Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ares623 3 hours ago
There are degrees to it. The current problem has a "perfect storm" aspect to it, with multiple pieces working together in perfect harmony.

1. a "small" device that a person can use while moving

2. cheap/free internet access (wifi and/or mobile data)

3. high fidelity display with high refresh rate

4. a camera (I would probably group this together with 3)

Disabling 2 or 3 of those would short circuit the delivery mechanism of the "opioid" while still allowing the device to fulfill its more "useful" purposes.

Examples:

- A small internet device without a hi-res display _and_ a camera is still useful for "knowledge at your fingertips", communication, navigation, payments, etc.

- A device with a hi-res display, with a camera, with internet access, but not "small" is either a laptop or a tablet. That breaks the mechanism of one-half of social media addiction, which is the capability to instantly create and upload content right on the spot. (Although I would argue a tablet will still have that problem)

- A camera that doesn't have internet access can still allow a user to record events, but uploading the content will have to be delayed to a later time. A fair trade-off in my opinion.

And this is all possible with current hardware, by extending Parental Controls to disable the camera, and/or internet access, and/or handicapping the beautiful crown jewel displays.