Actually, it refers to an interesting movement which seems to be taking hold in a number of places globally, where local people have simply had enough of being used purely for marketing purposes and to make a relatively small number of people obscenely wealthy. You don’t know what I am talking about, then ? Think Mark Zuckerberg and his creations or acquisitions of FaceBook, Instagram and Meta which have been handed huge fines amounting to more than US$ 18 billion – and that is only in the USA. Naturally, because he is so wealthy, his legal team will ensure. . . . .well, that he pays rather less and that his reputation remains ‘relatively’ unsullied. The lawsuit accused the company of deliberately designing addictive social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram) that harmed children's mental health. That’s just for starters.
The news-feed this morning headlines what the Australian Government is doing to curb this money generating system in Australia, and the discussion is widespread. Some of the users of that addictive software want to be allowed to continue to use it as before, making one remember the huge fights over banning tobacco advertising – and to a lesser extent, alcohol - forgetting that it was all about addiction. Then think of the addictions of hard drugs and gambling, too.
For UNICEF which theoretically champions the welfare of children, it would seem that the choice is obvious, but we can see the lines being drawn in the Australian sand already. Is the choice to be opt-in or opt-out ? Will the hours of use of the software be regulated – as if this is even relevant. Having seen how tobacco and alcohol addiction affected my mother’s family, I obviously have quite strong views in the matter.
We all seem to notice only those things that affect us directly. Where I live in an area which attracts a lot of ‘holiday’ people who do not have the money to be able to hop on to a plane and jet off to the other side of the world, we have a particular problem – how our visitors use the sidewalks when they are not simply walking in the road as if they own the place. Many of them appear to be studying their ‘devices’ – probably telling their friends how they wished they were with them ‘there’ and not where they occupy our sidewalks.
For some of us locals, this has become a game. How far can the studying-device-visitor proceed before bumping straight into someone who is actually looking where he/she is going, and is unwilling to provide right-of-way to the visitor who wishes that he/she wasn’t where he/she is ? Personally, I pretend to sneeze at the last possible moment in the hope that the device will be dropped and smash. I’ve come close to it, and hope to achieve it yet. . . . .but will the visitors take note and do something about it ? Probably not, because it boils down to their perceived ‘entitlement’, doesn’t it ?
Unfortunately, most ‘devices’ these days are effectively water-proof, so that spilling one’s drink over a prominently displayed device is unlikely to cause any damage. A pity, because I understand that visitors in our local ‘pub’ seem to have taken to placing their (obviously top-end model) phones on the table or counter so that others can admire their wealth; and they don’t even have the courtesy to mute them. In case you wondered – I don’t go to the pub as I’m deaf. There were times when I did, that I had to use hand signals to indicate my request hoping that the publican would use hand gestures in response. Now that I remain at home, a look – or body-language - is all I need to understand what my wife wants to say.
Does anyone have any ideas how to incline our visitors to behave rationally ? Comments are invited and are absolutely free ! Creativity is encouraged.
How come that only the visitors to Cornwall, but not the natives, are addicted to their phones? I wonder: do the locals know how to operate a smartphone? 🤔
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