For this class hour, you have the option to work online to engage with the question of how technology is changing us as people and perhaps redefining our expectations of our fellow humans. This project is due by 9:50 a.m. Friday, March 22. Please email your response, if you have technical difficulties. this project will count as both a daily grade and your participation will count for that day's attendance.
If you would rather not do this online task but instead meet in the physical classroom, no problem. I will see you at 9 a.m. Friday!
Assignment:
First, listen to the NPR TED Radio Hour segment from March 15, 2013 "Are we plugged in, connected, but alone?"
(in case you need it, here is the link to the entire show)
Second, respond to the segment by commenting to this post.
Address the following:
-What is the danger outsourcing our human responsibilities like raising our children, caring for our elderly, educating our students to technology? Is this danger real?
-How does the frequency and intensity of our media-mediated interactions change us as humans?
And that's it! Engage the topic thoroughly during your out out of class time to take the place of us meeting in person the Friday before Spring Break!
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30 comments:
The danger of outsourcing our human responsibilities to technology is becoming unsociable and disconnected with reality. The more we rely on technology, the more we will not be able to communicate with one another in person. Future generations will grow up in a world that is entirely technological, and they will be probably more unwilling to participate in face to face interactions. Reality will entirely revolve around technology. And once we rely solely on technology, what happens when technology crashes and fails?
The frequency and intensity we are exposed to technology determine how fast we will become completely attached to our devices. The more we use them, the more we can’t live without them. We become absorbed into our devices and can’t get out of them the more they are used.
Cynthia Breazeal's social robots are indeed a brilliant addition to the technology of today. These social robots become inspiring personal trainers for those trying to revamp their fitness lifestyles. They can be story time companions to young students in a kindergarden classroom. Most importantly people become very emotionally attached to these robots. So much so that some even lovingly adorn them in clothing and pink feather boas. At the start of this TED Talk a female robot is described as looking wistful. The changing face of the robot reflects emotion, and this is what attracts us. The nonverbal bodily cues are what make us connect to these robots. While this is a wonderful breakthrough in science, it also poses some possible negative consequences that we must consider. What if we over time become so dependent on robots that we forget to forge genuine relationships with other people? If robots are introduced in an elementary school classroom the presence of social robots could actually disrupt young children from learning the basics of social skills or at the least they could greatly overshadow the importance of peer to peer interaction. If we eventually became extremely dependent on robots for social gratification, what would happen if the robot malfunctioned? Could this potentially scar a young child's psyche if he or she were so emotionally attached to a robot that malfunctioned?
I also feel that today many people spend so much time emailing or texting that they actually feel uncomfortable confronting a person face to face or even calling another person over the telephone. I think this is a result of constantly communicating via the internet through I-pads, computers, smart phones and other sorts of technological devices. I find it to be very concerning that people feel uncomfortable interacting face to face or conversing on the telephone, because it hinders people from being able to intimately communicate with another. I think this is one major way in which human behavior is being shaped by technology.
There are several dangers of outsourcing our human responsibilities. The main one being though that we disconnect from others. When we rely on technology for our daily tasks, we are limiting or eliminating our human interactions. We will start to withdrawal from others as we rely more and more on technology. Another danger of outsourcing our human responsibilities is that we might become obsolete things. With the development of robots, they will start to take over human jobs. They are more productive so businesses will be moving more towards a technologically advanced practice thus we may be fired and replaced by robots. This is seen with the robot personal trainer. We might no longer be need as robots take over the work force.
1) One of our greatest social needs as humans is to feel socially accepted by other individuals. Therefore, if our children were to be raised in a society where their primary source of “human” interaction, at both home and school, took place with technology and robots, this need of acceptance would become irrelevant. No matter how many human characteristics or mannerisms a robot may have, it does not have the social skills to decide whether it accepts/likes another human being based on their personality. This reality would ultimately mean that our children would find no importance in becoming a likeable, socially acceptable person and deviant behavior would become normal. Human interaction that involves emotion and not “plagiarized” emotion is important for individuals to grow into emotionally moral and ethical adults instead of mere “robots” with no social conscience apart from laws.
