Week 10: Information Technology and Society

Week 10 Reading notes:

S. Moeller, E. Powers, J. Roberts, «El mundo desconectado» y «24 horas sin medios»: alfabetización mediática para la conciencia crítica de los jóvenes, Comunicar; Comunicar 39: La formación de profesores en educación en medios; 45-52 URL https://www.scipedia.com/public/Moeller_et_al_2012a

Introduction:

A study of 1,000 students at more than a dozen universities on five continents that participated in "The World Unplugged" has helped teachers better understand their students' Internet usage patterns and enhanced their ability to help young people improve their media literacy. The 1,000 students took part in the 24 hours without media exercise to learn about the influence of media on them and how much they depend on it.

Results:

Most of the students said they could not leave the media, as if they were addicted to it. After leaving the media, they felt lonely, sad and even lost the power of life. Participants also said that social media helps them build social bridges, which is a real social connection. On social media like Facebook, people can follow their friends, keep them close to them, and send emails to professors and companies through the media. People can use social software to communicate with their families and get news quickly on the media.

On the other hand, participants said that participating in the media-free event allowed them to communicate better with close friends and family and spend more time doing things they had been neglecting. There was freedom and liberation, peace and love in the absence of the media.

Week 10 Lecture notes:

Information Technology and Society.

In the 90’s the network society was a very new idea and had a lot of buzz. Previously networks were restricted by time and distance and the limits of technology. This distance allowed local differences to develop, this is what historians refer to as time space compression. As post war technology developed it gave us an interconnectedness and changed the way that we interacted, through newly established networks. The downside to this is that originally the information only went one way, meaning that the network flows from the centre outward or from the top down. But as networks develop further information begins to flow back and forth through the interconnection of people. It also changes where the periphery used to be and allows those that used to be distant to be much closer.

The idea of wellbeing has shifted from the accumulation of products to a service and experience economy where experience doesn’t necessarily become more important than consumption but it gets noticed much more as a big part of our lives. This relies on networks for getting noticed and makes us dependent on computers and power as this opens up this much more.

Dematerialisation and the consumption of less products seems like an answer to sustainability where the idea of consuming less and experiencing more potentially becomes a positive change. But dematerialisation is not working and the idea of green growth or eco modernisation relies on the notion that when we have the right technology, environmental sustainability will be reached and everything will just happen. This style of economy will continue unless you price carbon into the system and the value of products and services are seen differently. In developing countries the lack of prior infrastructure means that technology can have a ‘clean start’ and that can lead to rapid success with the new tech bringing opportunities. The new tech often needs less infrastructure and can be implemented more cheaply, therefore it’s accessible to more of the population.

The downside to the rapid access to technology, especially the news, means the misinformation can flood the media and it is easy for us to become misled, think fake news. PizzaGate was mentioned in the lecture. This can distract people from really important issues.

Although globalisation may seem like it is bringing us together it also equals distancing and it becomes easier to hide negative issues that can be associated with products and environmental issues. An example of which is to go to a shopping mall, get sold a phone and be totally unaware of the environmental impact that product has had on the environment. But if that consumer knew that 90% of E-waste being dumped illegally was local and could actually see the waste or impact it has for themselves, they would have a totally different point of view when buying a new phone. 

Negative impacts of new online technology can range from distraction, too much information so we are easily distracted and we lose our ability to focus, creates unrealistic expectations and instant access giving us shorter attention spans.

Time Scarcity now becomes a huge problem where ‘mobile lives’ cause social acceleration that deeply connects to the technological acceleration. There is more stress and more pressure on you to do the same amount of work in much less of the time. Now there is less time to relax and disconnect. The joyless economy is what Scitovsky calls as industrialised output increases we buy more stuff and our lives get filled with choices so the creative and social stuff has pressure on it and we are less happy.

Time pressure leads to task switching, orchestrated performance, continuous pressure, continuous mobility, flexibilization and senses of self-dependence. The erosion of time due to too much tech leads to the creation of reflective time becoming really important. We have more information now and we are to use it for the good. Designers should work towards reversing these unsustainable directions, to start thinking about repurposing products and goods, making them upgradeable, revivable and more sustainable.

Week 10 Tutorial notes:

In the past when people were living an “unconnected” life, there is a different sense of space and time. People have more trust in other people (eg. setting up meetings) and more romantic relationships. The idea of wellbeing has changed too, since the crave of social interaction, and to keep up with the latest information are becoming overwhelming. With so much distraction, it is harder to focus for a long time span. People also feel anxious or bored when disconnected.

As the desire for consumption of things increases, there is more advertisement everywhere. Back in the old days the city looked clean and uncluttered when there were no posters on shop windows everywhere, because there were less but better products so there was no need for the invasive and sophisticated marketing we have now.

Instead of accumulating things, we now accumulate experiences through exploring things on the Internet or with technology. The choices are unlimited, and there is access to everything, which is concerning for kids that have no self discipline. We now have to self impose restrictions and choose to use the Internet in platforms that have less negative effect. 

Many of the information online is fake news, so it is important for us to be analytical and critical when seeing news before accepting it as the truth. Comedians provide a more lighthearted view of the news and say things that people are afraid to say so they become the new news sources. Citizens can also act as reporters by live streaming what is really happening, that is not shown in mainstream news media.

With the Internet, we now can be everywhere at the same time, but we have limited time. We should consciously disconnect and reconnect with ourselves and people that really matters. Group Reflection and Discussion:
Media and electronic products do distract us in our study, work and life to some extent. But In general, we can still control ourselves, and the media does help us a lot. For example, we can see our parents' faces with our families, even though we are tens of thousands of kilometres apart. We can get a lot of information we need on the Internet. We can play music with our cell phones and DVD players to make us happy. Everything is two-sided, there are advantages and disadvantages, we have to do is self-restraint and use media correctly.