The Ted talk about manipulation and distraction was very interesting and extremely relevant to our day and age. Technology has become persuasive and enchanting, rather than educational, and the central question is how does this better our life? The speaker believes that our thoughts during the day are influenced by the screens we check everyday, which are crafted by various companies to shape the minds of users. The evolution of technology is not random, it wants to capture users and keep them intrigued in the specific app or product. The speaker hits three main elements that are new as technology progresses. First, there has never been a medium in the world that is so totalizing, and users are essentially “jacked into the matrix.” Second, this platform is social and technology has made it easy to show where certain people are and when. Lastly, technology is “intelligent” and “personalized,” such as Facebook (based on what you click on). He compares media to religion and governments, and how technology has more followers than both. Companies defend themselves by saying that if users have complaints they should just use something different, which isn’t easy based off of what your friends are using. We have to change the present so the future isn’t affected badly by the algorithms of technology. The internet has increased the spread of fake news and misinformation, which is explained in a Ted talk about how media is lying and manipulating users. It confuses the reader and causes them to try to figure out what is real and fake, and this skill gets worse and worse as time continues. Reporters are still trying to be accurate, but nowadays anyone that doesn’t agree labels certain news as #fakenews, and now manipulative news is taking over. Speaker Elizabeth gives a talk about how a man was convicted of rape all because some woman thought the man looked like her rapist, or so she thought, but then on the stand she said she was “absolutely positive.” Elizabeth states she said she got involved in the case after she heard this from the victim since she studies “false memories.” Her main point on this is that the mind can be easily convinced of things that didn’t happen through the manipulation of outside influences, such as media. In addition to the false memory, there is memory erasure within humans, as stated by Steve Ramirez. Memories are activated extremely quickly, but only those that are recalled easily in the brain through a trigger. Technology can fall into the wrong hands and create problems that bare false witness. Even if the technology is used correctly, there’s no reassurance that everything is real.
This podcast was extremely interesting, and related to a lot I have seen today. I thought it was intriguing that since the speakers were talking about media and the internet and phone screens, they made this talk an audio recording rather than a video, which seems fitting. I often find myself trying to determine what is real and fake news, and as much as I think I know about defining which is which, I realized that my ideas on “real” news could be completely false. Fake news looks more and more like real news and I frequently finding myself question what I know. In addition, I do find myself forgetting many memories, but now I wonder if this is memory erasure. Does the brain clear itself out of unimportant memories? I now am questioning and wondering what I don’t remember unless I have a trigger, because I have definitely had moments where I remember something random because of a visual or audio stimulus. The brain is crazy, and it’s insane that we can so easily be persuaded by any news source to believe what they want, especially through digital platforms.
Have you ever had a situation where you began to believe something that may not have even happened? Did you ever realize that these thoughts were “false?”
EDU 185: Gigi's Blog 