Phone on Feminism

https://conversationalist.org/2019/09/13/feminism-explains-our-toxic-relationships-with-our-smartphones/

by cratermoon • 13 days ago

7 4 13 days ago

All of that to just give up and offer none of the practical advice that already exists to address many of the issues.

Imagine the article were discussing human relations, pointed out all of these problems, and ended with "yeah, idk, revolution I guess" instead of concrete actions every single reader can take to improve their own lives.

just as we don’t fix climate change by individually eschewing plastic straws, we don’t fix our smartphones’ designed-in lack of trust by individually trying to spend a bit less time on Twitter.

Is such a copout. The suggestion is that everyone should just continue to suffer until some unknown future in which the government fixes it for us? If you believe plastic straws are harming your life, you find an alternative while campaigning for change. If you believe your phone is spying on you, you make it stop while campaigning for change.

krapp• 13 days ago

Cool. How would you make your phone stop spying on you, right now?

Presumably you still need to use it, so simply turning it off and throwing it out and never using a smartphone again isn't an option. So how you you keep using your phone while making it stop spying on you?

apothegm• 13 days ago

Okay? This article is about the campaigning for change part. It doesn’t say you shouldn’t make those tweaks. Just that you shouldn’t have to and we should change that.

cratermoon• 13 days ago

The second bullet point on the abusive aspects of phones address specifically your argument:

"They tell us the onus is on us to manage their behavior. It’s our job to tiptoe around them and limit their harms. Spending too much time on a literally-designed-to-be-behaviorally-addictive phone? They send company-approved messages about our online time, but ban from their stores the apps that would really cut our use. We just need to use willpower. We just need to be good enough to deserve them."

The abuser's refrain of "it's your fault, look what you made me do" is well-known.

Phone on Feminism

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