It was the big tech equivalent of \u201cdrink responsibly\u201d or the gambling industry\u2019s \u201csafer play\u201d; the latest milestone in Silicon Valley\u2019s year of apology. Earlier this month, Facebook and Instagram announced new tools for users to set time limits on their platforms, and a dashboard to monitor one\u2019s daily use, following Google\u2019s introduction of Digital Well Being features.<\/p>\n
In doing so the companies seemed to suggest that spending time on the internet is not a desirable, healthy habit, but a pleasurable vice: one that if left uncontrolled may slip into unappealing addiction.<\/p>\n
Having secured our attention more completely than ever dreamed, they now are carefully admitting it\u2019s time to give some of it back, so we can meet our children\u2019s eyes unfiltered by Clarendon or Lark; go see a movie in a theater; or contra Apple\u2019s ad for its watch, even go surfing without \u2014 heaven forfend \u2014 \u201cchecking in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe liberation of human attention may be the defining moral and political struggle of our time,\u201d writes James Williams, a technologist turned philosopher and the author of a new book, \u201cStand Out of Our Light.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n We need to master our devices, not let them master us.<\/p>\n Finding It Hard to Focus? Maybe It\u2019s Not Your Fault https:\/\/t.co\/zlCQtu1QE3<\/a><\/p>\n — Philip Cannon (@epcannon) August 18, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n