2) Individuals who frequently and intensely consume mass media on a daily basis may suffer from a heightened perception of reality. This may cause them to have extreme expectations for appropriate actions and behaviors of other individuals in their lives. In turn, this may affect relationships and hurt their interpersonal skills. Heavy consumers of mass media may also struggle to carry on interpersonal conversations with others in public if they only experience machine-assisted interpersonal communication. Speaking with someone face-to-face requires quick thinking and quick response, and if they only practice these things online they are not experiencing the real pressures of carrying on a conversation with another.
After listening to both of the TED radio talks, both women from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one with Cynthia Breazeal who creates these robots that have evolved into a “friend figure,” and one with Sherry Turkle, who is against this growing attachment to technology and allowing the robots to become a substitute for a human companion, I found myself agreeing with Sherry Turkle. Her words and reasoning seemed to develop this power that really resonated in me. Since I am pursuing a career related to Mass Communication, I do enjoy technology, but I have become wary to its strong effects. When we allow technology to raise our children, it sets them up at an early age, believing that technology is very authoritative and knowledgeable. This is not entirely wrong; it is beneficial in educating children, but we should never allow a television to take the place of what a loving mother or father is better at portraying and teaching. It saddened me, when just last week, I went to Walmart to get a gift for my little brother who was turning eight, and as I scanned the aisles I recognized how much influence technology has. Rather than the classic Clue games or simply Monopoly, there was an “Angry Birds” game, a “Temple Run” game, a “Draw Something” game (instead of Pictionary), and a “Words With Friends Game” (instead of Scrabble). These games, based on apps, had taken over. The toymakers make an assumption children know what these mean and want to buy products because of them. And this assumption has become truer than we should like it to be.
Like Sherry Turkle said, it is our human relationships that define us as people; it is love that makes us human. If we allow robots to care for our elderly, not only are we losing job opportunities for people with these skills in need of a way to make a living, but we are convincing the elderly that robots can love and understand them better than humans. It is deception; these robots have been programmed to seem like they possess emotions, but they do not. It is the same as having a conversation with your television, and these parasocial relationships are unhealthy. It is almost as if we do not want to take care of them, so we would rather a robot do it for us. It is great to use means of technology to educate students, but to an extent it can be unnecessary. Personally, I think students learn better when they have a tangible human being in front of them that can understand them to the best of their capabilities. If our contact with technology is more than humans, we can become uncomfortable in a work environment that requires human interaction, and even desensitized, which is an extremely important issue today with video games and real life shootings.
I have noticed myself, how a simple cell phone now has essentially evolved into a social status, especially if you do not have an I-phone. My family used to be very close-knit, and we would play games by the fire with each other every night, but since my mom got a kindle she spends most of her day playing “Words with Friends.” Sometimes, it is hard to get a response out of her. I find I have to type it via “Words with Friends” chat to get her to see it. This is not right. As humans, we need to feel loved and cared for by other humans; it is how we were created. Having a robot or other technology do the job might seem to fill in the void, but only temporary; eventually, they will realize what they are missing but by then it will be harder to communicate with other humans because they aren’t accustomed to it. I find that true today already with other students my age. Like Turkle said, it is an “illusion of companionship without the demand of friendship,” but that demand is there for a reason, and it needs to be met. It is bad enough that I have to prove I am not a robot just to post a comment here.
The technology that we keep producing lately is incredible and so amazing to look into. This robot for example is fascinating! I could not believe how it was talking and using emotions. Of course this is great and it can have many pros to it. Yet it can have many bad side effects to it as well; these robots are taking the places and roles of many people. The danger of this is how quickly this can take people’s jobs and how easily it is becoming to replace actual family members. Raising children with these robots can lead to problems later on in life. The children will grow up learning only how to interact with technology and won’t know what else is out there beside the technology. Having technology around isn’t always a bad thing, but there are times where we need a break from it to come back to reality. Going outside and actually being face to face with someone is never a bad thing. Having technology caring for our elderly might be really challenging. Not most elderly people know how to work technology very well and they may not want to even bother with it. Most elders like the old fashion way of things and would rather not mess with their health or life with something new. Educating students with technology is great, because it will definitely get the students engaged more with what they are learning. Except this also ties back in with how it affects raising children with technology as well. They will be so accustomed to learning with it, that they won’t know anything different from it for later on in life. Which then leads them to teaching their own children to only use technology and eventually the whole population will become that way. Our population is already in the process of this now. Small children are learning how to play with ipads and iphones and other advanced technology. They are learning how to work it before the people who actually bought the products. The danger of having technology outsource is very real.
