My Idea for Improving the World

Seriously, I think this is a great idea, and as far as I know, nobody has proposed or tried it.

The government should mount an anti-phone addiction campaign, similar in concept to the (I think successful) campaigns that it has executed against:

- smoking
- drinking and driving
- distracted driving

Things like: commercials, posters and such. Maybe some tax and other commercial disincentives against social media companies.

Seriously, I can't think of any downsides to this idea, other than it might not work and therefore be a small waste of money. It seems like a risk well worth taking.

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I am so increasingly perturbed by this problem that I was musing about how or if I could get rid of my phone. My only real non-guilt inducing phone uses are a) Strava (could replace with a GPS watch), b) Spotify (could replace with a Spotify player, yup they exist c) WhatsApp (could just use it on my Macbook only, as I often do anyway).

The problem is that a GPS watch + Spotify player would cost about the same as a phone, and on reflection, I could almost get the same effect by deleting / disabling the web browser on my phone along with the YouTube app.

I will keep thinking about this.

---

From an Economist podcast: "the greatest threat facing the US is not Xi [Jinping, China] pr Putin. It's the big tech companies" -- some academic who just wrote a book about liberalism

We were in a restaurant in Aus, in a nice quiet corner, when a family of 8 came in and we both looked at each other like "oh great, there goes our quiet time". Not to worry, I swear, 7 of them took out their phones and not a word was spoken except to order food. #8 was what looked like a Grandpa who just say there, phoneless, with his head in his hands.

I have been occassionally listening to "how to improve your life" podcasts. One of the comments, this from some psych prof from Harvard or something: we NEED to be bored. Constantly being stimulated by your phone is bad for your mental health in all sorts of well documented ways. You should actively seek out time each day with not only no phone, but no Spotify or TV or reading or even music either.

---

The government should mount an anti-phone addiction campaign,
The government should mount an anti-phone addiction campaign,
The government should mount an anti-phone addiction campaign,
The government should mount an anti-phone addiction campaign,
The government should mount an anti-phone addiction campaign,
The government should mount an anti-phone addiction campaign,

(Wait ... should it be anti phone addiction, no hyphen?)

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