Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity
<i>&gt; The real answer to solving technology addiction is the answer to sustainably solving most problems: innovation spurred by capitalism. A new group of businesses needs to emerge that gives us the choice to help ourselves and rediscover the benefits of disconnection.</i><p><i>&gt; Dieting may be the most helpful analogy here. In the US, many of us have poor diets either on occasion or frequently. Few of us have the discipline to eat well for long periods of time to optimize our health. When we gain too much weight, we pay for a personal trainer or a diet program or a book or an app to get us back on track.</i><p>Is this article real, or a brilliantly crafted satire of Silicon Valley VC culture?<p>The weight loss industry is worth $66 billion and obesity in the US has never been worse than it is today. Arguing that we should let unfettered capitalism solve tech addition like it&#x27;s solved obesity is... I don&#x27;t even know how to finish that sentence it&#x27;s such an inane fly-in-the-face-of-reality statement.<p><i>&gt; People that use those solutions to effectively curb negative habits will end up happier and more prosperous than others, just like it’s always been. How’s that for incentive?</i><p>Completely insufficient is how it is. If long-term incentives were enough to prevent people from making poor short-term decisions, we wouldn&#x27;t have addiction or obesity in the first place.<p>The tool that has been effective at getting a large number of people to make choices that favor long-term outcomes over short-term ones is <i>culture</i>. By attaching a heavy negative moral weight to a poor short-term choice, we leverage the emotional wiring people already have so that they are able to push against their urge and do what&#x27;s best for their long-term health and for society as a whole.<p>Cigarette use has cut in half over the past fifty years. That didn&#x27;t happen because tobacco startups invented innovative technology, and it didn&#x27;t happen because we outlawed them. It happened because we shifted the culture. Instead of cigarettes being cool, sophisticated, and intellectual, they are gross, selfish, and dirty.