The word Technology is defined by Oxford Languages as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry.” A simple definition, according to Britannica , is “the application of scientific knowledge to the change and manipulation of the human environment.”
Hey—I certainly embraced and used many technological advances that transpired in my life time. The earliest “new-fangled thing” for our home was the TV remote control. Next was the microwave oven. (Took me a long time to agree to one in the home but it quickly became indispensable.) Loved the initial “You’ve Got Mail” from AOL with the advent of emails. It was just a skip and hop to embrace Facebook and “chat” in real time with friends and grandchildren. Took me awhile to embrace using a computer but eventually I learned the basics and I chuckle to myself over my initial resistance to a high tech cellphone. Now I use texting, take screen shots, transfer photos and documents, have Uber and Lyft and my phone is a permanent attachment to my body. I never leave home without it!
My life today revolves heavily on my online use of: Amazon for almost anything I’d possibly want or need ; Insta-cart for my grocery shopping; Online clothing sites; and I’m going to install Door Dash for restaurant delivery. I use my built in phone dictionary to look up any word instantly while reading a book. (I even had a Nook for awhile and had books transmitted to me but I never got quite the same enjoyment out of them. I love to highlight words or passages, write remarks in the book margins and just like the tactile feel of the pages.) I enjoy writing, but my handwriting, never good, is now pathetic so I love using Pages on my computer to type and edit my Musings. Yes, there are a few times I get lost, especially filling out forms on the internet. I recently decided to go online and book a train trip from Alexandria, Va to Williamsburg, Va on my own, without having one of my offspring do it for me. Alas, at one point I discovered that I had somehow listed Samoa as my home country. True story. Thankfully my eldest was visiting and helped me out of that error, but by the time I received my “E” ticket in my email, we both needed a full measure of wine! Point is, I now know how to do it if necessary.
So, having admitted that I do embrace technology, why am I afraid? One thing I have learned at my advanced age, is that all actions have both a positive and negative effect. Despite my happy use of technology, I am afraid of the negative aspects and how it affects what is happening today. Photo Shop makes it possible for anyone to alter the appearance of a photo, or even eliminate someone in the original photo. You Tube makes it possible to make your own video and share it with millions of people via computers, laptops, mobile phones, etc. These too can be manipulated and altered. The recording world today puts out albums featuring singers long dead doing duets with living singers and the ability to replicate someone’s voice is being tried. One of the newer examples of technology is face-recognition as a means of security but already that is being subjected to nefarious use by sophisticated hackers. And how about the new artificial intelligence (AI) program that can write an impressive article on even a complicated subject and produce it at an incredible speed, potentially making hours of research by a student or journalist unnecessary? Google and Microsoft are spending billions of dollars with their experimental programs called BARD and Bing A.I. The big hurdle is to make certain that stringent fact checking is done. These programs are in their early stages, so too soon to tell what the final outcome will be but my imagination runs wild with thoughts of schools closing, a majority of people remaining ignorant in their minds, no basic skills needed, robots outnumbering people, algorithms making medical decisions, etc. Personally, I already find it scary that millions of people worldwide can now connect with each other and not know if what they see, hear or read is real or contrived. This Real vs. Fake dilemma has now permeated our daily lives and political world in our own country.
Another scary aspect to our modern times is the use of tiny cameras and sensors that can be placed in inconspicuous places. It is almost magical that one can sit thousands of miles away and see who is coming up your home driveway and knocking on your door. One can even keep track of the well being of another by: installing cameras to check on the behavior of “Nannies” or others; install sensors in a loved one’s home and receive electronic data on the phone as to how long their loved one sleeps, what their blood sugar levels are, how often they open a refrigerator, enter the bathroom etc. No doubt all these things can provide Positives like security and save lives but to this octogenarian who treasures her privacy and right to live as I see fit, it represents a Negative scenario that could so easily be abused for ulterior motives.
I recently had several rather humorous encounters with predictive ads, originated by Google Ads. Tho’ my given name is Marcia, I have been known as Marty for nearly 65 years, as that nickname was bestowed upon me by my beloved when we first met and it stuck. I grant Google, that Marty has a masculine inference but really! The Ads they chose, featured scantily clad, young shapely females in seductive poses, encouraging me to learn more. Umm—I don’t think so! I do know how to do basic research and discovered the ad was run by a company registered in Cyprus and was like a chat-room for males to have private conversations with a female. I did find a way to report the ad as offensive since I am a female, now into the early months of my 86th year and the ads have finally subsided. Guess somewhere along the line I must have Googled about something, and the algorithm decided this company would appeal to me. Hmm, reminds me of a few years ago, when I was trying to look up a brand of shoes that I used to wear and could only recall the brand name as having to do with beautiful feet or something like that. So, I googled Beautiful Feet. What appeared was a list of sites for people with feet fetishes! I also have Googled things I was curious about and let’s just say sometimes ignorance is bliss. Moral: Get your names right before Googling!
At any rate, there’s a lot of misuse of technology available to everyone.
Are YOU afraid yet???
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