Smartphones make us more social, allowing us to reach each other ad hoc, not just by planning the meeting for a week. They makes us more free by providing helping tools like GPS and similar. They make us happier by helping to kill time while standing in the line or riding on the bus.

You're doing something wrong.

Social media has replaced and ruined real human interaction.

And what does it have to do with smartphones? You think that "social media" is "antisocial"? Well, then write it as "ban social media". Be precise with formulations.

Smartphones are fine, it's just a small computer that can make calls and is connected to the internet. You're using it wrong.

If people can't control themselves or their kids, it's not my problem.

Not your problem yet

That being said: just banning smartphones isn’t gonna cut it.

Ban smartphones makes about as much sense as ban drugs or ban guns. It does nothing to address root causes and will do little to change anything for the better. Societal issues take more than “make X illegal”.

It's a lot of problems that I would never solve on my own, and both politicians and citizens don't want to change: social media and AI are destroying humans, shitty parents dont want to take care of their kids, and climate change is destroying the world. It's inevitable but the smartphone that I use is not responsible.

Many of us want to disconnect, but we can’t do so alone — not without losing touch with the world around us. Disconnection, today, carries real social and economic costs. Until such time as smartphones and social media can be democratically governed or nationalized — liberated from the imperative to profit off our attention indefinitely — a ban may be the most realistic path to reclaiming our lives.

If the author can't stop using whatever website he's upset about without requiring everyone else to have their smartphones banned, that sounds like a him problem.

relevant xkcd

can we just ban people in general instead?

You realize you're on social media right now?

Even better, let's make being happy mandatory.

There are 6, 7 and 8 inch laptops available for all the on-the-go computing you need.

Social media, algorithms and echo chambers they create are 80% of the problem degrading societies.

Not all social media. But we know what you are talking about. The clout culture and instant gratification is what ruining them.

Banning one would only create thousands of copycats. And don't think they won't come here, if Lemmy, Mastodon or Pixelfed gets popular.

No. If you wanna ditch the Internet, go right ahead.

This is literally not a problem with smartphones, the problem is about the software you decide to run on it. A smartphone is simply a very powerful pocket computer.

It's not a problem that can meaningfully be dealt with on an individual level.

I recommend Johann Hari's book Stolen Focus. It goes deep into influencing factors of why we are having such a hard time of putting our devices down. The first he lists: giant tech companies are employing the smartest people on earth (i.e., smarter than you or me) to maximize engagement. The cards are heavily stacked against any single one of us trying to break free from these skinner boxes. The threat of social isolation you mock the blog's author for is of course another ace up Meta's sleeve. The book among other things tries to relieve the feeling of individual failure at this insurmountable task of constantly fending off the targeted attacks on our attention- I paraphrase: "You didn't fail, it was a losing battle to begin with."

If you yourself don't have this problem, I'm glad for you and I hope it lasts. Many, many people do, and there are ever more tragic news headlines to show for it. We as a society (or is that societies?) need to regulate the tech-oligarchs, and fast. I have some hope left at least for the EU coming around on it.