Journal2-SaraT

Discussion:

My group may not have particularly discussed the articles in specifics. But I think that some important points/connections that we made were very beneficial to my understanding of the course and my own values.

First point: There are people who want to make a difference and are beginning to make a change. 

I think that between the last lab and this lab my opinion has shifted slightly on this issue. The system we live with is inherently oppressive in its design, and until my group’s discussion today I was under the impression that there isn’t anything we can do to change the system. I now realize that this view is fairly nihilistic and depressing. The point of the system is to create this feeling of oppression, but there are many people my age who are choosing to defy this oppression anyway. There are many people that are also part of the system that wishes to create change within it. I still believe that the system may not be able to easily be changed from a top-down perspective. In order for someone to overthrow a person of power, they must possess power in themselves. It’s very clear that in the United States, wealth = power. And in order to accrue wealth in the United States, you must play the game of capitalism. Our oppression stems from this idea, but without a doubt, there are people fighting for change and it is slowly beginning to take effect.

Second point: The way I see things in the world is not how people do en masse. 

It was made very clear for me today that most of what I think in the world is common sense, is in fact not common sense. My experiences in technology have been overwhelmingly positive in comparison to most of my peers. I have a strong sense of internet literacy and have always understood the concept of fake news. The point was made to me that most people do not know how to respond in times of natural emergency. For example, people generally tend to ignore natural signs of danger. If the average person was in the woods during a forest fire, how would they know where to run? The answer came naturally to me: run in the same directions as animals do. Now, I don’t consider myself an outdoor person, but the answer seemed like common sense to me. But I learned that this type of knowledge these days isn’t as common as I have been lead to assume. People ARE tricked by fake news and conspiracy theories much more frequently than I originally believed. Every day people were unable to tell that their google searches were sold and used to generates ads catered to them, (something I had realized from the age of 13).  This put things into perspective to help me realize why the issues we face today are so important, and really put me in my place to realize it was arrogant and wrong of me to assume that this was merely a sign amongst severely unintelligent people.

Third point: Our values may not be so different, but our personal solutions to problems may be. 

The final thing we discussed was how a lot of technologies we have created issues in many ways. Not just major tech or large apps or media platforms, but also things as every day as bottles of apple juice. I agree that drinking a bottle of apple juice per day is neither healthy nor good for the environment. The packaging is wasteful and toxic to our bodies, and the juice itself contains an unnecessary amount of sugar. I don’t think it’s radical to say many acknowledge and agree with this point. However, where we do disagree is the solution to addressing these issues. It is in Joline’s opinion that the solution is to do away with apple juice entirely- if we want to enjoy the flavor of an apple then eat the apple in its raw natural form. And while that may be a great solution for Joline, and she does wonderfully to live her life that way. I argued this may not be a viable solution for everyone. Some people really enjoy the flavor of an apple, but have sensitive teeth and cannot eat one. So I raised the case that perhaps a middle-ground solution would be to change how we create and package apple juice.  We could perhaps ramp up apple cider production and sell the cider in a re-usable glass or edible container.

A lot of the things I enjoy on this earth are admittedly man-made and created with harsh, non-environmentally friendly materials. But I value my possessions as they bring me personal comfort, and overall make me happy. I value keeping our environment safe and clean, and our people safe and healthy, but at the same time, I think that the innovations of humankind also have value. I respect people who are able to push these sorts of material things aside but at the same time, I think for my world, I envision these items still with me.

I value moderation and middle-ground solutions. So I think instead of doing away with harmful objects altogether, we should work on finding new, healthier ways of making the technologies and possessions we enjoy.

Common Tech

The two pieces of technology I wish to discuss are as follows: Youtube and Video Games

These two are pretty frequent in my day to day, they do not cause issues with my personal life and I want to explore them more in general based on perspectives I’ve learned in class and from the videos we’ve seen.

Ledger of Harm

Youtube

Attention – Youtube clearly seems to have impacted people’s attention spans but in an interesting way. Youtube actually has a good way of maintaining one’s attention within itself but creates distractions for those who only needed to watch perhaps one tutorial or video for class.

