The holidays are one of the most overplugged times a year. We give and receive digital devices, shop online, and rely on social media to catch up with family, friends and international news. At this intersection of tech, business, and communication, how can we humanize the web and become better digital citizens? Today my guest, ASKfm digital family expert and tech ethicist, David Polgar, helped answer these questions:
“If I could outsource my travel research to Artificial Intelligence, I would.”
“I was looking at how social media effects us from a ethical space and became a tech ethicist from that conversation.”
“We have to ask ourselves, ‘How does Instagram affect us? Do we have Instagram envy?’”
“Companies in Silicon Valley are having such an impact on the ethical tech discussion.”
“Everybody is a stakeholder. We need to bring in a variety of voices to discuss the ethical side of tech.”
“I think the media frames the ethical tech question as a dichotomy. Either you are a techie or a luddite.”
“We want to add value to social media. Think about how many friends we’ve made in real life from these connections.”
“Is Google making us stupid? It depends on how we use technology.”
“If used correctly social media can greatly enhance your life.”
“Remove the temptation, just like dieting. Imagine the cookie is vibrating and saying ‘eat me.’ Don’t eat it.”
“The No Phone is a phone that doesn’t do anything. It weans you from the need to always have a phone on you.”
“The Digital Citizen Summit is a conference that brings together parents, educators, students, and leaders to discuss how make things less ‘Dot Complicated.’”
“What do we want from technology? We all want to be loved more, we want more friends.”
“Tech is thinking big. Look at self-driving cars.”
“At the end of the day, we should be behind the algorithm, which is only as good as its programming.”
“Tech is more than ordering a pizza from your phone. It’s driving a car with life or death decisions.”
“Skyping with the deceased is on its way.”
“Moral dilemmas are coming up. People want to have this conversation.”
“We should push a tech code of ethics. Look at Elon Musk realizing the importance of AI ethics.”
“If we have a sweet tooth why are we living in a candy shop all the time?”
“We need to use tech to increase our communication and information. But there can be an overload of both.”
“How do we find a healthy balance between creativity and information overload?”
“We’re never able to process the information we are constantly being exposed to. It’s mental obesity.”
“Trying to keep up with the internet is a losing battle.”
“I love communicating but if you have 14 different platforms to communicate it’s an overload.”
“In order for a true tech balance there needs to be a social acceptance for that.”
“I got into the tech ethics world because I was getting phantom cell phone rings. I realized I needed to change my life. We need to step away.”
“We need to focus on getting permission to post. We can take photos of people and not respect their posting concerns.”
“When you take a family photo there may be a family member who doesn’t want that picture shared.”
“When does the child have the autonomy of what posts their parents put of them?”
“New parents have people sending their child an email in utero.”
“There’s a big awareness of geo-tagging. People are buying expensive gifts. Posting where you’re at can expose you to harm.”
“Have a discussion to not always let people to where you’re going.”
“We don’t need immediate posting. Change the expectation. Can we live our life and just be present?”
“Don’t live life through a screen.”
“Lives On is a British company with the motto, ‘Your heart stops beating, you keep tweeting.’”
“What’s our respect of death online? Does that mean 300 years from now should you be a hologram?”
“To shame a shamer—do two wrongs make a right?”
“We need to use social media to increase kindness.”
“The words you’re surrounded by influence you.”
“I never read the YouTube comments. I can watch a cat video and the comments are horrendous.”
“On a VHS it said ‘be kind, rewind.’ You were prompted toward your better angels.”
“A 13-year-old girl out of Chicago created a platform to rethink about your posts before you post.”
Also joining the show was NetFamilyNews.org founder, Anne Collier, to give her Top 6 favorite Digital Citizen apps:
“These social apps are where digital citizenry begins:”
- Snapchat
- YouTube
- Clash of Clans— This mulitplayer game allows players to build a village, loot and pillage, learn strategy, and learn how to collaborate.
- Minecraft for little digital citizens – Now owned by Microsoft and developed in Finland, Minecraft is a digital LEGOS in a way. You create whatever you want, you can play player versus player and secretly learn good digital citizenry at the same time. This is a way to be online in digital spaces . Soon we’ll drop the digital from “digital citizens” since there’s becoming no difference between online and offline.
“Remember that digital citizenship isn’t just for online. We can’t divide between online and offline, you have to get social media literate yourself and let your kids be the experts. Ask questions and be openhearted and open minded. Friend your kids social media pages where appropriate.”
Join ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’ next week when guest George Takei comes into the studio to discuss his Broadway hit, Allegiance, and his long career acting, Star Trek, and in activism work. Only on SiriusXM Business Radio channel 111 Wednesdays at 9am PT/ 12pm ET.
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