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The engineer that coded a prototype for the Facebook “like” button and helped create Gchat during a stint at Google has banned himself from social media applications.
Justin Rosenstein, 34, told The Guardian that he tweaked his laptop to block Reddit, banned himself from Snapchat, which he has described as addictive as heroin, and has imposed restrictions on his use of Facebook.
Rosenstein went a step further by purchasing a new iPhone and instructing his assistant to impose parental-controls that prevent him from downloading any apps.
He now describes the “like” button -- what was called an “awesome” button when he coded the prototype for the feature years ago -- "as hollow as it is seductive" and “likes” as “bright dings of pseudo-pleasure.”
Why has he sworn off social media apps?
“Everyone is distracted,” said Rosenstein. “All of the time.”
He currently leads a San Francisco-based company named Asana “that improves office productivity, appears most concerned about the psychological effects on people who, research shows, touch, swipe or tap their phone 2,617 times a day,” The Guardian reports.
“There is growing concern that as well as addicting users, technology is contributing toward so-called ‘continuous partial attention’, severely limiting people’s ability to focus, and possibly lowering IQ,” writes The Guardian. “One recent study showed that the mere presence of smartphones damages cognitive capacity – even when the device is turned off.”
Rosenstein is part of a growing number of Silicon Valley employees who have grown critical of the products they’ve helped create.
"It is very common for humans to develop things with the best of intentions and for them to have unintended, negative consequences," Rosenstein said.
"One reason I think it is particularly important for us to talk about this now is that we may be the last generation that can remember life before," he argued.
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