The frequency and intensity of our media-mediated interactions change us as humans in many different ways. In the TED talk show, they even said that people respond a lot to robots as much as they do with people. It’s amazing what we could do with technology and how far it is going, but as soon as you know it, no one will know how to talk to people face to face anymore. Then the next thing you know people won’t know how to even write with a pencil or pen! The media is like a whole new world to some people. Some people can be very addicted to this media networking world and they eventually won’t know how to be themselves without using it. In the talk show, they were talking about the personal trainer robot study. It was crazy to hear how they said people would name and dress up their robots. They even got emotionally attached to them and thought of them as to be part of their family. It’s crazy to think how people can relate to technology in this way.
I find it extremely ironic that below this comment box, I have to type two words to "prove you're not a robot." Even the computer recognizes that robots are not humans and they should not be treated like them. The danger in outsourcing our human responsibilities to things such as technology and robots, is that humans lose part of life in order to give an inanimate object a responsibility. Life includes raising children, taking care of the elderly, and teaching new generations of students, and if we have technology doing all of these things for us, what will our time be spent doing? I'm sure that we could find something such as Netflix or Pinterest, but where is the fruit in that? Part of the joy of having a family is having influence over them and being influential in their lives, and if a robot can do that, mothers and fathers are not needed. It is defiantly dangerous for our future because people everywhere hire nannies, so they would hire robots. From the Ted Talk, we see that they are very human like, so why not let something designed to be a perfect caretaker raise your children? The more that our culture relies on media to gain "social interaction," the less that we need the people around us. Eventually we could be conditioned to think that we don't even need human interaction because we can be fully satisfied with a robot or the media around us. Take this blog for example. We are using this blog to communicate about a topic instead of meeting together in a classroom, (I'm not complaining) but this type of social interaction would be unacceptable 15 years ago. The more that we are exposed to it, the more we rely on it; therefore, we will see in the future how media-mediated interactions change us in the future.
The Danger with all of this is that there is no longer a need for face-to-face conversation. Instead of approaching someone face-to-face, we rely on media to get the job done for us. When it comes to raising children, parents are constantly checking their facebooks and social networks, and sometimes forget that their child even exist. Parents are also teaching their children that media is the only way to communicate by allowing their young children to have cell phones and various video games and computers. There is extreme danger in this because as humans, we must be able to carry on conversations with each other in order to get something accomplished, rather than relying on social media, which can give false assumptions to the receiver on how the sender really feels. The frequency and intensity of media that we are exposed to is totally not a good thing. Literally everywhere you look, you can find some sort of media. Everywhere. All the time. We, as humans, have become addicted and obsessed with social media and how "popular" we can appear on these sites. The more we use them, the more we cannot go without them. In my opinion, this is super harmful to our future. What is going to happen when literally all communication is handled by robots and technology? Humans won't even have a purpose on earth! It is scary to think about all of the effects that social media and media in general have on us.
The danger with outsourcing human responsibilities to robots and other technology is obviously in the job market. Breazeal's robots can be teachers and personal trainers. If we can mass produce those robots, that's two less jobs available to humans, and that means less humans to pay. Let's be honest, humans are expensive. On any given day, a selfish sort of human being could easily buy a robot rather than hire a teacher, if the only focus is profit of course. At the end of the day, whether or not the danger is real depends on how the anyone who would normally pay teachers or personal trainers understands the economy right now. If we trust that they understand America needs all the jobs it can get, perhaps they can at least wait on using robots.
