The Tech Placebo

TikTok has launched a great way to avoid overusing TikTok. It’s called TikTok. As the NYT (Gift Article) explains, the app maker has responded to claims it’s been harming users’ mental health with “a new option: a nightly in-app guided meditation exercise that is turned on by default for users under 18. At 10 p.m., their For You Page is overtaken by a blue screen and relaxing music, and the user is guided to ‘inhale,’ ‘hold’ and ‘exhale.” I’d have to inhale, hold, and exhale some pretty strong stuff to believe the latest iteration of one of the longest running snake oil pitches: the notion that the problems cause by technology can best be solved with more technology. I’ve been writing about this issue for years, from the perspective of an addicted insider. Trust me, being more connected can’t cure us of being too connected. Being more wired can’t make us less wired. Using one more app will never equal using one less app. There just isn’t an app for that. The idea that we need a technological solution for too much technology is, at best, the Internet era’s great placebo effect. We feel like we’re getting a little better, but that’s just part of the same addiction. Because it’s their business, tech companies really have no choice but to try to convince us that we’re just one more piece of technology away from the solution; but it’s like telling us we can use heroin to kick our methadone habit—when we all know deep down that the off switch is the only true killer app. (But who has the attention span to go deep down anymore?)