Professor Gaia Bernstein is an expert in privacy and policy law, and is co-director of Gibbons Institute of Law Science and Technology.
Her latest book "Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies" explores device addiction and what it’s doing to us. Rather than blaming users, the book really shatters the illusion that we autonomously choose how to spend our time online. It shifts the moral responsibility and accountability for solutions to corporations.
Drawing lessons from the tobacco and food industries, the book demonstrates why government regulation is necessary to curb technology addiction.
If you’re concerned about your screen time, or what too much screen time is doing to you let alone your kids - this episode is an epic.
00:00 Introduction
02:30 Interview Start
04:07 Screen time epidemic
04:38 Maniuplation
06:31 Data collection
09:09 Tech companies' blame shifting
11:57 Why are these devices addictive
17:31 Abusive design
20:58 Effect of phones on children's brains
26:49 Online/Offline life balance
28:58 Addiction
35:21 Government interventions
37:45 What can individuals do
39:28 Changing a physical space
41:48 Technology balance with kids
44:33 Digital detox
48:19 Things to adjust on our phones
49:27 People to look to