How do impacts on technology change the way humans communicate? What ethical issues are involved?
It is safe to say that over the past decade technology has impacted our lives in a major way. From the constant development of computers and laptop programming, communication technology, gaming consoles and as of today, the release of the IPhone 7. These technologies have allowed humans to expand their horizons and do amazing things that were never thought possible. Although their are many positive outcomes of new emerging technologies, ethical issues have been noticed within their development.
The developments in communication technologies are truly incredible. They allow us not only to type words but also show emotion through Emojis, voice messages and also live streaming videos. This online communication really has infinite limits. However, as these technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, emails, FaceTime, Messenger and Snap Chat evolve, why would we even need to talk to others face to face? We have everything we need online. Even education such as lessons and communication between teacher and student can be carried out over email. This could cause many problems. Yes we are technically communicating with each other but not actually speaking to each other. Thus creating conflict between family member, lack of empathy for others, a disconnection with the real world and also creating a lack of confidence to actually face people.
Talking more about ethics, the issue of security comes into discussion. Privacy and the question of intellectual property is also taken into account. With the continuous development of software available that can help to hack into other peoples accounts, pictures, the cloud, and passwords can have a dramatic impact on the individual. No body really thinks about what they put on line and their digital footprint they leave. Everything can be seen or accessed. Anytime, anywhere by anyone. The more we can put online and new aspects of communication technology being available to us, the more people can see and access. There is also the issue of the third party ( these technologies) collecting personal information that the individual isn't even aware of. These could include terms and conditions, passwords, account numbers, or financial agreements that could lead to unauthorised payments.
The amount of data collection that can come from anyone who used these communication technologies is huge and we should be weary of this and the effects it could potentially have on us if we know something we publicly posted could be brought up in the future.
If these systems were to ever permanently fail/crash, we would not know what to do with ourselves ( not that this would ever happen). But are the improvements of these technologies improving or only making private issues worse? Are they becoming so advanced we just don’t know what they are capable of doing ? It is just important to remember that big brother see’s all and it can come back to bite you.
Sources:
- Stahl, B. (2013). Virtual suicide and other ethical issues of emerging information technologies. Futures, 50, 35.
- Stahl, B., Flick, C., Goujon, P., Heersmink, R., Ikonen, V., Rader, M., . . . Wakunuma, K. (2010). Identifying the Ethics of Emerging Information and Communication Technologies: An Essay on Issues, Concepts and Method. International Journal of Technoethics (IJT), 1(4), 20–38.
- Salvi, M. (2012). Ethical aspects of information and communication technologies : Proceedings of the round-table debate.
