Category: social media

Has ‘Tech’ made life ‘better’ today than it was at the time of 9/11?

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI & Robotics, Business, Digital Transformation, Education, Ethics & Regulation, Online Services, social media, Uncategorized

9/11 happened 18 years ago. Most people will always remember what they were doing when it happened. The Badger was at work dealing with a major IT programme when the phone rang. It was the Badger’s young son wanting reassurance that his father was safe and not working in a London skyscraper! Reassurance was given, and the Badger then visited the BBC’s news website and was horrified by what he saw.

This year’s 9/11 anniversary and a recent BBC radio interview with Brad Smith from Microsoft triggered some musing on how far digital tech has changed life since that auspicious day in 2001when:

• There was no Facebook, Twitter, or Google News, Gmail, or Google Maps.
• The USA had only just made GPS signals available for civilian use.
• Microsoft XP and the first Apple iPod had just been released.
• There were no Apple iPhones or Android phones and digital cameras were rare.
• Satnavs didn’t exist and there were no Smart Meters or Smart Motorways.
• Drones were the domain of the military and were not available on the High Street for the general public.
• Music and films were purchased mainly as CDs or DVDs.
• The first commercial 3G mobile networks were only just becoming available.
• The dot.com bubble was bursting.
• Widespread IT outsourcing and offshoring was in it’s infancy.
• Our data was very much in our own hands.

How things have changed! Think for a few minutes and it’s apparent that tech and social media proliferation have provided ‘convenience’ for the average person but at the expense of privacy, disruption and perhaps freedom. Are we freer with a better quality of life today than in 2001? Life is certainly different, but it’s difficult to answer ‘yes’ when instant misinformation, manipulation and distortion abounds, and giant organisations know where you are, what you sound like, what you buy, your likes and dislikes, and sell your data for commercial gain. Ethics and regulation have not kept pace and so it’s heartening to now see Microsoft’s President saying sensible things about ‘tech firms stopping their ‘‘if it’s legal, it’s acceptable’ approach’ , AI ethics and weaponization. But will anything really change with such powerful vested interests involved? Let’s see.

It’s sobering to realise that those born at that time of 9/11 are now entering the workforce, or going to University, as fully-fledged digital natives whose life data is already extensively in the hands of others. That wasn’t the case for 18-year-olds in 2001. Tech and social media have made the lives of today’s youngsters ‘different’ to the 18-year-olds of 2001, but are their lives actually any ‘better’? Has tech really made the world a better place than it was in 2001? Try debating that at a dinner party if you want some fun. The most interesting views will emerge after copious amounts of wine…

Quiz night, ‘What 3 Words’, and is tech solving problems that aren’t really problems?

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business, Digital devices and the environment, Education, Internet of Things, Privacy and Surveillance, social media, Uncategorized

The following questions were asked during a quiz night at the Badger’s local Public House:

Who said ‘If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions’?

What geolocation mechanism can locate you anywhere in the world to a 3mx3m square?

The Badger’s team got the answer to the first one right, Albert Einstein, but we got the second one wrong. Our answer was GPS, but the quiz master said the answer was ‘What 3 Words’ – which you can find out about here and here and a specific example of its use here. The Badger’s team complained loudly, but to no effect. Why? Because it transpired the quiz master is a fan of the ‘What 3 Words’ smartphone app. Although the Badger’s team were not quiz night winners, the Einstein and ‘What 3 Words’ answers triggered a subsequent lively debate over rather more post-quiz beverages than prudent!

The debate centred on ‘Is tech increasingly solving problems that aren’t really problems?’. One team member cited digital number plates on cars (see here and here) as an example of something motivated only by making money. They speculated the ‘solution’ had been invented in 5 minutes and that 55 minutes had then been spent trying to invent the problem it was trying to solve. A reversal of Einstein’s wise words! Another team member was adamant that ‘What 3 Words ‘ is unnecessary given GPS is routinely part of modern smartphones. The Badger’s contribution to the debate was simply this. Entrepreneurs will always have ideas for making money, marketeers will always try to persuade us we need their solution to solve a problem or inconvenience we didn’t know we had, and we should never take tech at face value and always understand what’s happening to our data if we want our private lives to be just that…private.

Oiled by the beverages, the debate boisterously descended into a game that invented amusing word combinations, aka ‘What 3 Words’, for the location of well-known landmarks. For example, orange.ballon.home and wooden.plank.palace were proposed for the entrances to the US White House and UK Houses of Parliament, respectively! Eventually seriousness returned, and we concluded that tech should focus on solving the real problems of life and the planet, and not things that make us lazy or mean we don’t need to learn for ourselves or take personal responsibility for our actions.

