Technology

Technology

Most of my life, I’ve been thrilled to witness and use new means of technology. My manual typewriter became an electric one, which then became a word processor, and then a computer. Then came machines that scanned the world’s knowledge and art into digital format and made it accessible everywhere, via the World Wide Web. Any question that comes to mind can probably be answered within a few taps of a touchscreen. I can carry an entire library in my shirt pocket; telephone books have become obsolete; and I can instantly get reviews of everything from movies to restaurants to doctors.

The benefits I get from these new technologies are abundance and convenience. All the knowledge and entertainment I can imagine and more fit into my pocket and are but a few clicks and a credit card away. I’ve become so lazy that to decide if I need to wear a jacket when I leave the house, I don’t open the door to check the temperature, I open an app that tells me the current temperature in every neighborhood of San Francisco. If I’m planning to be out for several hours, I open another app that tells me how the temperature is expected to change over that time period.

My problems with the online world relate to the quality of the information there, and what is being done with information about me. We may never know how much the 2016 election was affected by the Russians’ strategic deployment of disinformation about Hillary and leaked emails stolen from the DNC to the precise voters who would be most affected by them.

None of us is immune to being fooled by fake news. A friend had to tell me that something I shared with her was a fabrication. Nowadays, when I read a quotation that seems too prescient or learn of a misdeed that seems too evil, I go to a fact-checking site to be sure I’m reading something real, before believing it and sharing it with friends.

Which brings me to my other problem with Facebook. We think we’re the customers when we use the service to communicate with our friends and the world, watch videos, shop, and read the latest news. Not so. We’re the inventory. Facebook’s actual product is information about users – what we’ve liked, who our contacts are, what we read, and what we buy. Facebook’s actual customers are the people and companies who pay them for our information, so they can slot us into precise demographics to tell us and sell us whatever they please.

It isn’t just people’s purchases and votes that are affected by these fabrications. In 2018, the largest mass-killer of Jewish people in American history was prompted by online reading of right-wing conspiracy theories about the central American caravan of migrants and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Hate speech is not just politically incorrect; it is extremely dangerous.

The internet as a technology is neutral, but it gives harmful speech vastly increased volume and reach. And pictures and words that appear on screens may seem more likely to be factual than spoken words. Let’s be careful out there. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can incite people to use assault rifles.