1.)   Summarize

The People Behind Your Tech Addiction Are Now Trying to
Curb It

By Miles Schneiderman

Following the 2016 US
Political election, much news was presented about a data analytics firm Cambridge
Analytica. It came to light that social media users’ information was being
harvested and utilized in order to create a political micro-climate, tailored for
the individual user. This targeting manipulation of the public was only possible
thanks to the wealth of personal data that everyone using the popular social
media site Facebook had shared publicly. In reaction to the shocking reality of
this, ex-tech-insiders have banded together to create advocacy and awareness
organizations in order to better educate the public about the realities of
technology in the 21^st century. Their findings have revealed a
systemic perpetuation of addictive tendencies within the tech creation
industry, keeping users glued for their screens for longer than ever. The end
goal of these organizations like the Center for Humane Technology is to gear
tech creation in the direction of human gain, rather than the profit of the
select few who have the privilege of being able to run these massive
organizations. In reaction to these efforts, companies like Google and Apple
have produced their own programs with the goal of providing a conversation for parents
to have with their children, as well as for individuals to think more about
healthy tech-user-habits.

(Schneiderman,
Miles. “The People Behind Your Tech Addiction Are Now Trying to Curb It.” YES!
Magazine, Plone & Python, 28 June 2018, www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/the-people-behind-your-tech-addiction-are-now-trying-to-curb-it-20180628.)

The Internet is a Force of Nature

By Jason Dorrier

In the
early days of the internet, there was an ethereal expectation that it would
exist as a place for the free flow of information, paving the way for
communities of like-minded people engaging in productive conversation. This
idea seems all too idealistic to the author of Dodge in Hell a dystopian
novel that paints the future of the internet as a capitalist runaway train, eluding
to a time when the internet will be permanently broken. From this, a question
arises, “Where is the Internet headed?” (Dorrier 2019). Doc Searls, the editor
in chief believes that we, the users, have a responsibility to take a good at
the online world. To Searls, going back to the idealistic model of the internet
would be next to impossible and stated, “The internet is elemental. It’s
a genie that’s not going back in the bottle”. As a result, it seems that the
internet has produced a brutal lack in Truth and Accountability, as a result of
group mentality, automatically produced user preference profiles, and a
complicated attention economy, set on designing services most likely to keep
you clicking. All of this leads to a manipulation of the billions of people who
use these services every day. Perhaps then, the solution would be to treat the Internet
like someone would treat the wild; with a sense of inspiration, rather than
fear.

(Dorrier, Jason. “The Internet Is a Force
of Nature. It’s Our Job to Civilize It.” Singularity Hub, 6 Sept. 2019, https://singularityhub.com/2019/08/25/the-internet-is-a-force-of-nature-its-our-job-to-civilize-it/.)

Humane: A New Agenda for Tech

By The Center for Humane Technology

In the modern world of
social media, it is easy to forget just how unnatural all of it is. The Center
for Humane Technology (CHT) has moved that the internet is no longer a place
for equal sharing of information for all, but is rather a breeding ground for
unethical practices of large corporations to pray upon users in ways they may
not even realize. Overpowered and overwhelming AI is one of the major causes of
a digital climate that has become incredibly inhumane and disrespectful of
personal privacy. An AI can very easily know more about an individual than they
may know about themselves, simply from the collection and analysis of millions
of data points in fractions of a second. Alongside this new development, has
come a wave of artificial social systems that has promised to bring people
together, but has in fact separated individuals into their own camps, and has
laid the bait for hate groups and mob mentalities to form when face to face
contact is nothing but a fleeting memory. CHT envisions a more utopian image of
the internet. Someday, perhaps, the tech giants of the world will be battling
over the needs of their users through a system of fiduciary motives, rather
than that of profit and other financial gains of the few.

(Center for Humane Technology, director. Humane:
A New Agenda for Tech. Vimeo, 18 Sept. 2019, vimeo.com/332532972.)

