I love technology. I always have. I've waited in line for product launches, pre-ordered every new gadget, and built a career in digital marketing convincing people to spend just a little more time staring at their screens. I am, by every definition, an early adopter and an evangelist.
But becoming a parent changed something in me.
Chasing my two young children around, I started noticing a pattern everywhere we went. Heads down. Eyes locked on glowing rectangles. Conversations interrupted by notifications. Entire restaurants, parks, and waiting rooms full of people physically present but mentally somewhere else. And I realized — uncomfortably — that I had helped build or contribute to the very machine pulling their attention away.
Recognizing the Problem
The first step in solving any problem is admitting there is one. A landmark report in The Atlantic made the stakes painfully clear: the unprecedented amount of time an entire generation spends on smartphones is fueling a serious mental-health crisis. The more I researched, the more I understood that this wasn't accidental. The most brilliant minds in Silicon Valley have been engineering products specifically designed to hijack our most vulnerable human instincts.
That's when I discovered the Center for Humane Technology — and everything began to click into place.
Insiders Leading the Charge
What makes the Center for Humane Technology so powerful is who is behind it. Their team is composed of former tech insiders, designers, and CEOs who built the systems they are now working to reform. They intimately understand the culture, the business incentives, and the design techniques driving how technology captures — and keeps — our minds.
Since 2013, they've raised awareness inside tech companies, reached millions through major media, convened top industry executives, and advised political leaders. They aren't asking us to abandon technology. They're asking a much more important question: What if technology were actually designed to align with humanity's best interests?
The Ledger of Harms
In 2018, the J.W. Couch Foundation was proud to award a grant to support one of the Center's most ambitious projects: The Ledger of Harms.
The Ledger of Harms is a living, evidence-based resource that catalogs the externalities of attention-extraction technology — the impacts on mental health, relationships, attention spans, democracy, and our children's development. It gives engineers, designers, parents, educators, and policymakers something they desperately need: a clear, credible accounting of what's really at stake.
No one expects millions of people to suddenly put down their smartphones. But we are at a tipping point — and the choices we make now will shape generations to come.Sean Couch, President & Co-Trustee, J.W. Couch Foundation
A Cultural Awakening
Our partnership with the Center for Humane Technology is rooted in a shared belief: that we can spark a cultural awakening around how we use — and how we are used by — the technology in our lives. Together, we hope to amplify research, build awareness, and empower people to identify technology whose goals are genuinely aligned with their own well-being.
Technology has changed our lives in extraordinary ways. With organizations like the Center for Humane Technology leading the way, we believe it can change for the better — and bring humanity back to the center of the screen.
