Technology Welcomes an Era of Disconnected Interconnectedness

    To coexist in a world where human connection has never seemed more disconnected has challenges. I try to think back to a time before phones and instant messaging, yes there was digital video but that was more about capturing the moment. A fad right now is taking disposable photos and displaying them like a vintage trophy. Take a moment to digest what that means. Disposable photos are not all that old, but technology and the age of abundance evolve quickly. My generation grew up in the transition phase of adaptation to a digital world. We watched television stations not Netflix, and had home videos on DVD and photograph albums to flip through. My generation is barely old enough to have suffered a quarter-life crisis! The juxtaposition we see here is astounding, a 2023 trend captures the essence of "vintage" photos. This is teaching us that time is becoming a beloved artifact. If we spend too much of it engorged in the digital capture of it all we will miss the opportunity to live in the present. 

    Technology is taking over every inch of daily life. For better or worse we are in a committed relationship with something that only reads OUR emotions it can not process on a human level. Technology does not feel, instead, it predicts how to control OUR feelings with perfectly curated distractions. So I digress, but in reality, we are spending far too much time putting our efforts into a co-dependent relationship. Personally, I like to think I balance my time on technology well but I fall into the trap almost daily. Frequently I catch myself poisoned by the instant gratification and snap out of it, but I have my moments. Far more moments than I would like, when it comes to anything else I am pretty disciplined but with technology, I am a month to a flame.

    I understand the addictive risk and aim to use technology for building myself up rather than breaking myself down. "Everything is okay in moderation" is something my family would like to say growing up, mostly because I had no self-control over sweets as a child. But I see the lesson fits in the case of technology, we have to accept it but we need to be mindful of the dependence and trust we put into it. The mantra of this generation will go down in history as everything you see on the internet is NOT ALWAYS TRUE! What is true is we do not have to accept our information being used to exploit or profit or succumb to the addictive nature, I believe as a society we are beyond that. 

    I enjoy turning to technology for information, and I am constantly curious for more...give me a topic and I will absorb a surprising amount of knowledge. I know technology has limits and I deviate from those sometimes, but I am mindful of my time. I have to consider something called bedtime revenge or sleep procrastination. I mean who can I blame besides myself, my family lives states away from me so my main form of communication is my phone. For me, I would say when I am on technology it usually means I am sacrificing something else. Not to mention, it feels less personal because I am able to pick and choose when to answer and when to respond; the instant messaging becomes less instant and more done at my own leisure. 

    Beyond it all I always disconnect when I am in a place to allow conversation. For example, dinners are a time of conversation, and I never use my phone at group meals. When I travel I try not to be redundant with the photos but I do snap a few. Isn't it sad to say we go on vacations to be with one another yet we spend more time taking pictures to share with our followers, most of them we don't even know!

 

    Technology gets messy when it comes to having relationships of any kind. There is so much room for misinterpretation and an absence of personality in digital messaging and that is something I struggle with. I love technology for the safety elements it adds like my family can keep track of me in case anything happened. Technology essentially is a blanket of safety but it is just that, a blanket, and it can be taken off real fast. When we lose our phones we lose our identity, I know my family, friends and I don't have any phone numbers memorized. We depend on technology to get us to and from work most of the time, forget a map! Allowing constructive technology into our lives is a stubborn pill to swallow but it's something that resisting will only hurt us in the long run. 

Make Room AI Has Already Entered The Blog

    The age of artificial intelligence(AI) is a slippery slope and once the line has been crossed it is hard to say society will ever recover. Technology allows the world to connect and appeal to users now more than ever. After watching a PBS documentary about the age of AI, it has become prominent technology has a new prerogative; to monitor, control and sell data.

    To have privacy is a luxury that is as good as gold in today's intrusive world. While watching the documentary I wrote down five words I thought encompass the main key points; advertising, algorithm, money, competition, and power. All five of these words describe what the future of AI will depend on. These words drive how AI is planting itself in our world reaching new heights of disgust, invasion, and hatred. It is sad really, something with the capacity to enhance the world with magnanimous opportunity, instead encroaches on us only for the benefit of a few money-hungry companies. 

    Humans are reaching a point of stagnancy in purpose, and AI is eating up all the data possible. The symbiotic relationship between humans and technology is evolving from mutualism to parasitism. It surprised me to find out companies aren't at a point where enough is enough, honestly the deception and invasion would leave my conscious uneasy. Early investor and advisor to Facebook, Roger McNamee, critiques the unapproved stretch for data. Companies like Facebook are reaching lethal levels of surveillance capitalism. For example, in response to the 2018 Cambridge Analytics scandal, CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded by saying he "will now make data protection a priority". Um yeah, it only took breaching up to 87 million users' data.

    Online security is weaker than ever before. Hackers barely even have to try to find information as if companies are selling it as real estate. Recently debilitating scams have come out about AI maliciously cloning voices and calling gullible parents saying their child has been kidnapped by replaying prerecorded AI-generated audio. It is sad to say that a documentary intended to show the truth, can't help but insinuate some fear-mongering. The truth is scary because people are uneducated and ignore it. Ignorance is bliss until your information is being sold without your consent and every choice you make is predetermined by an advanced artificial intelligence system. 

