Increasing concerns about the consequences of excessive technology use

In recent years, some people have become skeptical about the role of technology like Facebook orTwitter and in some cases, the role of private companies and their influence on our lives and our digital identity.

• Here is a TEDtalk on the concern of "overcustomization" of information that we see, not under our control though, but from the decisions of some companies (e.g., Google, Facebook) to select only the information that they think we like to see. For example, people who have affinity for travel are more likely to receive results related to resorts, travel destinations when type in a country name in Google. On the other hand, people whseems o are more politically inclined may see results related to a recent unrest in that country. Essentially, the overcustomization makes us become narrower and narrower to just a bubble that is full of ourselves. This does not sound like a good thing and to defeat the original purpose of the Internet.
  
  
• Here is an article in the New York Times on the concern of an overuse of social media like Facebook and Twitter. The obvious drawback is "distractions". However, there are more grave concerns when it comes to young adults' over-reliance of Tweets (140 characters) for news. The concern is "We may raise a generation that has information but no context ... Craving but no longing." Indeed, this is a very serious concern.
  

Driving by wire

What do you want from a car? This question seems to have been in the mind of car companies lately. Maureen Dowd, a columnist at the New York Times, has a very interesting article on this topic. Her title is pretty provocative: Have you driven a smartphone lately?

It seems that car companies want us to have fully immersive technology-driven car driving experience. Here is a set of evidence from Dowd's article:

• Ford Sync lets you sync up to apps, reading Tweeter feeds to you
• MyFord Touch plays your iPod on demand and reads your texts to you including emoticons
• Ford is working on an avatar Eva with a face, yes a face, and voice of a woman on the dashboard who can us e-mail, update our schedule, recite articles from newspapers, guide us to the restaurant and recommend selection from iPod

Do we want all these technology driven experience while driving a car? Or do we just want to arrive safely at the destination, wherever that may be?

Does any of these pictures describe your relationship with your computing device?

All the pictures are from the articles "Who's the Boss, You or Your Gaget?", The New York Times

Unintended usage of iPad

It is amazing to see an increasing number of ways that iPads are used among adults and children with disability.

Examples:

• Text-to-speech applications for patients with spinal cord injury to browse the Internet.
• Applications to teach autistic children basic skills such as brushing teeth

Pro: versatility, affordability
Con: Need human fingers to touch screen, touch screen technology can sometimes be too sensitive

Several questions remain to be studied:
- What is the effectiveness of iPad for people with disability?
- What is the efficacy of different design alternatives for different kinds of disabilities?


Here is a link to the full story on the New York Times.
Here is a link to another story on the Wall Street Journal.

Do you know your neighbors?

A recent Op-Ed article by Charles Blow about the age of digital life and our social life in the physical world. Here is the article.

In his article, he also mentioned a recent statistics from the Pew Research Center. It turns out 43% of Americans know all or most of their neighbors by names, 29% know some, and 28% know none. These numbers perhaps invoke the question: which category is you?

The message I got from this article is the effects of technology use are complex. We gain some benefits but they may come with costs with losing something else. For example, Blow believes that technology use improves civic engagement but we end up with people who are more socially isolated.

His suggestion is "it is important for us to remember that tangible, meaningful engagement with those around us builds better selves and stronger communities."