Increasing online presence & the Internet of things — Can it do more harm than good?
The merits of technology and the internet, as well as how easy it has made all our lives cannot be denied. It has allowed plethora of knowledge to be shared with people across the globe and provided an opportunity for people to collaborate and conduct extensive research together. It was developed for this reason and with good intent. Today, however, it is more than just that. It is present in each aspect of our lives, almost as if it is a part of our body-we feel like we cannot live and function without our devices.
A step beyond the internet, is the Internet of things — wherein devices are integrated and communicate with us, as well as with each other. Examples include wearable devices, smart cities and smart fridges that are supposed to make our lives better, increase convenience and efficiency and save our time. There are devices that can order groceries as soon as they are needed, devices that are saving lives- systems that can detect avalanches and forest fires before they happen and those that detect car accidents and notify hospitals immediately.
As appreciative as I am of these new inventions and the benefits they bring, I am worried about the negative impacts that some technologies can have on the society and the individuals in them as they often come with significant costs. These are often not witnessed as soon as new technology is adopted, but present themselves over the next few decades, as was the case with the adoption of the internet.
One major impact of the internet of things is the loss of privacy, as well as its ability to control our lives as voice activation is listening to everything we say — even our private conversations, collecting data about us, creating consumer profiles and providing this to companies. These devices can then manipulate us into spending more money to profit companies as they have understood our behaviours and buying patterns and keep adjusting accordingly.
We are being sucked into a culture of consumerism and materialism as algorithms are used to track each of our clicks and visits to websites. We are no longer vulnerable to impulse purchases and overspending only when we are out shopping or exposed to advertisements just on televisions and billboards. Today, we are constantly surrounded by advertisements whether we are checking email, on social media or doing research on a website and we only need to make a few clicks before we have bought numerous things that we do not need.
This is an important ethical matter to question. Is it acceptable for companies to manipulate people using technology in this way because it is legal and an easily accessible tool to use for their benefit or should they restrain from using it because it is exploiting vulnerable people into a lifestyle they cannot afford and is not good for them?
As a society, it is important to stand against exploitation of people by corporations which they have been doing for centuries. The difference is, now it is disguised as being beneficial to us in terms of convenience, time savings and personalised services from advancements in technology.
As Melissa Woodley mentioned in her comment on the Individual, Identity and Ethics post, invasion of privacy is becoming normalised because people do not recognise on what scale it is being done and its implications. Once aware though, we need to think about how we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from being manipulated by companies in this way.
An increasing divide between people that are able to use technology and those that are not may also be experienced through job losses of people unable to quickly get habituated to new technology and some jobs may no longer be required altogether as they will be automated instead. It can be argued that these jobs are dirty and dangerous, and nobody wanted to do them in the first place. The fact however, is that some people were willing to do them to make ends meet and they no longer have this opportunity.
Then, there are issues of cyberbullying, cybercrime and illegal content that is not caused but facilitated by technology as humans have always partaken in these but technology, especially the internet makes it easy to perform these. It is our responsibility therefore, as digital citizens to prevent these from ruining lives.
Children should firstly be taught in schools that they are digital citizens and do not have a separate existence online, but it is an extension of their offline one and schools must therefore cultivate in them a sense of responsibility and ethics when presenting themselves and communicating online. They should also be taught the impacts that technology can have on the environment and the society and the steps they can take to ensure there is more good than harm.
For instance, the book digital citizenship in schools outlines nine basics elements of digital citizenship including digital access, commerce, communication, etiquette, rights and responsibilities and security that can be taught to young people to make them understand what acceptable behaviour is online and what is not. The lack of education in this area and the consequences of bad behaviour online causes young people to not take this matter seriously and to not be careful about their behaviour on the internet.
Most of us are now not only citizens of our countries and the planet, but also citizens of the internet. We need to therefore understand that there are benefits and shortcomings of using the internet and recently, the internet of things. With this, we also have rights and responsibilities, as well as real dangers of having an online presence. It is therefore important that we conduct ourselves well online, are respectful towards others and careful while putting ourselves out there. We cannot stop using technology, and we shouldn’t. We should however take steps necessary to protect ourselves, maintain our privacy, our sanity and our well-being.
The best way to describe my experience of learning digital society as a module is that it has showed me the good, the bad, and the ugly, of living in a digital society. I now have a multi-dimensional view of the internet, the internet of things, as well as smart cities which I previously didn’t. Although these technological breakthroughs have and will continue to increase convenience, productivity and save lives — through various medical advancements, as well as fast communication and informing emergency services following accidents, they will also impact our lives negatively in small and big ways, hence the bad and the ugly.
It has made me concerned about an increasing divide that is happening and will continue to widen between people that are technologically literate and those that are not. It is unlikely that all the people in the latter category will be able to cope with changes at work, as well as in their daily lives. Their jobs may be replaced by technology and it may take them a while to find work elsewhere, if at all. This may lead to social problems of homelessness, crime and substance abuse.
On an individual level, I believe that technologies such as the internet of things that reduce the need to leave our homes and perform tasks such as order groceries and other household items, for instance, cars that drive themselves, as well as virtual assistants and virtual sales staff are making the world less human and connected, which is what makes it worth living in the first place and causing more isolation and loneliness.
I have also become more aware of the importance of educating ourselves and the people around us about ethics and online conduct as well as started thinking how difficult it is to enforce law on the internet and monitor every single user. This makes it an easy platform for criminals and trolls to harass innocent people — awareness of all the ways people can be victimized is crucial.
I have also realised who really benefits from technologies — corporations. They keep getting richer at the cost of our loss of privacy, safety, and well-being. This era is a new one- one of artificial intelligence, smart cities, smart homes, smart everything. Its implications have not been witnessed yet and will not be fully witnessed in the next few years either, as was the case with the widespread adoption of the internet, but within the next few decades, negative impacts will start to show themselves.
I therefore think that I will be embracing some of these new technologies, but not blindly. I will try to understand what the risks associated with each are, how these are likely to impact me, my family and the people around me. I will also be careful about what I post online, the messages that I receive, as well as any activities that seem suspicious. I also hope that software will be created to prevent online abuse, harassment and other types of harm.
