especially ironic, given how soft and weak-willed they are as well.)
We have control, even if the manual doesn’t say it.
1. Define the relationship: the phone serves me - not the other way around. It is for me to reach others, not for others to reach me.
Calls from unknown numbers, business, recruiters —> voicemail.
WhatsApp group that disturbed me while I was at work —> mute 1 or 8 hours.
2. Family members with emergencies will call me. Friends have that privilege but if they abuse it even once —> voicemail.
3. Disable notifications for any app that has ever disturbed me —> *BAM* notifications neutered. No 2nd chances!
- Facebook
- Twitter
- TED Talks (“watch this!” No! Go away!)
- YouTube
- heart rate variance monitor (“time to measure yourself” No! Time to chop off your notifications!)
- any ad
- any pity message (“we haven’t heard from you in a while” Yes! That’s the last we’ll hear of each other!)
These companies profit from our Fear Of Missing Out.
The worst offender, by far, is the company that starts with F and ends with K. I consider 2 Factor Authentication a good thing, but they insist I use SMS, and then they spammed me, with no way to turn it off. I’m not signing up for that kind of abuse. No more 2FA with you, and no way I’m using you for OAuth. And no, even if you fix it, you already lost me due to the blatant disrespect. Get your dirty hands off my attention!
No, because, thanks to "draconian government interventionist legislation" all packets of cigarettes are now labelled "WARNING: SMOKING MAY SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH". The problem isn't entirely mitigated, and the tobacco companies are still trying to work their way round the various restrictions placed on them in order to cling to a share of a dwindling market, but in this day and age, you've a job convincing a jury that all the labels and advertising about the health risks of smoking somehow didn't register with you.
Apple could take the Alcohol industry approach and just put labels on their devices saying "Use responsibly". Harder would be enforcing rules about sale to "obviously addicted individuals".
"I'd like to buy an iPhone, please"
"I'm sorry, sir. Don't you think you've had enough already?"
"Nonsense, I've only had a little one. I just want another for the road."
"No chance, sunshine. You're barred!"