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posted by martyb on Tuesday February 06 2018, @04:38AM   Printer-friendly
from the take-two-tablets-and-oh...-wait...hold-the-phone...oh...no?...uh-oh dept.

Silicon Valley technologists, including former Google and Facebook employees, have formed the Center for Humane Technology:

A group of Silicon Valley technologists who were early employees at Facebook and Google, alarmed over the ill effects of social networks and smartphones, are banding together to challenge the companies they helped build.

The cohort is creating a union of concerned experts called the Center for Humane Technology. Along with the nonprofit media watchdog group Common Sense Media, it also plans an anti-tech addiction lobbying effort and an ad campaign at 55,000 public schools in the United States.

The campaign, titled The Truth About Tech, will be funded with $7 million from Common Sense and capital raised by the Center for Humane Technology. Common Sense also has $50 million in donated media and airtime from partners including Comcast and DirecTV. It will be aimed at educating students, parents and teachers about the dangers of technology, including the depression that can come from heavy use of social media.

"We were on the inside," said Tristan Harris, a former in-house ethicist at Google who is heading the new group. "We know what the companies measure. We know how they talk, and we know how the engineering works."

Omidyar Network is listed as a key advisor/supporter.

Also at TIME.

Related: How Facebook Can Be Addictive
Facebook Founding President Sounds Alarm, Criticizes Facebook
Another Former Facebook Exec Speaks Out
FBI Whistleblower on Pierre Omidyar and His Campaign to Neuter Wikileaks


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @12:45PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @12:45PM (#633776)

    Oh, it exists all right.

    I was reminded of that this morning when yet another woman wheeled her baby out into the middle of the road in front of my car while face down in her phone.

    Once again I chose not to run them over, like every other morning, so far.

  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday February 06 2018, @07:13PM (1 child)

    by frojack (1554) on Tuesday February 06 2018, @07:13PM (#634040) Journal

    That is not e definition of an addiction.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @11:02AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @11:02AM (#634364)

      Nor is that emoticon in your message header an E.