Smartphone Addiction Is a Problem Apple Won't Solve

Two big shareholders of Apple Inc. are right to add their influential voices to those concerned with smartphone addiction. If they are serious about finding a solution, however, they’ll start looking elsewhere for progress on the issue. Like tobacco companies before them, tech companies are incapable of studying their products dispassionately and then regulating themselves for the common good.

The letter from Jana Partners and the California State Teachers Retirement System cites existing research, primarily by the best-known smartphone addiction alarmist, San Diego State University psychologist Jean Twenge, to urge Apple to take action. According to Twenge, excessive screen time increases the probability of teenage depression and suicide. Though "some may argue that the research is not definitive" (and indeed, it has been challenged for confusing correlation with causation and cherry-picking data), the investors point out that where there's so much smoke, there has to be some form of fire: