From Chris Tucker, Cambridge, UK
Researcher Jess Maddox is right: the distinction between smartphones and social media isn’t just pedantry. The social disruption happens because each person who uses algorithmic social media apps is being shown content tailored to keep that individual angry and acquisitive, and because users can be vile and threatening without negative consequences. Then the angry people “find their tribe”, and soon there are real victims (5 April, p 21).
Let’s not ban smartphones. Let’s make sure that our children see a world in which there are better ways to use this amazing technology, without the corrosive effects of the attention economy, advertising and online gambling.
