"There's been this sort of clamor for something to happen for long enough that even people who wouldn't really care to be reading the news of tech policy every single day will be internalizing this idea of like: Social media and smartphones are really bad for us, and I should be trying to use mine less."
"“It's Obviously the Phones.” That was the title of a viral Substack essay that came out in March of 2024. Magdalene Taylor, a writer who focuses on sexuality and culture, was trying to articulate why fewer Americans were having sex or going out with friends. There were, she argued, all kinds of factors at play here for increased isolation and alienation in American life. But all of them, she argued, felt abstract compared to the one that was staring her in the face: “The problem,” she wrote, “is obviously our phones.”"
"“It's Obviously the Phones” is less an argument that cites endless empirical evidence as much as it says: Look around. Look how everyone is behaving. How could these devices that we carry around with us every moment of the day not be changing us? Now, about a w"
A growing movement argues that smartphones and social media harm well-being, supported by personal experiences and cultural observations. One example involves swapping an iPhone for a flip phone as part of “Month Offline,” describing both benefits and inconveniences of using a dumbphone. Even when many people accept that phones are a problem, legal and policy efforts against large technology companies continue alongside public skepticism. Viral claims often rely on visible behavior rather than extensive empirical evidence. Scientific understanding of direct harm is still far from conclusive, leaving room for debate about causation and magnitude of effects.
Read at The Atlantic
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