A Digitally Troubled Tomorrow #edcmooc

We have heard of technology continuously evolving and being shaped to meet the requirements of us ever-demanding humans. This video, however, adds a new dimension to this perspective – that of humans evolving to adapt to technology.

Each passing year introduces us to paradigm shifts in the way we do things, because of newer technology being introduced. Little do we realize that we too are evolving to adapt to technology. In particular, the reference is being made to the gestures and rituals that technology forces us to adopt, and we do it so unconsciously. that it take a video like this to make us realize it.

To quote an example, think about this – In the olden days, when there was no telephone, the only time that a man would be required reach up to touch his ear would be to either scratch it, or clean it, or perform some similar action. The advent of the fixed land-line telephone increased the frequency of this action, because each time one needed to use the phone, one would have to do so. Then came the era of speaker-phones, so this action was reduced, and in some cases, replaced with poking with the finger to press a button. The old telephone also required a circular motion by the finger to dial a number. The digital phone instrument changed this to a pressing action by the finger, which was then replaced by the touch technology. The advent of the mobile phone these days has people constantly holding their phones to their ears and talking away for several hours a day. Which means that for many people, holding their hand up to their ear would become a second nature without even being aware of it.

The opening scene of this video has the girl lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling with dark glasses which, then becomes apparent, are a device like Google Glass and she is watching some show on it. Here, the posture of sitting while watching something on a screen has been replaced with lying flat on a bed . Then the gesture of moving the glasses up and down, resulting in pausing and resuming of the entertainment.

Cut to the next scene, and you would expect the girl to unlock the car by using either a key or a remote device, but no, that has been replaced by a touch technology where she has to touch the window of the car and move her hand in a particular manner for the car to recognize her and the lock to open. Here one sees her struggling with it initially as she cannot get it right the first time, then manages to get it right.Next, to get the ignition going, she has to let the car “identify” her facially, through the rear-view mirror. But no, the mirror doesn’t like Ms Plain-Jane, or so it would appear. She just HAS to get her make-up right before it acknowledges her as an authorized driver and the ignition works. And mind you, she had better look her best EACH time she wants to drive, or else the car will not budge. After all, the car likes to have its driver looking her best.

The touch-less interaction with the phone was not much of a surprise however. Voice-controlled dialing does exist, after all. But yes, here too she has to make several attempts to get her pronunciation right before the phone would understand her. “Dumb” phone can’t get it right in the first attempt ! And even when it does get the call through, the call disconnects half-way through, thus causing the girl to practice her pronunciation skills once again in order to connect a second time. Smart phones of the future don’t appear to be much smarter than they are today.

The closet scene is, perhaps, the most unbelievable of all. The closet will not oblige by opening up till she stands on the tips of her toes a couple of times, tilts her head a couple of times, before she is recognized and given access. And then we have our leading lady standing before the closet, waving her hand in the air from the right to the left, as if pushing aside clothes hangers in the closet to inspect dresses, and with each wave of the hand, the closet is giving synthesized-voice suggestions on what she could wear. But mind you, it take a rap on the side from the lady before it can come up with the right suggestion. My apologies if I sound like a MCP, but if this technology was ever introduced, it would probably have to be AC Powered, or run on very strong batteries, and one can only imagine the number of hand motions it would induce every day ! 😀

But my favourite part of the video is the social interaction between the two people, although I still cannot figure out why the girl needs to put on her Google-Glass-Like gadget during the interaction and the purpose that it was serving. Was it helping her to organise her thoughts ? Helping her focus ? Was she recording the interaction through the gadget ? And yet she managed to get distracted by the dog outside.

And then, almost as though he too wanted to have a gadget handy, her male friend also pulls out his cellphone, which, unfortunately, like the cellphones of today, was running out of battery. A mere mortal like us in today’s day and age would be aghast at such a development, but not our hero of tomorrow’s world. No sir. They do not need chargers. All that they have to do is hold the gadgets and make circular motions in the air with their hands. And so you have both of them doing that with their respective gadgets till they are fully recharged. Another example of man’s unconscious adaptation to technology.

And while they are both still busy making circular motions with their hands – something that may seem funny and out of place to us – the man sitting on the next table, reading a good old-fashioned book, does not even look up. The implication is startling, to say the least. And the implication is that we humans adapt to technology and alter our gestures and rituals to do so, almost as if it is the most natural thing on earth to do. And when we do adapt to it, no one even gives it a second glance because it is no longer something out of place.