Mental Health – Based off of the video we watched from Humane Tech, Youtube’s recommendation algorithms do impact mental health. Someone searching for a diet video often would end up with recommendations for anorexia videos; this negatively impacted the viewer’s mental health.

Relationships – Youtube has the capabilities of uniting users and creating relationships among the users, but influencer culture has made these users cut off from reality in many cases.

Democracy – This is interesting because I would say yes, youtube’s recommendation system does point a lot of people towards horrible news sources like Alex Jones, but at the same time Youtube, since its contents are made up by the individual, also has a lot of meaningful political information.

Children – Flat out, I think children shouldn’t be on youtube unless they are on a special learning device with filtered content. The channels for children are giant toy ads or use colorful recognizable characters to convince children to watch actual pornographic/violent content. And if not, hypnotize children into watching the same thing over and over again. (Finger family. Ugh.) At the same time though, why parents would just raise their children with tablets anyway is beyond me. I don’t blame youtube AS MUCH as the parents who let their children be brainwashed by the content made by clearly malicious people.

Do unto others – I might sort of just brush this category because it’s more of an in general and doesn’t really apply to specific platforms- rather just it’s an overarching fact that the tech makers don’t use their own tech because they know what it does to people.

Video Games

As a personal disclaimer, I play video games and I think there is a lot of benefits to video games as an art form or time pass, but again I know it has flaws.

Attention – Obviously video games are designed to hold one’s attention on a specific task – playing the game – for very long periods of time. I often do dump a lot of hours into video games, but at the same time, I do balance video games more responsibly than others. I know that video games do take a lot of people away from their everyday lives.

Mental Health – Video games do contain content that wouldn’t be safe for everyone’s mental health. I’d argue though that Video Games probably affect mental health the same way movies do in regards to disturbing content, but can obviously create addiction as well.

Relationships – Having parents that did play an online game, on the one hand, online games are a great way to create a community. But being a child who also had to eat plain, untoasted bread because one’s parents were “too busy” playing their game? Yeah, I definitely understand that video games can influence real-world relationships.

Democracy – Maybe people’s influence on gun control are influenced through games? But I think anyone who allows fantasy to affect their reality in most ways politically has underlying mental health issues in the first place. But a lot of games are about fighting Nazis, so personally I should hope most people in class think that that type of political message is okay.

Children – On the one hand, video games made my parents neglect me. On the other hand, Animal Crossing taught me to read, and computer games taught me to type. Educational video games are radical in moderation.

Do unto others – Possibly people who make games don’t play the games they made specifically, merely for the fact that they spent so many hours on those very assets, code, etc. But I think most game designers play at least many other games.

Evaluation via Design Guide

Youtube

It’s very evident that because Youtube fits in with the ledger of harm that it pretty well violates every category of the Humane Design guide.

Video Games

Video games are more of a unique case in this situation because every video game is different. I would say the introduction of mobile games on cell phones violate the humane design guidelines more so than stationary games. Cell phone games are much more designed to be repetitive and therefore addictive, and I think that addiction is what really causes a technology to go from useful to harmful.

Redesign Suggestions

Youtube

Since Youtube is mostly a user-driven platform, I really think Google needs to better improve their sorting algorithms. I know that in the U.S. our constitution makes it so we can’t sensor a lot of content, which is something I value, but there needs to be a better focus on protecting children from specific content that can currently slip through the cracks. Also, Youtube should cut down on the advertising, sponsored content and more closely monitor how their AI recommends content. Youtube seems to be getting better about filtering sensitive content but it is still confusing non-harmful content with malicious content.

Video Games

For video games, I think that developers need to start considering barring repetitive, addictive gameplay and focus on dynamic, story-oriented experiences that have dynamic difficulty modes so all are encouraged to play. I think that mobile games are appealing to so many because they are easy to play. A lot of the video games I play are challenging and actually make me more present in what I am doing. I’m not saying this will solve all addiction issues, but I am able to put down a game that has a definitive ending to the story. Candy Crush never ends, so people don’t stop playing. If the types of games I play were more accessible to all that play, I think that people can get their satisfaction in something that doesn’t go one forever.