Thank you for all the work that you do. Your writing about negotiating boundaries and identifying values has helped me a lot. I appreciate the thoughts in your post about having agency in how we interact with technology. It helps me feel empowered and hopeful.
I would add the caveat that many systems, particularly social media companies and companies built on a venture capitalist model of increasing engagement at any cost, are designed to monopolize our attention by preying on natural human emotions such as outrage, jealousy, and despair. That quote from Srinivasan Ramani is true, but not the whole truth. It leaves out standards and protections that we, as a society, subsequently put in place and are still negotiating – the Geneva Conventions for war crimes, the Belmont Report for clinical research, the fields of humanitarian law and bioethics. The problems and progress of how people interact with technology are not to be found only at the individual level.
I take away from your post that, yes, we have agency in our daily use of technology, but we should also use our agency to hold systems and leaders accountable. The political landscape is dire right now, but I’m trying to keep in mind that I want to advocate for humane standards in how our technology systems are designed.
Completely agree! It reminds me of some of what's happening right now re: cell phones in schools. After implementing no phones, students seem to get really into it. They want to have space from their phones, but they don't want to be the only one without a phone, so the policy approach is so necessary here to enable people to do the thing they actually want to do without fear of social harm.
Hi Pooja,
Thank you for all the work that you do. Your writing about negotiating boundaries and identifying values has helped me a lot. I appreciate the thoughts in your post about having agency in how we interact with technology. It helps me feel empowered and hopeful.
I would add the caveat that many systems, particularly social media companies and companies built on a venture capitalist model of increasing engagement at any cost, are designed to monopolize our attention by preying on natural human emotions such as outrage, jealousy, and despair. That quote from Srinivasan Ramani is true, but not the whole truth. It leaves out standards and protections that we, as a society, subsequently put in place and are still negotiating – the Geneva Conventions for war crimes, the Belmont Report for clinical research, the fields of humanitarian law and bioethics. The problems and progress of how people interact with technology are not to be found only at the individual level.
I take away from your post that, yes, we have agency in our daily use of technology, but we should also use our agency to hold systems and leaders accountable. The political landscape is dire right now, but I’m trying to keep in mind that I want to advocate for humane standards in how our technology systems are designed.
Completely agree! It reminds me of some of what's happening right now re: cell phones in schools. After implementing no phones, students seem to get really into it. They want to have space from their phones, but they don't want to be the only one without a phone, so the policy approach is so necessary here to enable people to do the thing they actually want to do without fear of social harm.