Now Silicon Valley Warns of Device Addiction

You'd think those who work in Silicon Valley, of all places, would want you to be utterly dependent upon your smartphones and tablets—but increasingly, those in the tech industry are actually worried about users' growing addiction to their devices. People "need to notice the effect that time online has on your performance and relationships," says a director who works ... at Facebook. The shift is apparent at conferences and in interviews with many in the field, the New York Times reports.

"We’re done with this honeymoon phase and now we’re in this phase that says, 'Wow, what have we done?'" says one organizer of a conference that aims to find a tech-life balance. Founders and high-level employees from Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, and other big companies attended; increasingly, such companies are offering meditation and similar exercises in an effort to encourage staff to occasionally "disconnect." But not all tech leaders buy into the idea. A Zynga co-founder, for example, admits that millions of Zynga users are addicted to dopamine, but says they already craved that and he simply provided it (More mobile devices stories.)