Final Post

Technology

Technology. The effervescent foundation of our modern-day society has been sanctioned into some sort of flexible vivid framework, set up in such a way that's restrained enough for humans to have the power. My question is, has technology outrun us this time? Have scientists created technology that even they fear the side effects of? Does technology fool us into thinking humanity has all the power when it has all the control? The short answer is yes. Obviously, the right to privacy is something we should all feel abused by with tech companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, and even our own government. However, as this is my final blog post, I'd like to expand past the obvious (at this point I feel like privacy is a dead horse and I just can't bring myself to beat it anymore). If you'd like to see my take on privacy in the world of technology, I welcome you to view one of my favorite posts, privacy. For this post, I'd like to expand on not only the personal relationship I have with technology but society's as well. 

Society

Society is what can spin some of us to the bottom of the spiral of silence. It can sway mass public opinion by calling on its close friend, the media, to do its dirty work. Society can bring revolution, create communities, cultivate awareness, build culture, and create acceptance, but it can do even more harm. A community banded on similarity that promotes individuality is inherently confusing. We grow this false concept of acceptance and falsely believe it will bring peace. We think that with peace comes equality, equity, an end to pain, and all negativity and wrong in the world in general. What we forget to do is take care of acceptance; to look after it like it's a child of our own. To nourish, clothe, bathe, and care for it. What we do instead is act like we accept, when really we only accept those who deem fit in the social normative model. So, how can we expect people, especially the youth, to navigate and find themselves in society by giving them a tool that deepens isolation, breeds comparison, and feeds off constant interaction? Ok, let's bring it back to technology now that I've addressed my grievances with the best actor out there you know and love, society. 

Our Relationship with Technology 

The reason technology has become such an integrated part of mankind's life in this timeline is because we crave to be accepted by society. Sure, it makes life easier if we ignore the depth of its effects with software like Siri, iPhones for communication and safety, and innovation to bring resources to third world countries. However, in America, the population sees the newest iPhone and thinks "I gotta have it!", but do we really? Should we continue to harvest minerals to create new iPhones? Does communicative technology need to get better or realistically, are we just making it weird now with how "close" we want to be with people? I'll let you decide. Technology has turned into a trendy fad that leaves those who aren't accustomed to its ways out of the loop (and if you're out of the loop, you might as well buy a few cats and get comfortable being alone). What I mean is that if one doesn't have access to the communicative technology the world does, they'd miss out on current events, emergencies, familial and friendship relationships, fluctuations in society, politics & the economy, and all digital culture in general. The one thing you would know about is you. Huh, a society that uses technology after they have individually discovered themselves fully and can understand mankind as an empath while living in a world governed by the great marketplace of ideas--just something to think about. In this story a part of the collection called The Privacy Divide, a fourteen-year-old girl quits social media as she discovers her mother and sister have been documenting and commentating her life online since she was born. It's scary to hear how even if one does not join social media, they are not an exception to appearing on it. Teenagers have become obsessed with technology to the point of screen time averaging close to eight hours a day due to isolation during the recent pandemic. Most of us know the harmful effects of social media with its incessant need to learn more about us so it can choke us with entertainment to grasp our attention (which furthers the isolation gap), but I'd argue that now that most of us know how it affects our privacy, mental and physical health, the economy, relationships, its purpose and who controls it--isn't that enough information for us to decide for ourselves how we want to go about using it? It's not like we're a child...right?

 Steve Cutts Animation

Technology can be used for good if we choose to do so. AI technology is amazing and allows people to dabble in desires leading them to self-actualization rather than completing menial tasks. AI can help ensure national security, and safety. If I can be frank, is just super cool. However, AI can be extremely dangerous. For instance, if it were used for surveillance, AI drone software could potentially target an innocent civilian, get people mixed up (they could be acquitted for a crime that they didn't commit), and deep fakes could cause defamation. Just yesterday I was working out and a drone appeared while I was on the treadmill. It stayed there for 5 minutes, just watching me run and I was so confused and uncomfortable. Although, that's my attitude with most technology. 

If we give into all that technology has to offer and become so immersed in it that we lose ourselves, it turns negative. If we use technology for the greater good to ensure public safety, security, health and wellness, and efficiency-then it turns positive. Technology remains in our hands, now it's up to us to develop it further, but with regulations guiding it and neutral parties to monitor its hopefully ethical use. Needless to say, society is dependent on technology now, more than ever. We've become enslaved to our phones and I encourage you to check out this animation by Steve Cutts to see just how eerie of a position humanity has put itself in with technology. 

Technology's Relationship with Us 

Technology has an impartial relationship with us. It's not alive (for now), so it doesn't care whether we flourish or fall. The computer software engineers create algorithms to perform as instructed. Due to the need we have to make our lives easier, safer, and longer, technology must progress exponentially just to keep up. Technology saves lives every day and it's a truly beautiful tool that can take on the role of a hero. However, since technology was created by mankind, mankind has the power to manipulate it for evil. By evil, I mean creating weapons of mass destruction, inventing new diseases, toxifying the political climate, fooling the public, and invading our privacy. 

