Serene technology, the cure to tech fatigue?

Far before the technological singularity might approach, we face a more significant issue that is already in place.

Published in

ArtInUX

6 min readMar 21, 2021

About 60 years ago, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ was just coined, and today, the world is full of experts contemplating a future based on AI. From the point where machines overcome the level of human intelligence up to the technological singularity.

It is hard to remember times where technology wasn’t such an indispensable part of our lives. Separating the futuristic lens on a world where AI shapes our ecosystem from one that is dystopian in people’s minds can be challenging. Especially when talking about the concept of artificial intelligence technology or machine learning. But let’s not spin the wheel so fast.

The human-computer relationship

Internet, extranets, cyberspace, the cloud — we have all heard about these terms. In Amber Case’s book calm technology, she lays down several trends categorizing computer use in the information era.

The mainframe stage
Experts used computers, and society regarded them as rare assets (by NASA, Xerox, Microsoft, etc.). This was taking place at the beginning of the information era around the 1960s, where the human-computer relationship was several humans to one computer.
The personal computing stage
The period starting from the 1980’s enhanced the human-computer relationship. A one-on-one relationship with computers became usual. Having a static computer at home was becoming routine.
Ubiquitous computing stage
Around 1988, people started to have access to multiple computers placed in their offices, walls, homes, cars, planes. This stage had a significant impact on humanity.

Ubiquitous computing, also called pervasive computing, is the rising trend of integrating computational capabilities into everyday objects. These embedded capabilities’ objective is to perform valuable tasks to minimize user needs to interact with computers as computers. These tools are developed to help users reach their goals with any device, in any place, at any time, and in any data format across any network.

Interpretation of ubiquitous computing, designed by Viola Miebach

As the technological transformation is moving at a significant speed, information technology expands every second. This makes me question how future technologies will influence us humans?

Our attention span is not growing.

More and more devices are competing with human attention. We are surrounded by computers and apps constantly seeking our attention. Here is an example:

You wake up in the morning, looking at your phone that provides you with notification of emails from work, someone who tagged you on Instagram, and a text message from a friend — all seeking for immediate response. Your smartwatch reminds you that your deep sleeping phases were not sufficient and starts counting your activities when you are just about to stand up — notifying you throughout your day. Your Alexa is lighting up in the corner of your room because a package is approaching your home. While brushing your teeth, your electric toothbrush app is rating your brushing. You tell google home to turn on the coffee machine and music while scrolling through the TikTok feed that provides you appropriate content to your interest — letting you forget about the time spent. Your smart fridge is syncing your shopping list as it knows it’s groceries day. Your Google calendar on your phone and smartwatch, as well as your google home, are reminding you as you have your first remote meeting soon. You prepare your home office and start the zoom session, looking at your smartwatch and having your phone right next to your laptop — all blinking up constantly.

And that is just the start of the day.

Constant connectivity and younger generations

Laptops, smartphones, smartwatches, virtual assistants, smart cars, smart homes — all competing for brief moments of our time and requesting our reactions and actions. Suited to our personalized needs by using artificial intelligence to create our exclusive, engaging bubble of customized human-computer relationships.

We are always plugged in — from the moment we wake up until the final minutes before going to bed. Constant connectivity to our social network, to work, to our devices and applications.

There is no doubt that all these devices and applications are there to make our lives easier. Great inventions to let us humans be more efficient, save time and allow us to communicate globally. But there is a downside to it. The dependence on technology has increased, and there is a monopolized power of giants in tech.

With the ultra-connected young generation dominating today’s workforce, digital fatigue is a diagnosis and becoming a daily vocabulary of the state of constant connectivity, where you also might hear the sentence ‘offline is a new luxury’. The need to disconnect is now a thing.

Serene technology is needed.

Technology brought up the evolution of machines. The intelligent usage of data, foreseeing trends, and human behavior has brought technology a little closer to the earlier mentioned singularity. No matter if we believe in the singularity to take place, the technological transformation has raised concerns and uncertainties for the future of humanity (if you want to read more about human labor & automation, this article written by me might interest you). We are living in absurd technological times, where the accomplishments of AI technology are building threads and opportunities at the same time for the human ecosystem. This makes us humans think about what we want as a species.

Edited picture by Viola Miebach from ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

Imagine your technological utopia. For me — Technology will blend into our periphery. Devices will not get more, and applications will inform us but not bombard us with notifications and information constantly competing for our attention. All tech around us will make us aware when needed, but not more. Interfaces are not designed anymore to require your full attention; there will be calmer, less obtrusive interactions.

There might be artificially intelligent technology for emotional well-being that foresees when you need tech and when you have a tech-free zone. Like a personal mental health assistant, forseeing when you reach a point where you need to plug out to recharge your energy. If it is a workaholic persona or one that just doesn’t have mental boundaries with interacting with devices and applications — the assistant could identify the users’ needs towards the attention span and provide agentive help to improve human-computer relationship towards a more meaningful one.

What is your technological utopia?

Reshaping the human-computer relationship

Looking back at the history of the information era, computers haven’t been able to understand human emotions, such as the state of having tech fatigue or information overload.

With data gathered from neurological research about human-centered design, technology can now understand a user’s emotional state and even the potential cause behind it, making it able to respond accordingly.

The global affective computing market will have an annual growth rate of 32%, reaching a market size of US$90 billion by 2024.

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/affective-computing-market

There will be more and more demand for technologies to understand and contextualize human behavior in the coming years. At this point, everyone is connected to multiple devices and technologies — but the devices and technologies not necessarily to each other, in an interconnected human-computer relationship context.

By being constantly connected to multiple technologies surrounding our everyday life, we are losing something essential for our mental health: meaningful connections.

As a consequence, our attention is shifting, and our attention span is not increasing.

There is a need to carefully design the future of human-computer relationships, where technology can anticipate and respond to human needs.

What do you think?

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