From “After Babel”, a substack written in part by Jonathan Haidt. This is a guest post from Professor Nicholas Smyth, who teaches a course called “Ethnics and the Internet”.
“One thing I’ve been learning is that opposition to smartphones and to social media is definitely not just a “kids these days” phenomenon, because the kids themselves are often far more jaded and angry about digital technology than I am.
“On day one, I always put Jon’s question to my class: if you could erase the smartphone and social media from ever having existed, would you do it? Over the past three years, 81% of them have said ‘yes’.1 These students are of course not representative of the general student population, but even if the real number were something like 50%, something very funny is going on. I ask them: can you think of a new technology, at any point in history, where half of its primary users quickly wished that it had never been invented?
“[…]What other tech is like this? The only clear analogue my students usually come up with is the nuclear bomb. Famously, creators and possessors of the bomb often fervently wished they could put that genie back into that bottle. Yet, what does it say about the smartphone and social media that their clearest analogue here is a technology that could easily destroy the entire surface of the earth several times over? “
“My students, upon encountering McLuhan’s idea, immediately see that the smartphone and its typical apps must also be communicating such messages. This year, they offered these examples: your voice matters, people want to see you, you can be popular. It doesn’t matter how many educational podcasts or instructional videos someone consumes, they are holding a device which is delivering these unconscious messages, and those messages are changing them. And readers of this blog know that those changes are not always for the best.”
Reading Freely 
I definitely prefer to talk more personally, like on the blogs! or in person, or in texts or email penpal letters.
I don’t think that the technology is the problem. Smartphones – actually computers MUCH more than simple phones – *could* be incredibly useful. Having the ENITRE worlds knowledge and experience in your pocket (or more often gripped in the hand life a lifebelt) *could* be the most amazing thing ever…. But look at how we use it…. Sure people are being manipulated by Facebook or Twitter, by the much talked about ‘algorithms’ (as if they’re magical creatures or such), but ultimately its WE who sign up for this, its WE who have Facebook accounts and Twitter feeds… We do it to ourselves… Being ‘addicted’ is no excuse. Its a choice. Either we master the technology or it (or its owners) will master us. Choose wisely….
Right, I think it also matters the mindset you have while using it. Like if you compare yourself, that isn’t the technology’s fault, it’s not per say the person’s fault, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
I definitely prefer to talk more personally, like on the blogs! or in person, or in texts or email penpal letters. (I reposted this comment because I wasn’t logged in at first so I was shown as Anonymous)
Understandable! WP has gotten wonky in this past year..