Ruminations on our relationship with technology
Given all the ways technology influences how we make a living, many professionals have asked: What technologies work best for what purposes? In other words (as educator Neil Postman asked), for what problem is the technology a solution? Articles on business technology, one of the Professional Topics on this site, can help shed light on this question.
In short, business technology refers to the inevitable trend of adopting innovative technologies in business. Of course, when you add a new technologies to a business, you often get a new way of doing business. That’s because new tools, machines, or media can radically change the relationship dynamics between managers, coworkers, and customers. To explore this topic, select any of the articles below.
Moderating content to prevent dangerous speech online Summary: Inevitably, social media reform will have to include some content moderation, or screening and removing harmful material online. At the same time, figuring out what content social media companies should moderate is a complex question. Still, there’s at least one clear answer: dangerous speech. Dangerous speech refers … Read more
Instrumentarianism and social media Summary: Instrumentarianism refers to Big Tech’s power to monitor and manipulate what you can and can’t see online. For instance, social media sites may use this power to commodify people’s attention and private data. The goal is to keep users on their sites for as long as possible, often through click-bait … Read more
Why are electronic messages prone to misinterpretation? When it comes to business technology, emails and other electronic messages (texts, IMs, chats, etc.) are certainly popular. They often feel efficient to write and straightforward to read. But they can create problems, especially in work settings: namely, the problem of misinterpretation. Perhaps it’s because we don’t sense … Read more
How much social presence does your technology communicate? In Part I of this article, we explored a common dilemma among professionals who work from home. What information technology should I use to communicate with my coworkers? For example, take two of the most common types of information and communications technologies (ICTs) used in work settings … Read more
Deciding what information and communications technology to use at work Over the years, electronic communication has become the norm, both in our private and professional lives. Thanks to innovations in information and communications technology (ICT), we now have everything from online messaging services (such as emails and instant messages) to audio-video conferencing applications (like conference … Read more
Why social media incentivize online outrage culture It’s no secret—during election years in particular—that online outrage culture dominates plenty of social media. That’s especially true whenever politics come up. According to Pew Research, social media users in the U.S. are now more likely to describe political discourse as “stressful and frustrating” on sites such as … Read more
The Cambridge Analytica data scandal Many of us first heard about the Cambridge Analytica data scandal shortly after the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. At that time, we learned that Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm, acquired personal data from tens of millions of Facebook users before selling it all to political campaigns, without users’ clear consent. … Read more
What is surveillance capitalism? No doubt, one of the unintended consequences of social media has been the loss of privacy. (See Part I of this three-part article.) To recap, big tech companies like Facebook surveil what you do online, collect massive amounts of your personal data (your likes, dislikes, consumer preferences, locations, comments, private messages, … Read more
“Narcissus as narcosis” Throughout history, new technologies have changed culture and transformed society, sometimes with unintended consequences. For instance, the printing press had the effect of spreading literacy and transforming tribal, oral cultures into national, literate cultures. Likewise, electronic and digital technologies are transforming society in fascinating but unpredictable ways. As Canadian philosopher and media … Read more