Smartphone-Phobics Fear Political Implications Of Tech Addiction

Tech executive Justin Rosenstein, in his mid-30s, has become aware of the psychological dangers of smartphone culture to a point that some might call paranoid.

The attention economy has changed society and behavior (not to mention, of course, the economy), but the extent to which we need to “protect” ourselves from it is not obvious. Even given increasing research on how the reward centers of the brain are activated and become addicted to likes and messages, most of the public doesn’t seem too concerned.

Tellingly, some of the most wary are tech insiders themselves—“heretics” within their own industry. Many have reported on this phenomenon, and Paul Lewis’ article here (besides including a ton of scary numbers about how much we use our devices) highlights the political implications of smartphone addiction among others.

After all, habits are often subconscious behaviors, and it’s clearly possible for companies to engineer and influence how people act and react online. Lewis writes:

“Drawing a straight line between addiction to social media and political earthquakes like Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump, they contend that digital forces have completely upended the political system."

It is true that the average of 2,617 swipes and taps on the phones that most of us make every day have led to a situation where we have difficulty concentrating, and that many of us act mindlessly online according to deeply ingrained habits. But to what extent are these compulsions actually preventing us from reasoning and from recognizing when we are being manipulated? Here's hoping we find out before the next US election.