A group of high-profile Silicon Valley investors and early employees of Facebook and Google have formed a coalition to battle tech addiction and hold big tech companies accountable for their impact on our psyches — after “profiting enormously” from them, of course.
The group, called the Center for Humane Technology, will lobby for anti-tech addiction legislation and launch an ad campaign titled “The Truth About Tech” to 55k public US schools.
Among those leading the CHT charge are Tristan Harris, a former ethicist at Google, Justin Rosenstein, the inventor of Facebook’s “like” button, and Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor.
Big tech is having an identity crisis
First it was Mark Zuckerberg’s vision quest across America, followed by sweeping algorithm changes to fight fake news.
Then it was Apple’s investors, Facebook co-creator Sean Parker, and most recently Tim Cook taking a stand against tech addiction.
One-by-one, major players have been stepping forward to speak out against the social media machine, either out of guilt, spite, or, as McNamee puts it, an opportunity “to correct a wrong.”
Meanwhile, cable TV also spies an opportunity…
Cable providers like Comcast and DirecTV are capitalizing on not being child brain-melter #1 in the eyes of the public for once. They’re working with media watchdog group Common Sense Media to give the CHT $50m in free airtime for their campaign.
“Remember the good old days? You know, when we all plugged into the tube as a FAMILY?” — Cable TV