Blog 12: My Relationship With Technology

 My Relationship with Technology

Childhood through High School

Throughout my childhood, I did not use technology very frequently, as my parents were sure to limit it in my life as much as possible. I enjoyed my childhood thoroughly, and learned how to do things for myself without the aid of a phone or computer. This taught me self sufficiency and independence early on, and these are still characteristics I possess. The friendships I made and the relationships I cultivated were not tainted with the vanity of likes, shares, and followers. Of course, I learned the basics of using a computer and phone, however, I did not grow up with one in my hand. 

I am so grateful for this because by the time I got to high school, I was not allowed to use technology at all throughout the day, save for the one computer room my school had. If someone had to accomplish academic work, such as working on a paper, it could be done in this room. Aside from that when school started at 8 AM, all phones had to be powered off and put away and if a teacher saw a student on their phone they were at risk of being sent home for the day. Of course students flirted with the line of what they were allowed to do, and we all quickly learned that our teachers were not bluffing, students did, in fact, get sent home for using their phones. 

I am so grateful for this experience because I learned more in my four years of high school than during any other time in my life. And even better, I learned it from books and lectures, which almost seem to be a lost art in our current day and age. As a result of this experience, I am able to hold intelligible conversations, I am a proficient reader, and I have built relationships with people by forming genuine human connections. 

Although the progression of technology in our society is undeniable, and it would be foolish to ignore it, I am so proud that I am able to live without it. It has become important to me to strike a healthy balance of technology use in my life, because it is necessary to use it in our society, but I do not wish to form an addiction.  I mostly try to use technology to enrich my life, rather than to fill a void. 

My Relationship Now

As I entered college, I did not have the same restrictions on technology in my life, and I found myself using it much more. In high school I would estimate that my average screen time a day was about two hours. Now that I am in college it ranges more towards five hours a day. That is about 20% of my day spent looking at my phone! Realizing this fact made me aware that I want to make a change in my life. 

I was specifically impacted by the article "I'm 14, and I quit social media after discovering what was posted about me." It heavily reflected ideas that I hold about technology and social media usage. In my lifetime, I will never be truly anonymous, and things that I post are going to follow me forever. This is why I am careful to keep my online presence respectable, because it is a reflection of myself, my values, and my character. My mother always told me "If you would not shout it from the rooftops, do not put it in writing." This is a much more important concept now than ever, because if that writing is digital, it is nearly impossible to take it back. I value my reputation and my safety, so I am truly skeptical of the dangers of my digital footprint.

Making Necessary Changes

While I used to fill my free time with watching TikToks and scrolling through Instagram, I have decided to spend more time a day reading than sitting on my phone. This goal has helped me to lower my screen time and I feel that my attention span has already gotten better and I feel much happier. I even noticed that I am getting better sleep again! I also decided to leave my phone at home when I go out during the day. This venture was less successful for me. I have stopped doing so because it made it hard for people to get in contact with me if they needed to. However, if I am only leaving my house for a short period of time I will still leave it from time to time. If I need to have my phone with me, I have started to put it in my bag and check it periodically throughout the day. 

Technology, although a blessing in many capacities, has had detrimental effects on my over all mental well being, and limiting its power over me has been truly eye opening to the negative effects it has had. I am grateful for the way I was raised, because technology has not been too detrimental in my life. However, it is important for me to be aware of the role it plays in my day to day life, and I will continue to treat it as a tool rather than a crutch that I need to lean on. 

Blog 11: EOTO Reax 2

The Overton Window

Overton Window Overview

I was very interested to learn that is a concept called the Overton Window that explains the range of theories and opinions that the general public is willing to accept. This theory is helpful for public and governmental figures to curate the platforms that they will align themselves with and the opinions that they will advertise. Ideas that fall far outside of the Overton Window are most likely not going to be accepted by the general public as they are too radical. Ideas that fall just outside the Overton Window may be accepted in the coming future, however, they are probably too radical to advertise at the present time. Ideas that fall inside the Overton Window are considered politically safe, and for this reason they are usually the ideas advertised by politicians. This window heavily influences policy and for this reason politicians monitor the changes and shifts in what falls into it. Additionally, politicians slowly introduce ideas that fall just outside of the Overton Window and after enough time they are usually widely accepted. This is, in large part, the way ideas change over time. 

Moving the Overton Window

The Overton Window naturally shifts over time as cultural, moral, and social ideas evolve. This window is often shifted in the wake of social movements or societal crises. For example, in our post 9/11 society, it is considered more acceptable to search people and their belongings in airports, whereas it was not widely accepted previously as it was considered an invasion of privacy. This concept translates into most currently accepted norms, because at one point they were most likely considered radical in some capacity. For example, the way we consider different races, genders, and sexualities has shifted radically over time, and as a result so have the policies related to them. It is vital to understand this concept in order to cater political platforms to the general public and their accepted ideals. 

 

blog 10: Living in the Age of AI

Living in the Age of AI

The Threat of AI

After watching the documentary "In the Age of AI" I was frightened to see just how advanced technology has come, and how much it has penetrated our society. Automation, the substitution of capital and labor, has become very powerful globally. I was particularly unnerved to learn that with the expansion of AI, about 50% of jobs currently occupied by humans will be threatened by automated devices in the next 15 years. These jobs mostly include those held by women, such as cashier work, clerical work, and human resources positions. This will perpetuate current inequalities in the work place, however it is not only minorities that are at risk. AI is projected to penetrate every part of our economy, including positions in law, finance, HR, and many other sectors. 

As AI is programmed based on prior human knowledge and experience, it is highly efficient compared to the work that one human can do effectively. This will become problematic if AI is able to penetrate careers that people can not do as efficiently. AI, as helpful as it may be in some aspects, is a threat to human interaction, human employment, and the healthy operation of our society.

AI and the Loss of Privacy

In addition to threatening job security, AI is going as far as to threaten our privacy. AI has become very powerful, as it has been programmed to understand who is smart, who is not, who is racist, and even who is gullible. This advanced understanding has led to AI tracking people's digital exhaust to target specific people's habits and interests. This has led to something called surveillance capitalism, which has claimed private human experience. 

Large companies, such as Google, have taken advantage of this technology to collect very specific data from individuals and to sell it for their own profit. On one hand, this has helped them to efficiently target advertisements to specific individuals that fall into the target demographic of products and services. However, this is a complete invasion of individuals' privacy, and most people are unaware that their private information has been harvested for the benefit of large corporate entities.