Ex-tech employees target tech addiction
Published 12:00 am Sunday, February 11, 2018
- The Center for Humane Technology is launching an awareness campaign called “Truth about Tech.” (Igor Stevanovic/Dreamstime/TNS)
Former Google and Facebook employees — and early investors — are launching a campaign to warn people about the dangers of the technology they helped create.
Roger McNamee, Tristan Harris and others have been agitating for change at companies such as Facebook. They’ve formed a coalition, the Center for Humane Technology, and are launching a huge awareness campaign called The Truth about Tech.
Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube “are not neutral products,” the website for the Center for Humane Technology states. “They are part of a system designed to addict us.”
McNamee, a longtime tech investor who was an early backer of Facebook, and Rogers, former design ethicist at Google, have been sounding an alarm about the ill effects of technology and social media. In a recent interview with NBC News, they slammed Facebook for its role in spreading misinformation during the 2016 presidential campaign and election. McNamee has penned op-eds about his suggestions on how to “fix” Facebook.
This Wednesday in Washington, Harris will join tech and health experts and lawmakers at Common Sense Media’s conference, “Truth about Tech: How Tech Has Kids Hooked.”
“Tech companies are conducting a massive, real-time experiment on our kids, and, at present, no one is really holding them accountable,” said James Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense. “Facebook appeals to your lizard brain — primarily fear and anger,” McNamee told the New York Times, explaining his involvement with the campaign. “And with smartphones, they’ve got you for every waking moment.”