u/Dymryss90

Just attended an RSA talk on causal factors of accidents over the past 2 years, with a focus on increased use of mobile phones amongst 17-24year olds whilst driving. Obviously, as with anything like this, personal responsibility is paramount. That being said, there's a severe lack of recognition that the apps/social media that these age groups use whilst driving have been developed to be as addictive as possible. Anyone who has sat down to watch a film with a younger person knows that the compulsion to whip out their phone and half-watch the film whilst doomscrolling knows what I'm talking about. There's absolutely an argument to be had that the developers of these super-addictive platforms are, at minimum, at partial fault for these recent stats. We know now the fault of the tobacco companies for pushing an addictive product with psychological means through their adverts - I wholeheartedly believe that this is a very similar situation, and that it's unfair to place all blame on the individual. It's clear that the use of phones whilst driving is objectively stupid and dangerous - not a single person at the talk dared to dispute that fact, but I believe that we're dealing with one of the many repercussions of a cognitively addicted society.