As for media-mediative interactions, I suppose its effect on humans depends on just how interactive they are. Even now, we have a choice in how to interact with other people. If we spend most of our time talking on the phone, it's less likely to affect us than if we spend all our time using Facebook or Twitter to communicate. But it tends to lessen our need for sincere face-to-face human interaction, and human interaction is completely necessary. Personally, when I'm talking to someone through Facebook, I don't feel like I'm talking to another human. I feel like I'm talking to a computer. So, I think that the secondary need for human interaction isn't being met by most people, and any sort of robot interaction would likely have a similar effect as a Facebook conversation. They may show emotions, but it still feels like talking to a computer. And that simply isn't human interaction.
The greatest danger that comes with outsourcing our responsibilities as humans is the loss of self. When our daily lives are consumed with the clutter and subconscious desires to be connected to and through our technology, I see that as a huge red flag. It's as if we are relying on technology to make things seem simpler, but instead are allowing it to draw us to a greater reliance upon it. We now feel we cannot get things done efficiently without the technology we have today. The danger in this is the extremely low standards we give ourselves and the people around us. We limit ourselves to the abilities of our devices, putting our human capabilities and limitless imagination and creativity in a box as we wait for the 'next best thing' to facilitate the work for us. Being personal, intentional and even flawed are now seen as petty and pointless in comparison to the utopian perfection we see in the field and movement of technology.
We are being changed by the absolute disconnect between our surroundings and our innermost self. By busying ourselves with the opportunities of endless amusement and false connections in technology, we put ourselves as raw, vulnerable individuals on the back-burner. We avoid the realities of our world outside of technology. We have become both consumed and controlled by what it offers. As Sherry said in the TED Talk, we are "lonely, but afraid of intimacy". It's a never-ending cycle of trying to fill the emptiness we feel with more emptiness disguised as interaction. Somehow, it has gotten to a point where our identities are being founded on our status, feelings and connections through technology instead of the tangible world in front of us. We would rather busy our minds than understand them, which leaves us in a place of dangerous numbness and avoidance of our individual, significant roles as humans in the world today.
The responsibilities that we have whether it be raising children, caring for the elderly, or educating students, it is our job to do these. Giving a soulless object to take our spot to do such chores it irresponsible in my eyes. Do we really have no time to complete tasks or to care for others? This is what the world has come to now and the life we live is very fast paced. Even with advances in technology, I think it shouldn't be taken to such an extreme as letting a robot take over a natural human responsibility. Sure the robot may help but not completely override the whole operation. The danger is not so much real as of now, but it is apparent that this can happen if we are not careful. The danger is that people will accept this lifestyle and it will overtime become a norm. I believe that it is too much of a change for our country.
The rate of our media transforming and always ever changing is spectacular but scary. It used to take decades for new technology to emerge and take course of being the big boss in charge. Now it is only a matter of years for something new to hit the masses and it become a part of everyday culture. Almost everyone now has an iphone or some form of a high tech phone like a droid. These phones are consuming a mass quantity of people's lives. Not only are kids addicted to these machines but so are working class adults.
Outsourcing our human responsibilities to technology essentially takes away all that makes us unique as humans. We lose all ability to interact or understand each other. We rely so heavily on technology that we feel as though we cannot function without it. We use it to escape from uncomfortable situations, to express ourselves, to relieve stress, among many other things. But most importantly we are turning ourselves into robots. It is irresponsible for us to place all of our problems on technology. We rely on it to fix everything and lose what it is that makes us problem solvers or intellectual human beings. By using robots and technology for everything we hide behind them and in actuality become the robots ourselves. Social skills are lost, job skills are lost, and what made us the incredible creatures that we are today is lost. We become lazy and unwilling to help others, interact with others, or understand human life. We lose all sense of vitality in life and forget about the things that we love or enjoy. Our perception of reality is altered and we no longer understand or fully enjoy life or the reality around us. While the technological advances that we have made are somewhat astounding and have helped us in many areas, it has become so overwhelmingly popular that we find any and every excuse to use technology for every situation. It makes life easier, sure but does it make life livelier? Are so lazy that we would rather take the easy way out than lose everything that essentially makes us living, breathing, interacting human beings? The danger is definitely real, but unrealized by many.
I think the danger of using technology in this way is the future children could lose creativity and imagination. Books and old time radio allowed us to use our imagination to imagine what the characters and the setting were like. However, TV has made so we do not have to imagine all of those things anymore. Also, our future kids will depend on technology more than we will on our own human beings. We rely on technology for everything these days including even having friends. I think that is crazy how far technology has come even in my lifetime. I would say the danger is definitely real, and I believe it is just starting to be realized by people.
