Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Manipulation by Technology
After thinking about manipulation for so long I concluded that literally everything manipulates us…or at least can be manipulated into seeming like it manipulates us (?). The biggest form of manipulation I've paid attention to in the last week, though, is technology, specifically social media and communication. This idea ranges from a phone call that made our entire college campus shelter in place, to simple posts on social media portraying false emotions/identities. Technology creates a cloak of anonymity which breaks down inhibitions and fears because consequences have been eliminated. There is a world of bashing, bullying, threatening and more that is made so much more possible by the distance technology creates. The bomb threat yesterday is a perfect example of technologies manipulation on people, as all this person needed to do was dial campo’s number and say bomb to freeze 2,000 people in their place. Technology does not just hide identities, it also creates whole new ones. Anyone can post false information, manipulating others on the internet into thinking they are someone else (catfish). People post what they want you to see and judge them for, creating false personas and manipulation. Sites like Facebook aim to portray full identities using features like “timeline”, which forces us to put together a full scope of our lives since birth with words, photos and pixels. Our world has become shaped by technology from the largest to the smallest of scales and in the best and worst of ways. It is, or seems like, the most prominent manipulator in my world today.
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I totally agree with you Alison! Technology is everywhere and we all use it. Whether it is instagram, snapchat, Facebook or even most recently Wigo. We are manipulated to post pictures to get a school party. In fact, we don't even know if we are truly getting a party. The amount of people that were manipulated by this app in such a short span of time was crazy! This need to show others that you are out doing something via social media is also interesting. We are also manipulated into believing one had fun through a simple post or picture. From social media arises FOMO (fear of missing out). We are manipulated by technology in so many ways and the anonymity is both powerful and dangerous.
ReplyDeleteHiromi, I was thinking the same exact thing. I think that Wigo is such a stupid app. The most frustrating thing is that they manipulated me into getting it so we could win. What worries me most about the app is the fact that we won the competition. What does that say about our school? Because we are certainly not the biggest party school in the country. I think the fact that we won shows that we're the biggest show off school in the country. This app isn't about going out, it's about making sure that everyone knows you went out. I feel like I'm in high school again and people are posting pictures with red solo cups so that it's extremely clear that they drink. You'd think by college most people would have grown out of this phase. Of course not everyone who has this app, or at this school is like this. But when you have enough people acting this way, it's hard not to get carried away yourself. Hence why I now have stupid Wigo.
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