The Social Dilemma Critique

 It's 3:47 in the morning and I am watching this documentary called The Social Dilemma on Netflix. I have always been an advocate on integration of technology over the domination of technology in all aspects of our lives. The documentary brought up this idea of Ethical Technology which aligns with everything I advocate for in terms of technology. We often rely on technology to replace our foundational human instincts so that we don't have to think anymore. We rely on code and algorithms to make things efficient that the system does all the work. We rely on social media to make us feel how we should think we feel. As an educator, this is absolutely the wrong approach. The idea of integration is to work alongside the idea rather than the idea to consume us. Everything with technology is about consumption which is directly linked to capitalism. We create because we want more and we want more because we are never satisfied with what we have. Technology has its hedonistic treadmill that takes over our humanity. In tech culture, when people create, it is not about the art or the aspect of innovation. It is about the rolling out of products. If we think about technology like this, we will never be satisfied. 

As an educator teaching through distance learning, it is hard to implement the teaching strategies that made us passionate about the craft of teaching because technology is about marketability. If we do not rely on our humanistic qualities when it comes to technology then we are doomed to be consumed by it. "If you're not paying for the product, then you are the product"-The Social Dilemma.