Addiction fear: Inventor of Facebook 'Like' button deletes app from phone
The inventor of Facebook 'Like' button compares the feature to, bright dings of pseudo-pleasure. P
(Web Desk) – The man behind one of the most clicked button on social media has removed Facebook app from his mobile phone.
Justin Rosenstein who invented Facebook “Like” button deleted the social media app from his phone over addiction fear.
The 34-year-old engineer, who created the feature in 2007, now fears the psychological effects apps are having on people around the world,according to The Independent.
Rosenstein has also blocked himself from Reddit and Snapchat, and has imposed strict time-limits on his use of Facebook.
The tech-executive has recently bought the latest iPhone and directed his assistant to set up a feature on his phone that can stop him from downloading any apps at all.
Rosenstein describes Facebook “Likes” as “bright dings of pseudo-pleasure”, one of many features that contribute to what Silicon Valley critics describe as the new “attention economy”.
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Justin Rosenstein, the former Google and Facebook engineer who helped build the ‘like’ button: ‘Everyone is distracted. All of the time.’ Photo: YouTube Screen grab
“It is very common for humans to develop things with the best of intentions and for them to have unintended, negative consequences,” Rosenstein stated.
In a study conducted in 2016 by the Pitt’s Centre for Research on Media, Technology and Health on Social Media Use Associated With Depression Among U.S. Young Adults found a co-relation between the more time spent on social media to depression. Of those tested, people who checked their apps most regularly were 2.7 times more prone to developing it than those who checked their phone apps less.
In a separate study, Instagram was ranked in the category of giving the worst effect on young people’s mental health.
In January of this year, health officials in America warned that the circulation of fake health news on social networks was potentially dangerous to people’s physical health.
In addition there was also a warning over how the apps are making people addicted and directly affecting their mental health. Known as “continuous partial attention”, it is feared that such phone apps limit the abilities of people to focus and potentially lowers IQ.
“Everyone is distracted. All of the time,” Rosenstein says.
