London: Amid escalating debate about the negative effect of social media and smartphone usage, some former employees of Google and Facebook have launched a campaign to warn users about the danger of tech addiction.
The campaign, called The Truth About Tech, also seeks to address more wide-ranging problems caused by technology, including its power to influence our relationships and even our political beliefs.
"We were on the inside. We know what the companies measure. We know how they talk, and we know how the engineering works", Tristan Harris, a former in-house ethicist at Google, said while talking to New York Times.
"The largest supercomputers in the world are inside of two companies — Google and Facebook — and where are we pointing them? We're pointing them at people's brains, at children", he added.
Tristan Harris is spearheading the new group called the Center for Humane Technology and is working with the nonprofit media watchdog group Common Sense Media to lobby the United States government over tech addiction.
It is also undertaking an advertising campaign aimed at 55,000 public schools in the US, to raise awareness with parents, students and teachers over its concerns.
These include the mental health effects of overuse of social media, including depression, stress, anxiety, self-image and self-worth, according to the group's website.
This is not the first time that a high profile figure from a technology company has expressed concerns over its products.
In December, former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya spoke out against the social network he helped to create, saying it is 'ripping society apart'.
Palihapitiya, who joined Facebook in 2007 and became its vice president for user growth, said he feels 'tremendous guilt' for the influence Facebook has had and its ability to manipulate users.
He also suggested users take a break from using social media altogether.
Facebook itself has admitted that the social network may pose a threat to democracy, through the spread of fake news.
In a series of blog posts in January 2018, Facebook execs said the site was ‘far too slow’ in identifying negative influences that rose with the 2016 US election, citing Russian interference, 'toxic discourse,' and the ‘dangerous consequences’ of misinformation, Daily Mail said in a report.
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