It’s not a trick. Just like eating sugar, or drinking alcohol etc. you need to have the self awareness to say “hey I’m indulging too much in this and this is not good for me, let me take a break”.

I think my first post on lemmy was about the necessity of limiting algorithms on social media. So I’m in favor of that. But even before social media people were getting addicted to online interaction, like I have met people that have told me they were addicted to chatrooms in the 90s and early 2000s. So even if you do limit the power of the algorithm you’ll still have people glued to their screens scrolling for hours.

so much bullshit

And then what? Go back to the stone age?

Kids waiting to get picked at school and their parents have emergency, how are they gonna inform the others to get picked up? Are they gonna just let that kid suck it up and wait for hours, just like the good old times?

Greed isn't limited to any one economic system, I fear.

What? Corded phones exist, and most schools and offices have at least one in each room. Dumb phones exist. Pagers exist.

Smart phones are not the only singular solution for easy, quick contact.

Author admits smartphones are ubiquitous, and doesn't at all consider, in a hypothetical situation where everyone unanimously agreed to stop using them, where all this e-waste will go?

Also, how do you disillusion the millions of people that use them religiously?

I get the sentiment, but only a significant technologically literate society would really appreciate the need for greater control over their devices and actually possess the skills needed to modify and configure them.

And what does it have to do with smartphones?

You said they make us "more social". I said they don't.

You think that "social media" is "antisocial"? Well, then write it as "ban social media"

Also acceptable.

You realized I said "replaced"?

There is no other economic system.

And "greed" isn't really the problem with capitalism. It's more about the violent deprivation of human needs in order to exploit people for the extreme privilege of a tiny minority. Etc.

I'm pretty far down the luddite/makhaevist wormhole... But this is just a garbage idea.

You mean it's not the genocide, exploitation, imperialism, etc? It's just social media? Peak capitalist apologism.

Author admits smartphones are ubiquitous, and doesn’t at all consider, in a hypothetical situation where everyone unanimously agreed to stop using them, where all this e-waste will go?

Pretty much every single smartphone in use right now will be ewaste 20 years from now, and most of them will be within 10. So we have that disposal problem already regardless. Hypothetically, if everyone were to get rid of their phones, we'd at least stop creating even more future ewaste.

Because luddism is good. But this article aint it.

So you used to hang out with your friends and share articles and comment on them in person then upvote/downvote and moderate? ok sure whatever you say...

No it isn’t. Technology is the evolutionary adaptation of humanity. It would be like a tiger cutting off its claws, or a rabbit breaking its own legs.

This left wing Luddite attitude is simply fueled by fucking tribalism because it wasn’t really anywhere to be found until the tech bros turned republican.

Current smart phones will become e-waste either way. On that front, the benefit would be forcing all manufacturers to stop creating more e-waste for the future.

So you used to hang out with your friends

Yes

The stone age = any time before 2005 apparently

I've been able to turn off notifications for anything on my phone. Only the few apps I choose to allow still give me notifications.

I am fortunate to have a job that does not require a cell phone, I can leave it behind for hours at a time without affecting my work. I know this is not the case for everyone, but it should be an option.

At the very least, a phone required for work should have a separate phone number and email account, and should turn off automatically after the employee clocks out for the day. Some countries already have laws about this stuff, we should do that more.

Ban social media and advertising/marketing. Smart phones are just a small computer.