I think our media-mediated interactions have definitely changed us as humans in some way. We do not even want to get know people face to face. Most of the people we meet and communicate with nowadays is by texting them or meeting them over social media. When couples "talk" before they start going out they usually text to get to know each other instead of go out on the town or go to a fancy restaurant. I'm not basing entirely on the new stage of social media because you could have met someone in person and you may never see them again. However, you can talk to them over the Internet. You also see the statistics over how often people meet on online dating sites and it's crazy that this is what this world has come to. So, in conclusion I would say this new media-mediated type of interaction has made us as humans, especially my generation, not very good with face to face interaction.
I think that outsourcing our responsibilities as humans makes us very disconnected from the real world. It makes humans almost expect less from other humans. Outsourcing can make human interaction almost gone, allowing for less expectations of interactions in the future. This is dangerous because if this continues, it's possible that human interaction will become totally depleted. This is very sad considering how much face to face interaction the real world requires. If humans start to raise their kids without much human interaction, that generation of kids will never get to experience the types of interactions that other generations have experienced. The more new technology is invented, the faster people get attached to these new mediums of communication. Thus making it again, harder, and less common for real interactions.
1) There are definitely dangers in outsourcing our human responsibilities to technology. One danger would be humans becoming disconnected from each other. This segment is talking about robots. In this segment, they talk about how the robots have human-like qualities. Cynthia Brazil has been studying social robots as a social technology. One thing that is discussed are non-verbal cues in human interactions, stating that human non-verbal cues are subconscious, but robots can read and interpret non-verbal cues consciously. Cynthia talks about the possibilities of robots, and says that robots have the possibility of being interactive skype machines. She also says that she wants to spark children’s imaginations. She also talks about how in one of her experiments, humans became attached to the robots. There are many dangers to all of these possibilities including humans’ inability to communicate face to face. The more advanced technology becomes and the more we depend on it, the less we are going to be able to communicate without it. The more you depend on your media device/social media, the more attached you are going to become. If you are attached to your technology, then you won’t be able to “live without it” or communicate without it and that’s not a good thing.
Though I have long believed that technology has been an outlet for societal and human advancement, listening to Ms. Turkel's views do pluck the strings of my heart. A personal example of how technology has created a schism between humans is to look back at Chrstmas Day of 2012 with my family. While myself and the rest of the adults sat and gossiped and conversed, my young cousins all sat in the living room with their noses buried into the iPhones all of them had received as gifts that very morning. There was hardly a thing I could besides seducing them with ham and turkey to get them to put the damn things down and look me in the eye. I certainly have no room to speak however; I was given my first cell phone at the age of 16 as a side present alongside my car and driver's license. Less than four years later I have an iPod Touch and a Droid smartphone, both of which I use everyday for things like social media, gaming, communication and work. Do I use these things to communicate and grow closer to my family and friends? Yes, but unfortunately not as often as I feel I should. Admittedly, technology has affected me on a personal and social level. It's hard for technology not to affect people when you look at how dependent we're becoming to it; if virtual intelligence was more advanced and free-thinking than it is today, I think it'd find a way to turn technology against us, enslave or control us even. This is a very exaggerated example but a viable example nonetheless. Becoming too dependent upon technology is real, and it can become very dangerous if we let it go to far.
The more we use technology the more it become part of our personality; part of ourselves. The most recent generation of children is described as "Generation iY". The "i" is a play on the series of Apple products that have exploded within the last decade. Many of my fellow students use their phones and computers everyday in a way that they see as exposing themselves to the world. They post pictures and blog their travels online with less than 160 characters, rather than waiting to invite friends to lunch, and passionately explain their stories, feelings, and adventures. That's part of what makes us human; that PASSION to LIVE. I feel like we lose that passion and that love for life when we try to spend it uploading data for people to see, when a power outage or a low battery is all it takes for their story to be lost in darkness forever. I'm scared of of what may become of my relationship with my cousins if I can't find time to be with them personally rather than sending messages over Skype and Facebook. It truly terrifies me. I try to control my technology use everyday, but sometimes it is hard to turn away from those adorable talking-cat videos. It's so easy to be seduced by technology. Even right now it's hard to stop typing, while I'm supposed to be working. Whoops!