A Social Network Designed to Combat Depression

By Kyle Vanhemert

As the social media bubble
began to grow and people all over the world were beginning to connect, a select
few people were asking a rather compelling question; was it all good?
Considering it is all too common for people to create a publish a work and
worry about the effects later, it was only a matter of time before the true
colors of the internet’s potential would come into view. Robert Morris, a 34-year-old
graduate of Princeton with a degree in phycology was asking this question
himself as he became quite present on the Programming Community Stack
Overflow. Being new to coding, he soon realized that a supportive environment
like SO was exactly what he needed to overcome any insecurities he had about
being a beginner programmer in a world of professionals. This has led him to
the creation of a social media app with a focus on empowering people and
helping them to better their mental state. Seeing as tech has the ability to
overcome all barrier (Morris), he and a team created the social media app
Panoply. Following a study to is effectiveness in creating a space to combat
depression, Morris has focused his efforts on creating a more polished
application, Koko, to act as a sort of digital group therapy for anyone
who needs it. While critics of the idea have pointed out the potential for the
network to lead to an endless index of “depressing anecdotes”, the goal of the
app is to create happiness, rather than exploit the user attention at the
benefit of the organization behind it.  

(VanHemert, Kyle. “A Social Network
Designed to Combat Depression.” Wired, Conde Nast, 6 June 2017,
www.wired.com/2015/04/social-network-designed-combat-depression/.)

2.)   Question

How much more addicted are the youth of today to their vices (i.e. technology),
than the previous generation was to their respective vices (i.e. cigarettes)?

What makes me most curious about this is the question of evolution. People as a
whole are hardly any different this decade than they were in the last
chemically. With that in mind, it would likely follow that people responses to
stimuli of any kind would always scale with the intensity of that stimuli. In
short, if kids these days have such a problem around their use of social media,
is this a new trend? Or have people always had a crutches and vices that were
either not talked about, or were just scaled down as a result of a less
connected world?

3.)   Articles

a.
The importance of social media when it comes to LGBTQ kids
feeling Seen –(Leventry, Amber. “The Importance of Social Media When It
Comes to LGBTQ Kids Feeling Seen.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 18
Sept. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/09/20/importance-social-media-when-it-comes-lgbtq-kids-feeling-seen/.)

b.
Juvenoia: The kids are all right, even on the Internet – COLLIER,
ANNE. “Juvenoia: The Kids Are All Right, Even on the Internet.” The
Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 July 2013, www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2013/0723/Juvenoia-The-kids-are-all-right-even-on-the-Internet.

c.
Six Things that Drive “Technopanics” – Thierer,
Adam. “The Six Things That Drive ‘Technopanics.’” Forbes, Forbes
Magazine, 18 Mar. 2012, www.forbes.com/sites/adamthierer/2012/03/04/the-six-things-that-drive-technopanics/#20c476c170b0.

d.
Teens are anxious and depressed after three hours a day on social
media – Basu, Tanya. “Teens Are Anxious and Depressed after Three Hours a
Day on Social Media.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 11
Sept. 2019, www.technologyreview.com/f/614297/teens-are-anxious-and-depressed-after-three-hours-a-day-on-social-media/.

e.
10 ways being a kid has changed in the past
20 years – Murphy, Rachel. “10 Ways Being a Kid Has Changed in the
Past 20 Years.” INSIDER, INSIDER, 19 Sept. 2019, www.insider.com/how-being-kid-is-different-now-than-it-was-20-years-ago.

f.
Instagram, Facebook, and the Perils of “Sharenting” – Hsu, Hua.
“Instagram, Facebook, and the Perils of ‘Sharenting.’” The New Yorker,
The New Yorker, 11 Sept. 2019, www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/instagram-facebook-and-the-perils-of-sharenting.

