The big confession people missed

Majority of Filipinos have become so disaster focused that many folks missed the Big Confession that came out last week.

No one can blame Filipinos if all they talk about, criticize or poke fun at is our constant flooding, roads turning into water parks and media attention finally focusing on places like Calumpit, Bulacan that have been sunk for years and not just months.

After watching the tragic and shocking events in Nepal, chances are people will be more concerned about what the next Philippine tragedy will be. Will it be a super typhoon, a dengue epidemic or – God forbid – the 100-year earthquake that scientists have been talking about?

Given how depressing things are, I will momentarily avoid adding fuel to the fire and talk about a big news item that directly concerns Filipinos.

The big story was the announcement that META, the mother company of Facebook and Instagram, had entered into a settlement or agreement to pay $16.7 billion to 29 states.

The “payoff” or settlement essentially recognized the legitimate claims of states and individuals that META had designed Facebook and Instagram apps to be highly addictive, particularly to children and minors.

The $16.7-billion settlement was also meant to avoid a potentially larger cost or penalty to META that was estimated to hit the company by as much as over a trillion US dollars. As a show of good faith, META will place an “Automatic 12 midnight to 6 a.m. block” on the accounts of minors alongside a two-hour limit.

Some of my friends asked how that remedy could be enforced and how would META know the user’s profile. For starters, many minors in the US have mobile phones and accounts as an extension of their parent’s phone, much like extension credit cards.

There is also the user’s algorithm and history. Your phone, your credit card, your car, even some smart TVs, all carry a history of what you watch, where you go, what you buy. Smart homes with SIRI or Alexa might even tell you, you are low on certain groceries.

As for the Philippines, while litigation may be a pipe dream, the settlement is a public admission and confirmation that mobile phone apps and social media platforms are addictive and were designed to be addictive.

Our politicians are jumping on the bandwagon proposing laws and actions versus META’s failure to locally regulate content, especially on violence and school shootings. All that is already too late if we don’t take action on the “addiction” to the various games and apps.

They say that addicts will produce or raise addicts unless intervention happens. That statement would also apply to the new generation of parents who are also the first or earliest users of smart phones and digital apps.

The first step to be cured of an addiction is admission. I myself have noticed “addictive behavior” associated with my mobile phone which disrupts my sleep pattern, is disrespectful of others at the dining table and, worse of all, intermittently distracting at church!

What started as office tools became lifestyle accessories and have now become a generational transference of digital addiction. How many young parents have given their “babies” one to three years and above a digital toy to distract or amuse the child?

The fact is we have relegated a large part of parental duty to digital gadgets or mobile phones. The only time the child stops is when they get lulled to sleep or a greater distraction comes to them.

How many times have you seen a child go ballistic, screaming like hell, because a parent decided it was time to go and take the phone away? That, dear friends, is not a tantrum; it could be manifest addiction.

On a larger and political scale, the design of Facebook and Instagram is partly responsible for the national disunity of Filipinos. Communications and political experts admit that Facebook was heavily utilized to polarize Filipinos in the last presidential election.

Considering how a social media platform can cause national disunity and polarization, what about your relationships, particularly your family?

Emojis don’t come close to hugs and laughter. Icons and SMS are nothing compared to you telling your wife, husband, kids, even friends, “I love you” in the flesh!

If the biggest, richest, most powerful company behind digital apps and social media is willing to pay $16 billion to end the lawsuits, what are we as users and parents willing to do in order to end our digital addiction or the ones that are slowly destroying the lives of our children?

It is but normal to challenge or blame games and apps focused on violence. People turn a blind eye to online porn or watch animated porn thinking it is a lesser evil.

Now the conversation is loose firearms, “house visits” to check proper storage of weapons, armed guards in schools, etc. What next, armed teachers like they propose in the US?

We should discuss how to deal with digital addiction, how to recognize and where to get help and introduce solutions in school. If proper storage of guns is a solution, what about the “proper use and storage of mobile phones” at home, at work, etc.?

I think it’s time to go to Greenhills Shopping Center and buy me a Nokia 3210 “call and text only!”

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