IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019 - 87

Reducing one's dependency on social media for social
interaction will allow for true relationships and connections to be fostered.
Introspection should not only be done by computer
professionals, but by everyone. Knowing that technology
has inescapably entered into the lives of billions, each
person should evaluate their own conscious health.
With the average person checking their phones 150
times a day, we should ask if we are making 150 conscious choices [15]. To get as close as possible to
understanding why an action is done - mindfulness -
is the true exercise of humanity. In order to reclaim the
agency that is often commodified, to express one's true
inner self, we must question the links between our
intentions and actions. Not all hypnotists hypnotize for
nefarious reasons, just as not all computer scientists
develop products which harm society. However, understanding that computer scientists have the power to
take over the most intrinsic property to one's being and
alter it to benefit themselves should raise questions
about one's identity, absent of technology's impact on
it. As described by Daniel M. Wegner in The Illusion of
Conscious Will, hypnotists have the power to alter the
way that their subjects' actions are perceived internally.
This power can cause people to do things like "tak[ing]
a flower-pot from the window, wrap[ping] it in cloth,
put[ting] on the sofa, and [then] bow[ing] to it three
times," while then "not considering the proceeding foolish." It is important that individuals monitor their consumption of digital technology, to avoid being hypnotized
into uncontrolled use patterns. Don't just bow to the
flowerpot - question why.

Altering Digital Technology Users'
Conscious Will
To have the power over another to control decisions
they make, ought to raise question about the origin of
this power, and how it can be stopped. Modern technology companies have been placed into a role in which
they strive for profit by altering the way that society
communicates. Altering digital technology users' conscious will in a way that subconsciously prioritizes
online-interaction has caused introspection and personto-person interaction to suffer. Reaping the benefits of
world-wide communication has not come without a
cost. Should companies finally begin to internalize
these social and political costs of such connectivity?
Through introspection, members of society must
reclaim their will, and begin to question why they are
chained to their online profiles that they themselves created. Only then will communication in the cloud exist to
benefit its users, while simultaneously allowing for users
to have agency over their own decisions.

JUNE 2019

∕

Author Information
Bradley Patterson is a Computer Science undergraduate
student in the Department of Computer Science, California Polytechnic State University.
Nicholas Sakellariou is a Lecturer in Engineering Ethics in the Department of Computer Science, and a member of the Science, Technology and Society (STS) Affiliate
Faculty at California Polytechnic State University, San
Luis Obispo, CA. Email: nsakella@calpoly.edu.

References

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