At the end of the night all the team got up to leave except for one individual who said they’d stay to be like Einstein and spend 55 minutes thinking about a problem – whether they could actually get up to leave – even though they’d already thought of a solution – to just stay at single.malt.whiskey and have another drink. Did we laugh…just a bit…

What’s more important….Fortnite, or an education?

Posted on by The Information Badger in Computer gaming, Education, social media, Uncategorized

The Badger’s never played Fortnite and has never really embraced gaming as a natural pastime, so the recent Fortnite World Championships – apparently one of the top 10 ‘eSport’ events of 2019 – have been an education!

Apart from playing an occasional motor racing game on X-Box with younger family members when pestered to do so, the Badger’s gaming experience centres on Space Invaders, Asteroids, Flight Simulator, and Pac-Man from decades ago. Today games are much more sophisticated, addictive money-making machines and gaming is big business. In 2018, for example, consumers apparently spent $43 billion in the USA alone. It’s also yet another reminder of how hardware and software has rapidly developed and changed personal entertainment.

Video and computer gaming have never been part of the Badger’s lifestyle, but it clearly is for many millennials and post-millennials. That’s fine…after all, every generation is different! However, as parents we should always worry if our offspring are seduced into spending many, many hours a day gaming. Responsible parents, of course, always try to inject balance and common sense, even when rebellious offspring may not be receptive. It’s important to persevere now that gaming has morphed into ‘eSport’ with life-changing amounts of prize money winnable by youngsters whose adult life experience is limited.

In the Fortnite World Championships a 16-year old from Pennsylvania won $3m and a 15-year old Brit has pocketed close to £1m. Yesterday morning the Badger listened to a radio interview with the 15-year old and his mother with a mixture of horror and pride. Horror that the youngster spends up to 10 hours a day playing the game, and pride that his mother has fought hard to make sure he concentrates on schoolwork and getting a good education. Even though her son has won a lot of money, his mother didn’t sound as if she’d be backing off from insisting her son concentrates on his education. Good on her!

The interview also triggered a question from the Badger’s wife! The one in the title of this blog item. The Badger’s answer? Education, obviously. Why, she asked, given the speed with which the world and society is changing and you’re a dinosaur? That last bit hurt! The Badger’s answer was this. Because education arms people with the widest set of interests, awareness, skills and tools to help survive the broad rigours of real life in a modern society, and Fortnite doesn’t. With education your life can go in many different directions, as the Badger has found. Without it comes vulnerability, especially in such a fast-changing world.

The Badger’s wife just smiled. She suggested that since the Badger was already educated, he should invent an eSport for ‘the dinosaur generation’! Now there’s a thought…didn’t see that coming.

Social Media; Key for heritage and social history

Posted on by The Information Badger in Education, social media, Uncategorized

Some years ago, volunteers in the village where the Badger grew up created a Facebook ‘nostalgia’ group to share heritage information, reminiscences and photographs about the village and its community. It has a large membership and the volunteers do a great job maintaining the site’s focus and content. This week there was a post with a black and white photo the Badger had never seen before but instantly recognised the people in it. The photo, taken in the 1960s, was of a bunch of 8 to 12-year old children, the Badger’s friends and playmates of the time!

Memories came flooding back. Our ‘gang’ had great fun. Our parents let us out in the morning, and we played outdoors in the fresh air all day, only returning at mealtimes. We climbed trees and built dens in the woods, played ‘Cowboys and Indians’, hide and seek, hopscotch, skipping, football and cricket, and rode rickety bikes. Halcyon days! Families eventually moved and we all grew up, losing touch in the process. The photo, however, triggered a spurt of additional posts that showed the ‘gang’ are alive and kicking, all be it widely spread geographically. And most of us are members of the village nostalgia group!

The photo provided an instant reminder of just how different life is for today’s children. The photo’s in black and white because that was the norm for a time when the family camera was used mainly for special occasions or events. Back then television was black and white, a household telephone was a luxury, and roads were not clogged with cars. We made our own fun outdoors and considered the cuts and bruises from our adventures to be badges of honour. Photos like this one tended to be consigned to the family album and were rarely widely shared. They come to light – as this one has – when parents have passed away, and someone shares them using today’s technology so they can become an accessible part of the Badger generation’s social history!

In 50-years’ time, when today’s children look back at their own social history, they’ll have a rich tapestry of text, digital photos, sounds, and videos captured as they happened and readily stored for posterity in the cloud. Their generation’s social history will be comprehensive, much more accessible, and they’ll be able to see, hear, and re-live their own halcyon days at the press of a button. Will they be interested in that strange time immediately before the internet, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, personal computers, games consoles, smart devices, digital photography, wearable tech, and global communication enabling the instant sharing of opinions, concerns and content? The Badger hopes so, because looking at history and its social artefacts helps to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

Finally, a thank you to Facebook – for once. The village’s heritage would be less accessible without it and the Badger’s ‘gang’ would be lost forever.