It's easy to say that humans can never be fully sucked into a technological world because we have something that separates us from everything else - emotion. There are basic human psychological needs that technology cannot fill, like feeling understood or accepted. The catch, though, is that a lot of our responses to other people, socially, are subconscious - we don't do it on purpose or even know we're doing it, like Cynthia Breazeal said. Because of this, technology can be designed to tap into human emotion so intimately that we become attached before we even realize what's happening. The people who create technology study human behavior and know just how to design it so that it fits seamlessly into our lives. Before we know it, we've grown dependent on it and a reality without it isn't even a fathomable reality. We don't just use it, it is part of us. This may be a very dangerous thing, but that depends on what you consider to be "right" or "safe". If a world that functions successfully without dependence on technology is safe, then yes, our dependence on it is become incredibly dangerous. But like I said, that world is no longer a reality, so this is simply our new normal.
As far as the way technology has changed us as humans, we have changed the speed at which we live our lives. The constant flow of information being thrown around and the quick results we've come to expect because of technology have turned us into much more fast-paced, jumpy people who need constant change, new information, and instant gratification to stay satisfied.
The danger in outsourcing our human responsibilities to technology is clear. The more we replace humans with soulless robots, the less the human experience is. Artificial intelligence would take the place of the human work force and increase productivity. This seems ideal, but if you think about it, what would we strive for as humans throughout our educational experience if we did not need to enter the work force? Another thought: Yes, Cynthia Breazeal's robots are extraordinary and incredible but they are a product of a human being's creation. No matter how realistic robots become, they will never be living human beings. Even the smartest doctors, scientists, or scholars cannot replicate the complicated functionalities of the human body. So this means that humans will always be the ones in control of the robots and it is our choice to replace our responsibilities with advanced technology. Mothers can still be mothers to their children. They can directly influence, teach, and love their children without being replaced with a robotic mother figure; this day and age it is just simply an option to be lazy and let robots do the work for you which can become a danger to relationships. That being said, I do think that the frequency and intensity of the interactions with media provide an "easy way out" of the human experience. For example, mothers can easily stick an iPhone in their kid's hands and play educational videos instead of reading a book themselves. iPhones have greatly influenced society, let alone robots. The amount of time people spend with media interactions is a real danger to their relationships with real people. I think that communication via technology has socially changed younger generations ideas on conversations and relationships. The more we interact with the media, the less we interact with other people. This is a danger we choose to inflict on ourselves.
I think the danger of outsourcing human interaction and the constant use of technology is real. I see it every single day. On the way to class you just see groups of people walking with their heads down in their phones. I am guilty of this too. Even at restaurants, you see people out sitting across the table on their phones. This is harmful for children because they will not have strong social skills like children who grew up without such amazing technology. They also will not be as creative. I like how Sherry said the more we rely on technology the less we rely on each other. It is true. I use my phone for every single thing I do. At the same time, I could not imagine my life without my iphone. I think technology is a good thing but in moderation.
The danger of outsourcing our more natural responsibilities to robots and other machines lays in the distinct possibility that those brought up through such methods will, rather than becoming moral members of society will be disconnected from humanity at large, unable or unwilling to connect with their fellows. Additionally, if we did go through with such a radical shift in our current system, there is always the question of what we would do in the event of a catastrophe where technology became unusable. If we rely too heavily on such technology its absence will undoubtedly be crippling.
The frequency and intensity of our exposure to social networking and other such technology can be quite damaging to a person's life. Use of such media can easily become extremely habit forming, as the sheer amount of knowledge and distraction that come with such things will prove very enticing to most people that use it. Additionally many people become obsessed with their online following, trying to gain a "fanbase" through their cleverness intelligence or skill, an event which would undoubtedly take an enormous amount of time away from developing meaningful relations in the real world.
