It’s the fast-food salad option, or McDonald’s apple slices of tech. If they cared about their impact they’d address their role in it, not seek to marketeer their way out of it with empty gestures.

Is adding apple slices to your menu an empty gesture? Or even a gesture at all?

> The concept of digital wellbeing is a paradox.

No not really. Physical and mental wellbeing is linked to financial wellbeing. It makes sense for Google to want their customers to feel happier and healthier because they can be more productive, earn more money and ultimately spend that money on products that Google advertises.

I had cynically been wondering about the benefits Google might be trying to reap from this angle. The obvious one is good PR. The second is to lull the general concern around ethical conduct of the big tech companies. Perhaps less likely is an attempt to preempt mass flight from their services thanks to some kind of social movement to ditch tech that they might become collateral of.

The less cynical view is that Google is made of people, and people generally want to do good. Perhaps there are simply some influential people in the org that are interested in these kinds of things.

Emphasis on feel happier and healthier; it’s enough for the perception to exist without the reality for Google’s purposes.

You're making no sense. What does it mean to "feel happier" but not be happier?

> What does it mean to "feel happier" but not be happier?

is this an honest question?

an alcoholic while drunk might "feel happier" while not being happier. a drug addict might "feel happier" while high, but not be happier.

I don't understand this, are you defining feelings of happiness based on some sort of average over time? If so, what is the period and how is it determined?

I think great great gp is using "feel[ing] happier" in the sense of achieving higher baseline happiness, not maximizing the "happiness level" of an instant.

> I think great great gp is using "feel[ing] happier" in the sense of achieving higher baseline happiness, not maximizing the "happiness level" of an instant.

I might be misreading who you mean by "great great gp", but I don't think scottie_m thinks that google is raising the happiness baseline. At least that's not how I interpret

> it’s enough for the perception to exist without the reality for Google’s purposes.

Anyway, that's enough speculation about speculation for me for one day.

I was referring to my post's great great grandparent which was authored by spuz and contained the first use of the phrase whose meaning we're trying to nail down here:

> It makes sense for Google to want their customers to feel happier and healthier because they can be more productive, earn more money and ultimately spend that money on products that Google advertises.

(emphasis added)

Yeah, it's insultingly obvious and pandering and condescending. Like who do they think isn't going to see through this?

Assholes still think they're saving the world somehow.

> Culture is in shambles and recovery from the magnificent impact of the Internet

Some of us see the destruction of this culture thingy as a good thing and are truly rejoycing now, ya know!

Why?

This is a really odd place to leap to from "google is going to show how much time you spend on the phone and in each app".

It's also a good reminder of why having a bit on your phone that reminds you how long you've been on it is a good idea.

Too much of the internet is toxic.

what’s toxic about it? sincere question.

it’s not about bringing down a culture as much as raising up other ones to equal prominence.

It tends to isolate people into self-reinforcing communities, many of which have two things in common: They have an enemy that they demonize, and they admit no wrong.

Not all communities are like that, but when communities (and now that I think about it, especially ones where your comments can get some kind of point or reward) get big they trend towards that. Possibly because those behaviors are low-hanging fruit in terms of your comment earning points. Points feel good. No one likes to admit it but they do.

This at least gives people a moment to consider the other forms of entertainment beyond a screen? Maybe go outside? Interact with people? Play an instrument? Make some art? Go volunteer somewhere? Stand up? Walk around?

Other ones like Stormfront, MRAs and Trump?

...You think google is going to do that?

And a perfectly ratio'd "blend" of phenotypes is somehow better?

no, equality doesn't have to mean sameness