Another not-to-be-missed fact was the syncing of thoughts with the handheld device. But alas, the device has reception problems in a noisy environment, much like the disturbances that interfere with signals on our current-day gadgets. So our man has to find a quiet place to do his thought syncing, and what better place could be there than the washroom ? Our man walks in, locks himself up, and is syncing in peace till he gets a rap on the door from the outside. He is not the only one with the idea of using the washroom – there is a whole queue waiting outside. In our times too, we see such queues outside public washrooms, but these are made up of people waiting to answer the call of nature, with varying degrees of urgency. In the queue seen outside in this video too, the varying degrees of urgency can be seen, BUT for a different reason altogether, which, perhaps to them is no less important !

The video also highlights the fact that even future technology is far from perfect. The struggle to get things right will, perhaps, continue in the future as well. And so will our frustrations. And since frustrations with technology are normal, life will continue normally.

Welcome to the future.

New Media – The Tentacles Of Technology #edcmooc

New Media

Humanity in the tentacles of technology, A totally dystopian representation of a world that is on the mercy of technology, in my view. This video is quite similar to the Bendito Machine, or perhaps, can even be called a logical sequel to it, following the dystopian view-pint. While Bendito Machine depicts man’s quest for newer and better technology, New Media, perhaps, attempts to showcase the eventual outcomes of being slaves to technology. It depicts a world that is overrun by it, as the tentacles of technology threaten to grip everything in sight.

A bit exaggerated, perhaps. Our world is what WE make of it. It is all about “Agency”, really – the ability of individuals to make free choices. As in the case of every aspect of life, we do have choices. The idea is to choose responsibly. And make no mistake – everything that we do is a conscious choice. WE decide whether we want to become slaves to technology and let our lives be controlled by it. OR we can choose pro-actively and decide what aspects of technology we want to use.

Choosing responsibly also means that we can harness technology in any way that WE wish to. We can choose to use it in a way that improves the way we do things, We can choose to use it to make a difference and improve learning. We can choose to use it to spread awareness. There is ALWAYS a choice, and we can also choose not to become slaves.

To support my point, I would like to cite some excerpts from this article that appears on the Huffington Post:

The way we work just isn’t working. Perhaps nobody knows this better than Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project and author of Be Excellent At Anything, who has built his career around transforming the way we live, work and use our energy.

In our “culture of distraction,” many of us live and work with divided attention and depleted energy resources, largely thanks to the unrelenting siren song of technology and social media.

It’s no secret that 24/7 connectivity and constant digital distractions are taking a toll on our well-being — excessive reliance on technology has been shown to have detrimental effects on productivity, focus, sleep quality and mood, among other negative health impacts. So how do we use technology in a way that won’t drive us crazy? Schwartz says that taking deliberate breaks from your devices is the only answer.

“These forms of technology are as addictive as crack. Period. If you expose yourself to them continuously, they will pull you in the way a drug would –- continuously, even when you know it’s not serving you well,” he says. “If that’s the case, you’ve got to move in and out of exposing yourself to them.”

Keep technological temptations away when you find yourself getting too distracted and constantly drawn in to work emails — or as Schwartz puts it: “If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t have cupcakes in the fridge.”

And to wrap up, here is a short video that I came across on YouTube.

With that, I rest my case.

A Thursday ? No, This Is Water ! #edcmooc

Thursday

As I watched this video, for a moment I could not but help recalling the opening scene of another video that I had watched just a few days ago. The video was based on David Foster Wallace’s famous 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address speech, and opens with this short story on fishes. Here are some excerpts from this famous speech:

“There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”

If at this moment, you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise old fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don’t be. I am not the wise old fish. The immediate point of the fish story is that the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude — but the fact is that, in the day-to-day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have life-or-death importance. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense.”

This is where the similarity of “Thursday” to the “This Is Water” video ends. That video goes on to talk about being compassionate and accommodating of others, so I will not attempt to draw any more parallels there.

HOWEVER, the opening story of the fish is equally relevant even to this video. To me, this video is a depiction of our lives within the technological “fishbowl” wherein, we get so immersed in our day-in-day-out routines that we forget that “this is water” that we are living in. And this also means a disconnect with nature and all that it has to offer. But then, when nature (the bird) disrupts our technological existence (the pulling out of the wire), we get completely thrown out of gear.

