The tech companies are not so saying that, but what they're mainly doing is giving us these tools. So we can see how much time we spent on our phone. We can even limit how muchtime we spent on the app. All of these measures are there to give us the feeling that we can do this, but they don't really target their data features. They're just there to make sure that we should blame ourselves. I've never heard of another industry that calls the consumers users.
This week I was both excited and intrigued to welcome Gaia Bernstein to the show for an eye opening talk about the addictive nature of technology. Gaia is a Law Professor, Co-Director of the Institute for Privacy Protection and Co-Director of the Gibbons Institute for Law Science and Technology at the Seton Hall University School of Law. She writes, teaches and lectures in the intersection of law, technology, health and privacy.
In her new book, Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies she shatters the illusion that we can control how much time we spend on our screens by resorting to self-help measures. Unwired shifts the responsibility for a solution from users to the technology industry, which designs its products to addicts. The book draws out the legal action that can pressure the technology industry to re-design its products to reduce technology overuse.
Gaia has academic degrees in both law and psychology. Her research combines findings from psychology, sociology, science and technology studies with law and policy. Gaia’s research has been featured extensively by the media including the New York Times, Forbes, ABC News and Psychology Today.
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