A recent conversation bought up a fascinating idea regarding how our love affair with all things 'technology' might actually result in changes in human behaviour.
My fellow conversationalist, a chap deeply involved in new media, stated that once uploaded/ posted/ texted, there's no way of knowing if the information is ever lost. Someone 'out there' might have grabbed the info, so it may continue to exist long after we've hit the 'delete' button. His point was that we'll start to adjust our behaviour accordingly, knowing that everything we do or say is perpetually in existence somewhere and might resurface when we least want it to. A society of individual responsibility, self regulation and honest, law-abiding citizens would ensue...
I found the idea interesting - not least of all because I'm a touch cynical (who, me? You'd never guess!), but cannot deny he might have a point.
I wondered... is there anything in history to support his theory? Whilst one could argue that we've never had current technology before, we've had plenty of astonishing inventions and discoveries. Have they changed our nature...or have they simply changed the way we live day by day? It's not so long ago that everyone - all of society - believed utterly in an omnipresent and omnipotent deity...but this did not result in an end to crime or wrong-doing. Will new technology bring about this deep-seated change in our all-too-human nature...or will we just assume that technology is as fallible as the humans who create it and we won't 'get caught'?
I love the belief and optimism that technology might solve anti-social behaviour problems and bring about a safer, better community, but it will have to deal with human nature above all things...and I'm just not sure it's up to the job!
1 Comments:
Interesting discussion Jenny. It's all too easy to become paranoid about this stuff, particularly in a society where we are becoming more and more aware of 'big brother'.
It's always entertaining to read the news stories of people who discuss taking a sick-day off work on Facebook the night before. It belies belief that they haven't considered the privacy implications.
A life broadcast on Twitter is a life which is open to public scrutiny for all of time.
My fellow conversationalist, a chap deeply involved in new media, stated that once uploaded/ posted/ texted, there's no way of knowing if the information is ever lost.
This is interesting to consider... with the popularising of "AJAX" technologies, there's no need to hit the "Submit" button any more. Consider Google Suggest. As you type, it makes suggestions about what you might be searching for. It does this by submitting your query to Google every time you press a button on the keyboard. It doesn't wait for you to click "Search".
This same technology is freely available for all web programmers to make use of, and it's invisible to the end-user. That means your personal data typed into a form can be with the web site owner the second you finish typing, even if you decide to delete it again or simply click the 'close' button without choosing to submit the form!
Let the paranoia ensue.
