Is Big Tech Playing Us?

The free platforms we have all come to know and love have been buying our attention this whole time.

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Has anyone else noticed technology’s unsettling grip on our present-day world? Every so often, you might find yourself at a get-together where one or most of the guests fiddle with their phone in the middle of a conversation like it's a kind of fix. 

Every so often, you might find that you are, indeed, one of these guests. It’s reminiscent of the way smokers step outside for a puff or sugar addicts reach for a pint of ice cream at midnight (I will admit that the latter is me).

Why is it that phone addictions aren’t taken as seriously as other kinds? Alcohol kills livers. Smoking kills lungs. Sugar rots teeth. Don’t phones rot our brains and kill our time?

Excessive phone use is sweeping the world. In the United States alone, 31% of adults and 46% of teenagers report being online “almost constantly,” according to recent research. Children are being exposed to substantial screen time younger and younger. Young adults are finding it increasingly difficult to break digital habits that have been instilled in them for years.

So, why does it matter? Well, my natural human instinct is to be revolted at the thought of living most of my life behind a phone screen. There’s something about “iPad kids,” “doomscrolling,” and being “chronically online” that feels so incompatible with living a fulfilling life.

Although the research is still young, there have been several studies drawing a correlation between increased social media and technology use and depression. 

One 2020 study identified several potential harmful effects of technology use, including reduced attention span, impaired emotional and social intelligence, social isolation, impaired cognitive and brain development, and disrupted sleep. 

Anecdotally, I have witnessed the ways phone addiction has contributed to unhappiness in my own life and the lives of people around me.

I spoke with my former professor, Clark Chilson, at the University of Pittsburgh to get a diverse perspective on the technological epidemic happening right under our fingertips. He specializes in religion in Asia, having taught courses at Pitt, such as Buddhism and Psychology and Popular Religion in a Changing Japan, since 2006. 

From a young age, he has always been interested in figuring out how we should live our lives. He knew that delving into religious studies was one way to address such a question. 

“We have to deal with the world that we’re placed in,” Chilson says. “The world did not look like this 30 years ago…It will not look like this 30 years from now.”

Let’s face it - technology exists. We use our phones as alarms, as navigation systems, as a way to communicate. It would be pretty impossible to live without them in this day and age. While our phones can be useful tools, most of the time we use it to watch Netflix, shop online, scroll social media, or play games. According to Chilson (and let’s be real - common sense), our phones are 90% a waste of our time.

“The algorithm is designed to suck you in,” he says, seeing phones as neither evil nor neutral. Perhaps we can call it chaotic neutral. 

Despite the constant pull of the algorithm, many of us are aware of our phone addictions, but let it happen, not caring about or giving thought to the way it could harm us. Chilson defines an addiction as knowing you would be better off not doing something, and continuing to do it anyway. Of course, this is a loose definition, but we can use it to assess the habits in our lives that may not be very good for us.

The “attention economy” is designed to keep us scrolling, tapping, or watching, all the while companies make a hefty profit. The way I see it, it’s like a giant industrial dairy farm but our brains are the ones being milked… no wonder our collective mental health is plummeting. What’s even scarier is that the possible long-term negative consequences of prolonged technology use are going unnoticed, or worse: ignored. 

It’s imperative that we all start questioning the world around us, the way it functions, and the way we function in it. Next time you think about picking up your phone, letting 10 minutes turn into a few hours, think about how it was designed and how those free apps may actually come with a silent cost (aka your precious time, potential, and peace of mind).

Rather than ask ourselves “How can I stop using technology?” Chilson proposes a different question: “How can I have a healthy relationship with technology?”

Finding this balance can be incredibly challenging, but the quality of our lives depend on it.