Be Wary of Corporate Caremongering

Caremongering, a name originally attributed to something intrinsically positive, is becoming more of a negative phenomenon, a way to boost sales, rather than to actually help others.

I’ll refer to negative caremongering as corporate caremongering.

If you knew the lengths some companies go to in order to make targeted groups of people feel as though they need help, for a price, you’d be surprised. I know because for a long time, I was hired to target others. I started with good intentions, I genuinely believed what I was doing was right. I was wrong. Prior to the pandemic and for some time during it, I would go online to try to assist people spend more time offline.

By doing so, I honestly believed I could help people live a more balanced life. I worked hard. I was, ironically, always online.

In 2017, I created a Twitter resource bot (@DigitalDetoxes) to support and amplify the voices of everyone interested in the ideas surrounding digital detoxes.

It was for people to learn more about digital detoxes, dopamine detoxes, digital minimalism and mindfulness. I would regularly turn off my phone, meditate and later document my experiences.

I went as far as to put my money where my mouth was and I backed a number of related crowdfunding campaigns. I practiced what…