I was reading emsh's comment and had written quite a long paragraph which is given below. Now, I am gonna upload an image of what emsh (embedding shapes is talking about/HN image) to give context behind my comment/ essentially this blog
Supposedly the people working for these companies are "the brightest of the bright" but if they didn't even notice that this was what they were contributing to, what kind of intelligence is even that? Not everyone working there could possibly be so socially inept that they didn't realize what they helped building right? Or are we chalking it down to just missing morals? I feel like I'm missing something here to properly understand why people ended up working for these companies in the first place, even before it started making the news.
I don't have any professional experience so of course it would be more interesting to hear from the people working in them.
But one of the theory that I have is that they split the work so much that nobody can figure the whole picture of.
Suppose someone at google is making the android UI/UX, would they be of blame for the reason that Google is now locking down Android (essentially)? we can discuss the answer as yes or no but I feel as if majority might agree the answer's no.
Now but my suggestion is that android (or any such project) is able to have such leverage & the company above forces it to have say youtube (which in some phones you can't uninstall and also with shorts which are impossible to remove from stock youtube app) installed and google as the default search engine.
The issue now is that try to create another android alternative (Oh I wish for linux phones) but the state of the fact is that I feel as if it did take billions for android to be in the state that it is right now whether in terms of UI/UX which was offered at the right time for free/open source which then made all manufacturers use that and a thriving developer scene.
To re-create it will have one issue or another. (in case of Linux phones, its mostly the supply part from what I can tell)
And all of this costed billions from Google & Sundar pichai iirc actually became CEO after heading the android project.
(From wikipedia) On March 13, 2013, Pichai added Android to the list of Google products that he oversaw. Android was formerly managed by Andy Rubin.[29] Pichai was selected to become the next CEO of Google on August 10, 2015,[30] after previously being appointed Product Chief by CEO, Larry Page. On October 24, 2015, he stepped into the new position at the completion of the formation of Alphabet Inc., the new holding company for the Google company family.[31][28][30]
My point is, is that people work in adjacent things are still somewhat responsible but the responsibility gets really diluted. Technically Android's an open source project. Technically, its an gift but in reality it introduced the google search engine monopoly to a whole new set of devices for many which is the only one they use (smart phones).
Now, the people working in these prior fields are decently celebrated whether in terms of financial compensation for their work / work-life balance and just societal respect in events in many cases.
Now consider someone's either going in college (say like me) or is in college. A lot of us would be in for secure jobs with exactly all of these things and so joining google has become dream for many (which goes all the way from start to college to even people well within their 20's or maybe even 30's)
As such FAANG & its employees have gotten an almost cult-like following.
Now imagine someone joins FAANG and they get into the addiction related things. Okay firstly, many of these companies employ psychological experts who really optimize the dark part of addictions to make it more addicting. I feel as if these people are compensated quite a lot and in our society.
Some might genuinely enjoy optimising it maybe even treating it as a game.
Now, consider the fact that now engineers have to turn those ideas from those experts backed most likely by studies & experiments within the medical field.
Now those engineers have two reasonings from what I can tell. They are either following orders (I mean they are in their dream jobs after all) & the dilemma is far far away from them (the addiction doesn't impact them or their reputation within society)
It's still divided between so many engineers that the individual burden of morality might be very few, some might be doing mundane things within it itself and collectively feel that they aren't personally responsible for in some sense ruining many people's / next-generation lives and futures and they themselves shield from these (from what I know, the people in tech try to move their children away from it/not giving them phones at young age partially because of some sense of awareness, but just not duty)
So they are aware of the harms, but not of their duty. (Main point in my opinion, this can be the whole comment but wanted to give the whole thinking process)
Also another aspect is that for some people money might mean more and those are more likely to work within the particular structure directly responsible as well, maybe being given more money and our mind is particularly good at reasoning.
Now with that all being said, It isn't as if there's not a single kind soul at such companies disturbed at what they are making. Some/Many definitely are and they leave but the people who wish to join far out-weigh those who might want to leave and essentially the system can persist.
And these addiction creating companies (essentially) become the landlords of the modern internet because many people/businesses (essentially) have to pay in marketing for their businesses to even survive/thrive. It becomes a must.
Now those bring in the major revenues and the profit and stock prices grow incentivizing employees even more and also the fact that (most) individual investors want to invest in this whole entity now and they sort of become free of individual guilt as well. (I deleted a tangent about Index funds but you get the point)
Now, the external money can fund the companies which fund the employees and other capital expenditure and even more research projects and just about everything. I hope you get the point how the system persists and individual responsibility becomes either none or to an extremely very few people imo & there's also the case I feel as if like breaking bad where small moral decisions keep on happening and they slowly might become dark without even knowing what's wrong. (Think about it, Would walter white have realized its wrong path if what he was doing wasn't illegal but legal like such companies)