4.)
Short Summary

Instagram, Facebook, and the Perils of “Sharenting”

By Hue Hsu

As parents have become more
present on social media, there has been a new wave of bloggers, tweeters and
posters all with the goal of sharing the lives of their children. Often times,
after a soccer game, birthday party, or learners permit, parents will tend to
share images and personal information about their kids on social media for all
to see. On the surface, this may seem like a cute way for parent to stay
connected. However, as many individuals in academia have pointed out, the
philosophical implications of sharing any form of data is usually not as simple
as it may first seem. This take on a whole new level as much of the kids
featured in these posts are too young to even read, let alone social media.
This begs the question, is there consent? Considering the ever-looming eye of
Facebook and Google, constantly watching, collecting and using our data to
tailor adds and content for us, it should be no surprise that there is a
reaction to the data the parents are presenting about their kids. The
implications may seem small, but consider the possibilities that come when
these children enter their teen years and join the social networks. When someone’s
entire youth is documented and being used to exploit them by forces beyond
their grasp, the outcome can be nothing but dark.

Teens are Anxious and Depressed After
Three Hours a Day on Social Media

By Tanya Basu

A study
conducted by JAMA psychiatry has bought to light the real-world effects that social
media can have on the growing minds of the youth of the world. After collecting
data from over 6500 early-teens, the results suggest that “three hours [per
day] of social media correlated with higher rates of mental health issues, even
after adjusting for a history of such problems” (Basu). The ramifications of
these results have been summed up to internal and external reactions ranging
from depressive to aggressive behavior. While the solution to this issue is yet
to be determined, it is suggested that use in moderation could be a motto to
remember in the future.

5.)   Conclusion

After
careful consideration of the information gathered, I can honestly say I have
learned a lot in a very short amount of time. My opinion on the matter remains
the unaltered; this is not a 21^st century problem. For as long as
there has been documented evidence of human projection, there has always been a
fear of “the end”. The belief that those who came before us have set us up for
failure, and that those who will run the world after us will surely run it into
the ground. That is not to say that there is no evidence of the severity that
many people have with relation to internet addiction and the implicating that
come with always being connected to a network that is constantly monitoring
you; there is quite a lot. There are quite a lot of evidence that the current
technical climate is designed to make a small percentage of the world rich,
while engaging many others to a device or a service of their making. However,
what none of the authors I have reviewed have seemed to have addressed is any
comparison to previous effects. There is of course the argument that there is clearly
more depression and anxiety in our youth today, in fact that was greatly
reported in the articles recommended, but that does not account for the
accounts not taken. When a relative of mine was child, he suffered from
anxiety, but there was no outlet to express these feeling; just the words to
express them were too taboo. For this reason, he went most of his young adult
life living with anxiety. He was one of many data points that were not
accounted for thanks to cultural ramifications. Perhaps, the fact that it
appears more people than ever have anxiety and depression is a result of a
greater acceptance and conversation about mental health, and not that this new
technology is the lone culprit. The simplest and scariest solution is so rarely
right one. My view has been made more complex to say the least, and I think
that I will need to do more private research in order to come to a conclusion
based entirely on collected data of the many, and not of the options of the
few.

6.)   Adaptation

Social media, as it stands, is not designed to leave the
user better off than when they started using. Much like any crutch, it is
something to give a level of momentary satisfaction, with little resolve to
show for it. Yes, you may become more famous as a result of posting the right
thing at the right time, but that in of itself has little meaning in the grand
scheme of things; people become irrelevant every day. The trouble with limiting
the expanse and extent that social media and the internet as a whole may grow
is close minded and restrictive. Unions across America have always fought new
technology, but no matter the protest, walkouts and sit-ins, technology always
presses forward in the direction depicted by those who hold the wheal – the
upper one percent. It begins, where most reforms must begin, and that is with
education. People must be taught about the realities of the internet as it
stands today, but there should be forum that allows this. A mass consensus on
the benefit and drawbacks that come with being a citizen on the internet will
allow people to come together and create a social network based on their needs,
and in order to represent the idealistic model that the internet was born to
be. This fiduciary model would be aimed at a more anarchist approach to social
media, based in a decentralized medium like Block Chain. Without the hands of a
select few lucky programmers and executives to turn the tides of what is
collected and not, what is shown and not, and who sees what, the network would
ebb and flow just as the users do. No decisions done alone, and no restriction
on innovation. Simply a mass creation, hell-bent on the freedom of its users,
aiding in the profit of none.