i support the notion of asking Apple to increase their parental controls to be more like Mac OS with timers, blackout periods, restricting contacts etc for kids.
but the idea that Apple should be parenting adults and their usage beyond those controls is a big no thank you. you are an adult, controlling what you do is part of the job.
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.
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.
My apologies for the long post.
Excellent comment. Glad to see that there's an adult in the room.
I DARE them to put it down for good. Let’s see if they can last a week.
That would send them to the emergency room with withdrawal as bad as from heroin. Constantly checking your device is a bit excessive. And these kids go to Stanford, which is supposedly for very smart students. gawd. Others have demanded that Apple modify their phones to prevent texting and driving..sheesh.. Perhaps next they will demand Apple block offensive/pornographic content? Or ending annoying e-mails. And perhaps allowing phone usage to be blocked in, for example, the dining room? Come on, get a grip and act like an adult. The leaders of the group are all Computer Science Majors ----- Seriously? SERIOUSLY???
Comments
but the idea that Apple should be parenting adults and their usage beyond those controls is a big no thank you. you are an adult, controlling what you do is part of the job.
Done. Parental Controls.
Done. Spam filters.
No one asked for that.
Sure, why not?