On the way to New York, Tim Cook sat down with Bustle for an interview about Shine, a mental health app created by Naomi Hirabayashi and Marah Lidey. An interview in which the CEO of Apple has reflected on the importance of mental health, meditation and the balance between work and rest.
“Mental health is in crisis” and the infinite and meaningless scroll does not help at all
The Shine app, which won the award for the best apps in 2020, offers us, in an inclusive way, guided meditations and tips for keeping a journal. “When we looked at the way wellness was being marketed or talked about on a general level, it didn’t resonate,” says Hirabayashi. “I felt like it was a kind of luxury merchandise that was sold to a certain person, a certain body type, at a certain income level.” The app now has more than 4 million users around the world.
When asked about the app, Tim Cook praises that it could be considered one of the best apps of 2020 and affirms that mental health is in crisis. A crisis that, although until now, was covered up it begins to come to light and it begins to be able to talk about it.
“And I think mental health is in crisis. And it is one that has been stigmatized so much. It was for so long that people suffered in silence and in isolation. [Shine] has done this amazing job, bringing the community together and bringing together a number of different things that will make [el cambio] is systemic in nature rather than a catchphrase. So I’m super impressed by what they’re doing and how they got started. “
“We want people to do things with their devices, like the photo exhibition that we both enjoy, or connect with family and friends with FaceTime. Not the endless, mindless scrolling.”
Facebook is right now at the center of the mental health conversation due to the effect that its platforms, like Facebook and Instagram itself, can have on young people. Asked for his opinion on the matter, Tim Cook states that technology should serve humanity and is concerned with “mindless scrolling”:
“I have always thought that technology should serve humanity and not the other way around. And I was always worried that people would use technology too much. And so we came out with Airtime to try to give people reliable information on how much of time they are actually spending on their devices because it is usually much more than they say. “
“But that’s just one element. It’s also what you’re doing. [con los dispositivos]. I have often been concerned with infinite scrolling, the environment of negativity, etc. And so raising a company like Shine and getting people to know about it, that’s a great use of our technologies because that serves humanity. Your entire company is built on this. And this is how we see the world. We want people to do things with their devices, like the photo exhibition that we both enjoy, or connect with family and friends with FaceTime. Not the infinite and meaningless scroll “.
It is clear that technology can lead us down many paths, some better than others. Technology itself is neutral, the key to its impact on us is how we use it. Tools such as Time of use allow us to have a clear image of how we use our devices and make the corrections that we consider appropriate.