There are many dangers that could potentially arise due to outsourcing our human responsibilities to technology, a main one being becoming a nonsocial species. We are slowly relying on technology to communicate with one another instead of seeing one another face to face - a very important component when it comes to socializing. It's important to see one's body language when communicating, and body language is completely omitted when texting or calling someone. Soon enough, the idea of "raising kids" will be plopping them in front of an iPad. This "danger" is already very prevalent and will only grow more prominent. Cynthia Breazeal's robots are definitely creating a whole new aspect when it comes to technology, but I don't think they suffices as real human interaction, even if they can raise their eyebrows or make certain body language. They can't fulfill the role that a human must take.
The amount of mass-mediated interactions someone is involved in daily can change how they view reality. It can also change how they act. For example, if someone has more mass-mediated interactions daily, they are probably going to be more sad/depressed than someone who participates in more human interactions. It also affects someone's expectations. Mass-media can place high expectations in someone's life, and those expectations can be broken quite easily.
After listening to the TED talk with MIT’s Sherry Turkle I fully sided with her opinion on the dangers of outsourcing. In today’s society we expect more from technology and less from each other. Like Turkle said, technologies give us the allusions of companionship without the demands of friendship. In today’s world robots are able take place of humans, and connect emotionally with another person. But robots do not actually have the ability to care about whom they are interacting with. They share no actual realistic emotional bond with anyone or anything. It is able to distort and manipulate the way in which we go about our daily lives. Face-to-face communication has become progressively less important as technology advances. People are now able to text, or e-mail instead of having some sort of physical contact with each other. When in meetings or class people tend remove themselves from what is actually going on in front of them and go into the world of their cellphones. How we relate to each other and even ourselves has changed tremendously. We live a in a society in which we customize our lives on the Internet. Individuals create twitter accounts, blogs to give off a persona in a way in which they want the world to see them. In the future, heavy users of social media may become less able to personally interact with others. It is possible that a person may eventually lose their communication and social skills because of their lack of interpersonal relationships. It can also cause our society to become lazy and less creative. If we create machines that are able to “think” for our society and solve the problems that may be sitting in front of us, as a whole we become vulnerable to losing these creative problem-solving types of techniques.
I think the biggest danger of outsourcing human responsibilities to technology is the fundamental fact that humans learn to communicate and function in society through interaction with other humans. This is far more important in children than any other demographic, because they are at a more critical stage for learning how to behave and interact with other people. If a child spends all of his or her time playing games on an iPad instead of forming friendships with other children, it may have a negative effect on their social development. Which isn't to say that children playing video games is a bad thing- I spent a large chunk of my childhood sitting around with my Gameboy. But all good things in moderation. Interactions with technology should be something children do in addition to the other aspects of their lives, not as a replacement for them. And I don't think the negatives of the rise of technology outweigh the positives. For one, social media networks and cell phones don't really replace any sort of human responsibility or social interaction, but are mainly a medium through which they take place. A person who communicates through text messages with another person is still communicating with an actual person, the only difference is that the cell phone provides a new method of communication. With many of these devices, all that really changes for people is that they can be more selective of how and when and how often they communicate with each other. As they mentioned in the NPR TED Hour, some people will only pay attention in meetings to segments they find interesting, and spend the rest of the time on their cellphones. This could definitely have some consequences, because people won't gain all of the information from the meeting that they should have. But this isn't as much of an issue with the technology itself as much as it is with human nature- we're going to want to be entertained as much as possible, and if we have cell phones to do that instead of paying attention in a meeting, then people will get distracted. The technology may have exposed how quickly humans are willing to change their focus from something boring to something more interesting, but this is an issue with human nature itself.
It is scary to think that humans are able to make something similar to another species. It is almost like something out of a star trek movie.Even when they talked I felt uneasy. Because they can talk I wonder if they are able to feel also. By giving them names, people give them personalities. I find it a little creepy. They even have facial expressions to help humans connect emotionally with them. “Like she is not only looking at me, she is seeing me.”
