The other night we watched "The Social Dilemma " (Netflix) - a fascinating and sobering documentary about social media. The doco features interviews with a group of people who've all been involved at a high level with sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - this is not a comfortable watch.
Learning how these sites have been developed to adapt what you see via algorithms is scary stuff .Even a simple google search will return different results for each of us , as google sends us what it thinks is most relevant based on our online activity. So, eventually , we are fed info which supports our interests and opinions.It's easy to see how , in these tricky times, people can easily find others who support sometimes illogical and dangerous views.
The other worrying aspect which the doco addressed is the amount of time which people, specially younger people, spend attached to their devices. Its super easy to create for yourself a comfortable virtual world where your "friends" all agree with you, to the exclusion of the real world around you.
I wonder if eventually , after only being fed what we like, whether humans will become incapable of taking on new, possibly uncomfortable ideas? That's where the computers have it over us, as they take on new data all the time and process it! I guess at that point the human race stops developing - a scary thought.
On a lighter note, I decided to help others to leave their comfort zone by issuing them a"Sketchy Details Challenge"( see my last blog).For the past 3 weeks they've all been doodling away to a weekly theme. First up was "In the Kitchen", then "I see Red" and this week "Botanica". I've attached a few sketches for your enjoyment. Mostly have said that it's been good fun just to do something random and out of their comfort zone!
Learning how these sites have been developed to adapt what you see via algorithms is scary stuff .Even a simple google search will return different results for each of us , as google sends us what it thinks is most relevant based on our online activity. So, eventually , we are fed info which supports our interests and opinions.It's easy to see how , in these tricky times, people can easily find others who support sometimes illogical and dangerous views.
The other worrying aspect which the doco addressed is the amount of time which people, specially younger people, spend attached to their devices. Its super easy to create for yourself a comfortable virtual world where your "friends" all agree with you, to the exclusion of the real world around you.
I wonder if eventually , after only being fed what we like, whether humans will become incapable of taking on new, possibly uncomfortable ideas? That's where the computers have it over us, as they take on new data all the time and process it! I guess at that point the human race stops developing - a scary thought.
On a lighter note, I decided to help others to leave their comfort zone by issuing them a"Sketchy Details Challenge"( see my last blog).For the past 3 weeks they've all been doodling away to a weekly theme. First up was "In the Kitchen", then "I see Red" and this week "Botanica". I've attached a few sketches for your enjoyment. Mostly have said that it's been good fun just to do something random and out of their comfort zone!
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