We fail to take time off “to smell the roses”, and yet we are willing to travel to space to look at the stars ! Our dependence on technology is also frightening in a way. I think each one of us has “agency” when it comes to responsible use of technology. First off, we need to be able to control our obsession and dependence on technology. It’s all a matter of making conscious choices. Do we make responsible use of technology, or do we allow ourselves to be totally dependent on it ? Are we replacing our real inter-personal relationships with virtual ones ? Are the trade-offs worth it ?

Utopian vs Dystopian – Two Sides Of The Same Coin #edcmooc

After having watched all the four suggested videos posted under Popular Cultures, I am still trying to analyze my thoughts on the Utopian as well as Dystopian views on technology, as depicted in the videos.

Being a lover of computers as well as technology, my approach to technology has largely been utopian and I doubt whether I would ever lean towards the dystopian side – mostly. That having been said, one is also reminded of the old adage – Every coin has two sides. From that perspective, I must also respect the dystopian supporters, while holding on to my own beliefs.

While each one of the videos has been thought provoking in its own way, let me discuss them here one by one.

Bendito Machine III

As I pen, or rather, type my thoughts on to this particular video, I am reminded of another MOOC that I just completed on Coursera – Foundations of Virtual Learning. The instructor had shared some rather interesting facts on that course, which i am repeating here.

Virtual instruction began as a “disruptive technology”, which according to Kanna and Gillis is a technological innovation that improves a product or service in ways that the market does not expect.  Disruptive innovations tend to become the norm within a new market or arena of competition due to being simpler and more affordable than existing products.  Then the innovations begin to handle more complicated problems, and take over and replace the old way of doing things.  Computer-based learning became popular for flexibility in higher education, high school Advanced Placement (AP) classes, rural schools with a shortage of courses or qualified teachers, urban schools in low-income areas, and homeschooling families.

“Taking our current model of a one-size-fits-all education and delivering it from an online-learning school platform or other cutting-edge digital delivery method is like taking a Model T, adding new tires, and hoping it will fulfill the needs of car drivers today,” (Kanna & Gillis, 2009).   This is a short-sighted attempt at leveraging the benefits of technology for education.

One fact about technology that is worth repeating is that newer technology is always around the corner. What is good today may soon get outdated and trashed. What we “worship” today may soon be replaced with something more advanced and more fancy. Great ! Anything that improves the way we currently do things is more than welcome.

But that raises the next big – and very valid – question – what about the social & ecological impact ?

The social impact of technology is something that we are currently living and experiencing. What was a menial task a few years ago is something that is routinely automated today. Which means that more and more humans are now turning to technology for solutions to daily life routines. But at the same time more and more people are losing jobs because of automation of processes. That is the “other” side of the coin that needs to be tackled. Are we training people adequately to cope with technological changes, or are we letting them become redundant ?

Another social impact is that we are now more connected, and the internet is shrinking the world. We are literally drowning in information. And the result is that we are now “addicted” to being connected, especially in the social space. Such is this obsession that we often find people sitting in the same room exchanging IM’s instead of taking face to face ! Below are a couple of images which, perhaps, highlight the social impact of technology.

And now the ecological impact. Are we creating a technology dump that we will not be able to handle if it is allowed to grow too big ? Are we simply focusing on the benefits of newer technology, with no thought as to what we should do to the one discarded ? The obvious answer is recycling, but the question that then arises is – are we recycling enough ? Are we recycling at a rate that is keeping up with the intake of new technology ? Food for thought there. Are we able to balance our desire for new technology with the preservation of our ecological systems ?

Inbox

The second video, Inbox, is described in the Weekly Resources as “a quirky representation of the ways in which web-based technology connects people.” I couldn’t agree more with the very apt word used – quirky. And totally utopian. Now this is one area where I tend to agree with the dystopian advocates. 🙂

True, web-based technology connects people. Or does it ? In my view, it only connects the “profiles” and not the individuals. What one learns about the other is what the other would have you believe. The online world is a big-bad-world in this respect. People tend to believe that they are totally anonymous on the internet, and due to this they choose, sometimes, to project a “profile” that may be far removed from reality. The nature of communication in such a relationship would then border on falsehoods. One reads so much about all kind of things happening when people meet online, so this video and its ending is truly utopian – the kind that one may wish for but may never get. This is why it pays to be cautious about who you are interacting with online, and to what extent. As they say, better safe than sorry.

More on the videos tomorrow….