With the multiple movies made about robots, I cannot stop thinking that they may take over the world. The danger in outsourcing human responsibilities to robots is the possibility of ruining the human experience, the inner social butterfly inside of us. I think it is stupid and unnecessary, (that may be just the fear inside of me talking.)For example with the robot being a personal trainer, I don’t want a robot telling what to do! The more we enforce the interaction between robots and humans, the more we will become dependent on them, and the more power we will give them. There have be MANY movies about robots and none of them ended good. Yeah, sure we can connect with them because robots do not judge. They are loyal and we get attached to them a lot like pets in that way. Humans have the responsibility to help out each other and I do not think that robots will help, in fact I think it will hurt. If only humans were kind to one another.
If robots actually become a thing in schools, and houses, this danger is real. Some good has come out of making these robots, and has changed us as humans. Some people use them to study humans. To understand them we can learn about ourselves. They are good at reading and interpreting nonverbal cues. We are becoming more and more of a social media based society each day. This danger of relying on technology might have already crept upon us and without even knowing it BOOM, our society is now super dependent on social media interactions. Either or not this is a danger or a positive is irrelevant. It is a fact, and the thing to do now is to use this power for good and not evil.
I think the outsourcing of human’ s responsibilities could be dangerous for many reasons. It forces humans to dissocialize by replacing their interactions with robotic ones. Eliminating common social interactions decreases the enjoyment of one of life’s best treasures: relationships. The outsourcing would also prohibit many necessary functions of humanity by eradicating the need for human diligence.
The intensity of media related activity in humanity is immense. The exploitation of media has completely shifted modern priorities. The amount of time people are spending on social media gives false ideas of what matters in life and what personal judgments should really be based on. Most people include this fascination with media and technology in the definition of the current generation.
The danger associated with outsourcing our human responsibilities to technology includes experiencing a disconnection. We would rely on technology more than we would rely on each other or ourselves. We detach ourselves from reality and real interactions and real emotions and seek distractions in our use of technology. If we disconnect and detach ourselves, we would be like zombies, unable to truly connect with one another as we used to. But then what would happen if the technology backfires or fails in some way? Would we be able to recover?
The frequency and intensity of our interactions with the media detach us from interactions with other humans and reattach ourselves to our devices. We get completely absorbed into technology and an alternate reality. How many times have people turned down an invitation to interact with other humans because we HAVE to watch a specific show? Or someone might decline an offer to get lunch or something because they're too into the youtube videos they're watching. We would rather lose ourselves in our devices than have connections with our fellow humans.
Anna Mullins, Allie Frank, ans Caleb Shorthouse came in person.
The danger with outsourcing out human responsibilities is that we are losing our personal connections and face to face contact. With this we are disconnecting ourselves from reality which can lead to depression in many and lead to other risk factors such as obesity. This epidemic is only increasing and I don't see it stopping anytime soon. I as well as many others are guilty of being attached to our phones, computers and televisions. The dangers of our children being so connected to the internet is cyber bullying as well as them maturing at an increased rate. They can learn anything on the internet, which can lead them to discover certain things they aren't mature enough to learn about. When babysitting parents use to tell me just to turn on the TV or let them play their computer games, what is happening to our society? As humans we are disconnecting from each other. On the computer you can't tell what a person really looks like because they are edited and have fake information. On the show Catfish, it explores the dangers the internet has on dating and how it creates a sense of false reality. I wish I grew up in the 60's when the biggest social media problem was which of the 3 television stations your family was going to watch. With social media dating and relationships have changed. There is an app that helps you to cheat. Society has changed dramatically in the last 10 years, and its something everyone is going to get used to because technology is not going to slow down.
First of all, the robots that Cynthia Breazeal has created completely creep me out. The fact that a machine can feel emotion is bizarre to me. The danger of using these robots to outsource our human responsibilities is that we will become socially inept. Even though the robots are supposed to mimic human interaction, it is not the same as talking to an actual human. Everyone is unique and reacts to things in different ways. From what I learned while listening to the TED Talk the robots will, for the most part, react to situations in the same way. They would become predictable while humans can sometimes be unpredictable.
The frequency and intensity of our exposure to technology have changed us to become impatient. We want information as fast as possible. We want things done quickly also. We are so tuned in to the world around us and are constantly connected. It's strange to think that it use to take days or weeks to get in touch with others or find out news. Everything is much more convenient thanks to technology. We have everything in one place; our iPhones. I can do almost everything on my iPhone that I used to only do on the computer.
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