My Relationship with Technology 

The personal relationship I have with technology is one of gratitude and detest. In my junior year of high school, I went through an unfortunate journey battling illness and was unable to go to school for most of that academic year. Technology allowed my home-hospital teacher to communicate with my teachers and my parents to find new facilities and doctors to go to for a cure. This beautiful invention allowed my support system to communicate quickly and efficiently as my illness was aggressive and erratic. Technology also creates community, and for me, this was the best part about it during this hard time. My parents would play motivational videos for me, we'd listen to the newest progress in the field of medicine, and friends/family would use it as a communication device to send me their best. It was technology that allowed my staff to find a doctor in Connecticut (I'm originally from MD) that agreed to treat me. It was the technological innovations in the medical field that led to my diagnoses, cure, and integration back into society as a fully functioning member of our world. To technology, I say thank you for saving my life. 

To technology, I also say watch yourself. My detest with technology is rooted in social media, which is nothing unusual for someone of my generation. Honestly, I go back and forth with the concept of social media. For starters, it's a great networking app that connects people, builds industries, creates jobs (influencers), and entertains everyone- but at what cost? Social media has evolved into a concept that has control over what our society deems as acceptable. I gravitate to social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and occasionally YouTube to watch videos, see what my friends are up to, or share content. The one thing I've actively tried to do with regulating my phone usage (which I think people could potentially take away and implement in their lives) is setting my phone down in those awkward moments of silence. This forces me to be more observant and connect with whoever is around me; I think the awkward moments of life tend to be the little bits of beauty a lot of us miss out on in experiencing humiliation and vulnerability. It's what some of us rely on for our happiness, sanity, and support. I see parents swapping an iPad for a pacifier, teens using their Instagram and TikTok feed to cope with anxiety, and adults choosing to preserve their ideal appearance on social media in fear that they will get left in the past. Personally, I dislike the idea of keeping up with an online presence or spending my time constantly watching what others are doing instead of going out and experiencing life myself; including the good, the bad, and especially the ugly. If we take the very thing that creates the human experience, what does that make us? Inhuman, or robotic. We are slowly devolving into becoming these robotic beings as we let technology take on our role of carrying identity.  

I do think my relationship with technology is healthy. During my junior year of high school I wasn't able to use it at all to speed up the healing process, so I think that period of detoxifying from it taught me what life could be without it. I use technology but I'm not dependent on it. I love typing essays on my laptop instead of handwriting everything because it allows me to keep up with my coursework. I use my university resources to complete assignments and surf the web to answer my curiosities. Technology has even allowed me to communicate with a university in Peru, La Universidad de San Ignacio, to get the opportunity to study abroad there next spring! I enjoy watching movies, calling friends, texting, watching funny videos, and creating content, but I could live without it if I had to. Its sole purpose is to make my life easier, not more stressful or difficult. I think a lot of the time people miss this step. If it's not benefiting you, say goodbye to it (just technology, please don't live by this motto). It's the technology that satisfies the physiological needs that I couldn't live without. Daily screen time for me averages around anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour and a half. Most of that time is spent communicating with people, calling home, or listening to music during my morning workouts. I don't feel guilty about watching my feed because I give it an appropriate amount of time in my life-it doesn't consume it. Now as for television, that's a different story. Television is what I go to, to relax after I get back from class. After an episode (or 5) of Seinfeld, I feel refreshed and ready to complete a task or see people. It became my pacifier last fall when I was having a rough time in my personal relationships and served as a distraction from actual problems. After a reset over winter break, a trip abroad to India, and time with myself--I was back to the old me, if not better. Hopefully next time I don't have to fly 24 hours to a different country to escape my dependency on using technology as a coping mechanism. Technology also has the power to connect people and allow us to share ideas which inherently makes us smarter. The more we take in, understand, and apply-the smarter we'll be. I'll give all the credit technology deserves in my successful academic career and my conceptual understanding of our society. However, people can abuse it, making technology manipulative by producing misinformation, fake news, and defamation. Thus, technology can make us dumber by feeding us one point of view, misleading us, or shaping us into what its owners want. 

My number one priority is always my family and in this case, it's how technology impacts their lives. Technology allows my mother to network as she builds her business so fast and so well that she's able to pay for my college. Surveillance, weaponry, transportation, security, and privacy have all allowed my father to stay safe and perform his best at his job by having the best technology in all of those categories, at all times. It helped my siblings stay on track with their education during COVID-19 and served as a tool that could increase their happiness during that odd time. My youngest brother is where technology does some harm. Since he's the youngest of 5, tools are made accessible to him that weren't to us (iPads, phones, YouTube, video games) that used to take up a majority of his day as he'd toggle back and forth from one device to a streaming platform and back. It wasn't until he got his first nanny and went to Preschool that he was able to separate from his devices and wished to interact with us, his friends, and explore his imagination. I will say that technology has allowed him to learn in ways that benefit him in an academic and cognitive development sense. I also think it broadened his imagination and increased his desire to create. 

As you can tell, I have a lot to say about technology. Its beauty and ugliness entice me. Over the course of this semester alone, I feel my relationship with safeguarding my privacy with technology has increased along with my admiration for it.