This is the article we read.
Is The Internet Good or Bad? Yes.
The article by Zeynep Tufkci was eye opening. It helped me understand the power of the internet and the algorithms and accuracy of the data and information that is collected. I am so interested in the fact that technology and data collection can accurately detect traits of “psychopathy, narcissism, machiavellism,” and even depression.
I am also alarmed by the parallels drawn between our technological surveillance and the book Brave New World. The methods used in technology “create an environment that nudges you imperceptibly.”
Shoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism
I thought that the video was very informative and also very concerning. Shoshana Zuboff introduced a lot of new terms that I took note of. Behavioral surplus and models of human behavior enable technology and companies to predict how we individually might act or how someone like us might act.
The notion that our information is sold is definitely not forign to me. But I feel that Zuboff explained this concept in a meaningful way—we are not the customers when it comes to technology and data. Other businesses are the customers as data that we generated based on our decisions are sold. Data surrounding facial recognition are also sold to these businesses.
I am also scared, honestly, that I hadn’t heard about Facebook’s contagion experiments until watching this video. But I am not surprised. These experiments found that Facebook could successfully manipulate the emotions of its users in the real world, beyond technology and social media. They also found that they could do this without the user’s knowledge.
I also was interested by the fact that Pokemon Go was used to increase what Zuboff called footfall. This is where the user is manipulated or lured into or around different places of business, ultimately increasing sales across the world in this case.
One quote by Zuboff really stuck with me—tech companies and surveillance capitalist mechanisms are engineering our ignorance.