Technology vs. Humanity: The Coming Clash Between Man and Machine by Gerd Leonhard

Author:Gerd Leonhard [Leonhard, Gerd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781096496724
Google: ctdlxQEACAAJ
Publisher: Amazon
Published: 2016-09-06T00:06:45.396524+00:00

Chapter 7 Digital Obesity: Our Latest Pandemic

As we wallow and pig out on a glut of news, updates, and algorithmically engineered information that may be anything but, we entertain ourselves in a burgeoning tech-bubble of questionable entertainment.

Obesity is a global issue, and, according to McKinsey, it’s costing an estimated US$450 billion per year in the US alone, both in terms of healthcare costs and lost productivity.130 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated in 2015 that more than two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and an estimated 35.7% are obese.131

I believe we are reaching a similar or bigger challenge as we gorge on technology and bring on digital obesity.

I define digital obesity as a mental and technological condition in which data, information, media, and general digital connectedness are being accumulated to such an extent that they are certain to have a negative effect on health, well-being, happiness, and life in general.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, and despite those shocking health factoids, there is still little support globally for stricter regulation of the food industry to curb the use of addiction-building chemical additives, or to stop marketing campaigns that promote overconsumption. In America’s never-ending war on drugs, harmful foodstuffs and sugars are never so much as hinted at. Just as organic foods now seem to be largely the preserve of the well-off and wealthy, so too can we expect anonymity and privacy to become expensive luxuries—out of reach for most citizens.

Consumers are buying gadgets and apps that will supposedly help them reduce food consumption and increase fitness, such as the Fitbit, Jawbone, Loseit, and now Hapifork—which alerts you by trembling if you eat too fast—very useful indeed.132 It appears the idea is to buy (download) and consume yet another product or service that will miraculously, and without much effort, fix the original problem of overconsumption.

Cravability means prosperity

The obvious bottom line is that the more people eat, the better it is for those who produce and sell our food—for example, growers, food processors, grocery stores, supermarkets, fast-food joints, restaurants, bars, and hotels. In addition, we may be shocked to find that, every year, every consumer in developed countries unwittingly ingests an estimated 150 pounds of additives—mostly sugar, yeast, and antioxidants, as well as truly nasty stuff such as MSG.133 These substances are the lubricants of overconsumption. Not only do they make food prettier and more durable, they also make it taste better— as debatable as that is. Thus consumers are strung along by cleverly engineering a “need-for-more” so that it becomes very hard to find the exit from that kingdom of endless, happy consumption.

If this sounds like Facebook or your smartphone, you are getting my drift. The food industry actually calls this cravability or craveability.134In the world of technology, marketers call it magic, stickiness, indispensability, or more benignly, user engagement.

Craving and addiction—tech’s business model

Generating this kind of craving, or fueling our digital addictions in such a seemingly benign way, is clearly a powerful business model.135 It is easy to apply the cravability concept to the

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