Final Blog Post
Barrett Owen
12/4/24
Our Relationship With Technology:
Over the last few decades technology and specifically phones have become so popular and grown so big that almost everyone has one including kids and teens. Our relationship with technology in general changes so quickly and has a number of pros and cons that can be felt in many ways. One of the best examples currently is the debate on A.I. technology and how it will be used in the future. Use of generative A.I. technology has only become widespread by the general public for a few years now and there are many positive and negative aspects to it which have caused many debates. One of the main positives is that it can be used to summarize and gather large amounts of information into smaller parts that can make it faster and easier for people to consume. A negative is when this information is used for the wrong reasons and turns into people using the prompts and information these A.I. tools feed them to turn in as their own. There are also many debates on whether A.I. will be able to take over certain jobs in the future. “Roughly two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation, and that generative AI could substitute up to one-fourth of current work.” (American Progress) The amount of jobs which potentially can be replaced by A.I. tools is so large and we need to make sure that we find ways of detecting and regulating A.I. which will prevent certain uses of these tools so that humans dont become replaceable. Overall, I think that A.I. can be used in both positive and negative ways but we need to figure out how to monitor the intentions of people using A.I.
I think that our relationship with technology is very complicated and can be healthy or unhealthy depending on the specific person and the ways they use it. Another major issue in recent years is the problem of misinformation and influences of creators online. Since it is so easy to create your own content and express your opinions online whether that is on Twitter (X), Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or another social media website/app anyone can post anything they want. This is another aspect that can be very beneficial to others but also very negative. The positive is when you are able to find creators who provide education, entertainment, and enjoyment, and the negative is when people start to manipulate, bully, or lie to their audience. Personally, I use social media a lot and that can be bad in some aspects but I try to stay open to multiple viewpoints, and explore a lot of sources of information. There are some apps which spread a lot of negativity and have more cyberbullies than others which might be causing some of the unhealthy aspects of social media. “[Misinformation is] really a function of the structure of the social media sites themselves.” (USC) Many large social media platforms are facing issues around what makes up possible misinformaton, but at the same time they need to provide they need to a place that upholds the first amendment. It is important that there is a space where people can share information and opinions freely Overall I think that our relationship with technology across the world is very complicated and will continue to be debated. We need to be careful about what we consume and always looks for a good mix of enjoyment, truth, and education.
Sources:
1- https://www.americanprogress.org/article/will-ai-benefit-or-harm-workers/
2- https://today.usc.edu/usc-study-reveals-the-key-reason-why-fake-news-spreads-on-social-media/
