Sage Pantony

I grew up immersed in technology, and until recently, I quite liked that. Mine was the first generation to grow up on the internet, use social media, and own smartphones. As a child, I played games on the family desktop in the computer room with dial-up internet. I remember watching webpages slowly load on my screen, bar by bar, and the computer’s effortful sound as it chugged along. In high school, I bought a laptop and created my first-ever social media account. The internet got faster. When I graduated, I got my first smartphone.

I used to believe that technology is a tool, one that is neither inherently good nor evil, and that what matters is how we choose to use it.

However, as our relationship with machines has grown progressively fusional, I realized that my philosophy required revision. Capitalism and neoliberalism direct our relationships with technology. Billionaires and corporations rule over it. It is becoming ever more addictive, manipulative, ubiquitous, and socially and environmentally destructive. Integrating it into every aspect of our lives without question is the default, the norm. It is being pushed on us from all sides. We are using technological “tools that are embedded with values of their own” (Koughan & Rushkoff, 2014, 00:51:48). Therefore, I believe there has been an erosion of choice.

I no longer view technology as a neutral tool that we can choose to engage with as we see fit. For example, even though I want nothing to do with artificial intelligence (AI), when I use a search engine, I am given an AI-generated summary. Most of the applications and tools I used for years have recently integrated AI, and it is often impossible to opt out. We are being required to use it at work and school. People are using AI to parent their children and navigate mental health issues. Some believe they are developing intimate relationships with it. We are encouraged, even impelled, to outsource every small, simple task to AI. Not only tasks, but also our very thought processes. We are meant to give it all to the machine and the people in power behind the machine.

We are too immersed. We have gone too deep. This technology is not neutral. We cannot choose how to use it. Its creators are choosing how to use us.

I cannot avoid AI completely, but I can choose not to engage with it voluntarily. I cannot cut all technology out of my life and escape to the woods, but I can withdraw as much as possible from the aspects I see as the most questionable, troubling, dysfunctional, manipulative, and dystopian.

The ruling class is trying to take away our agency. They are using technology to control us, but we do not have to sit back and passively accept that. We do not have to eat all the slop they are giving us. We do not have to outsource ourselves to the machine. We can take a step back. We can say no. We can pause, question, think, write, act, and create for ourselves. We do not have to become one with their machine.

References

Koughan, F. (Writer & Producer), & Rushkoff, D. (Writer & Producer). (2014, February 18). Generation like (Season 32, Episode 4) [TV series episode]. In K. Druckerman, B. Tarver, & D. Fanning (Executive Producers), Frontline. Left/Right Docs; WGBH Educational Foundation; WGBH/Boston.