    It is without question AI is here to stay and the advancements CAN be positive. The resilient story of Alastair Mactaggart, a real estate developer fighting for the right to say no to data mines, gives me hope for an age of productive AI usage. AI has the potential to change direction for the better, on a surface level AI serves a beneficial purpose. Everything is recorded now which makes it easier to catch delinquent behavior, a world with less crime undeniably is safer. Access to boundless knowledge is easier than ever and we can use AI to predict what we are looking for before we even search! AI is accessible, durable, and long-lasting which can make the world move at a faster pace, with the exception of those who lose their job due to AI. The benefits are applicable to a few, and if you end up on the wrong side of things, good luck. 

    This brings me back to the vocabulary words mentioned above; advertising, algorithm, money, competition, and power. Where there are advertisements, there is AI meticulously formulating a perpetual algorithm to appeal to the user. AI is fighting for user's attention and those with money want to have top-tier AI programming to win the everlasting competition for our data that will ultimately lead to achieving the influx of power. The insatiable hunger for power can control people in a way society would have never imagined before the introduction of the internet. 

EOTO: Are Confirmation Bias Winning You Over Right Now?

Britannica.com defines the theory of confirmation bias as “People’s tendencies to process information by looking for or interpreting, information that is consistent with their existing beliefs” (Britannica.com).  

 

    The need to find people similar to oneself dates back for ages, interrelation is a subliminal yet crucial survival instinct in mankind's ability to prosper. Much of the world has adopted a hypersensitivity to unfamiliar values that stray from our own. Few of us have a conscious gauge of how our world is influenced by the people around us. According to Patrick Healy who wrote for Harvard Business School “One of the most common cognitive biases that humans face is known as confirmation bias” (online.hbs.edu). After doing secondary research of my own I felt compelled to share my findings. Starting with some preliminary background, a cognitive bias in my own words is; an error in cognitive propensity in human thinking and justifications that differ from the logical probability reasoning and plausibility that one would otherwise have. Cognitive bias can be applied to the theory of confirmation bias founded by English Psychologist  Peter Watson. For more information on cognitive bias click here.

    I see confirmation bias happen subconsciously every day. Open the TikTok FYP (for you page) and you find an echo chamber constantly repeating the user's interests. The illusory truth effect is structured around repetition until we see something as true… even when we know for a fact it is not. From the compelling echo chamber to the deceptive illusory truth effect, social media users face a one-sided algorithm dependent on confirmation biases. Now take that a step further and immerse yourself into your day-to-day life; how often are you influenced by those around you in the classroom, workplace, or sidewalk? Confirmation bias gives humans confidence to feel uneasy and entertains a high-alert defense mechanism around whomever made them uncomfortable or disagrees. All it takes is a few others with similar feelings to act or not act then we do the same. We are subjected to confirmation bias ALL THE TIME. If I had my definition for confirmation bias, I would say it is an umbrella term for the many facets of influence around our behavior and preexisting beliefs for someone in both social and political elements of our daily life.

All this condescending talk about why confirmation bias limits reactive conversation can be a buzz kill...yet on the plus side, it allows us to rationalize and be picky about what we choose to retain and or how much we remember which in turn causes less conflict. It also encourages security and confidence in our views. So the two extremes impact the world in a profound way, in some perplexing universe we have an over-sensitive society that isn’t comfortable hearing disagreements or we have an emotionally disconnected neutral world that can't be bothered to disagree. Think of this theory as an invisible radar that can read the feelings of those around us and assume how to react and when to tune into what. Everyone would live in a world without outside-the-box thinking, less contrastive criticism, and less innovation or growth as a society. There would be a great impact on social and political extremism and polarization. The Decision Lab concluded in a study that "This bias can lead us to make poor decisions because it distorts the reality from which we draw evidence. Under experimental conditions, decision-makers have a tendency to actively seek information and assign greater value to evidence confirming their existing beliefs rather than entertaining new ones" (thedecisionlab.com).

I think it really takes from society’s ability to blend in areas that have harsh boundary lines resulting in a more copy-and-pasted circle. It raises long-term concerns for me because you look at the minimalism wave and everything has lost all color all design any individuality. It will end up making us socially unavailable to dissonance. People who are not accepting of the minority will only circulate the information that they want to see. Where there is money there is power and if the powerful people are constantly confirming there aren’t really people struggling imagine the detrimental divide our society will see. Gender inequality can get a little too involved in disagreement as a result of confidence-building confirmation bias. It also takes away from the people who want to change the opinions that surround them. Confirmation bias is choosing what you want to believe in order to validate your own values and opinions, if you never choose to see other perspectives the world is going to become a non-accepting cold place.

Personally, I try to choose the right view that is neutral and do my fact-checking before I preach about something. Especially in the world today I see it happen all the time in my friend groups, I will be talking about something and I actively see the listeners either tune out or turn off. Meaning they either are biting their tongue because they don’t want to create a frenzy or because they are arguing only their point of view. We are losing our backbone literally and figuratively, especially with the rise of social media and instant gratification. Future generations will live in a soft world where people aren't comfortable with opinions of any kind.