IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2023 - 10

Editorial
digital rights like privacy and even security, both of
which are increasingly only available to those that can
afford them (consider again the example of the insurance
policy discussed earlier in this article). However,
it is not just the citizen-state relationship that is being
recast by internet technology; it is also the citizen-citizen
relationship. In particular, the ascent of swipe culture
is particularly pernicious (be honest: who hasn't
encountered someone or something intractable in the
" real world " and wanted to swipe left). But the real
influence is more insidious: those things that are hard
or need work, like maths and relationships, are treated
as equally disposable commodities.
Another right versus privilege argument is being
contested over well-being, in particular in that aspect
of well-being concerned with attention. The term
" attention economy " has been coined to describe
the fact that there is a finite amount of a particular
resource (there is only so much prefrontal cortex
available for higher cognitive functions) and technology
companies are continually competing for a bigger
share of that resource. This is partly because, as
private companies operating in late capitalism, they
are legally obliged to maximize shareholder profit;
and they maximize revenue not through the technology
or the service but by offering advertising space.
BigTech companies are effectively in control of a massive
billboard, which is always visible, always flashing,
and we are all being compelled to gawk, forever.
Summary-Is there an antidote?
" ... It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness... " So continues Dickens' Tale of Two
Cities, and perhaps this is an apposite contrasting
pair for the modern world: at the time of widespread
knowledge and awareness, we refuse to
take action against an existential crisis, one that
we have caused to ourselves and prefer to look
at an endless stream of pictures of kittens (and
adverts; and the stream is endless, by design...
kerr-chinggg...). Meanwhile, another existential
crisis, one that we have caused to our environment,
continues unchecked.
Of a relationship, when its benefits are outweighed
by the harm that it is doing, then it is said to be toxic.
Moreover, there are a number of cognitive biases that
stop people from extricating themselves from such
relationships. This article has argued that the benefits-harms
tradeoff in the individual user-mobile
device (Internet/social media apps) relationship has
10
tilted more toward harm (although quantifying this
claim is extremely problematic; see [27]). In this case,
the relationship could be categorized as toxic, but the
same cognitive biases are operative that prevent us
as individuals from redefining our relationship with
our elegantly designed, extremely convenient, deliberately
addictive technology. Furthermore, it was
argued that the benefits-harms tradeoff in the collective
(societal)-technology tradeoff has also tilted
toward harm. Surely, to echo a much earlier prescient
paper, we can do better than this [28].
however, there Is no silver bullet magic solution.
It is easy to insist that if only people were better educated
and more informed, then they would make the
right decisions; it is easy, it is persuasive, and unfortunately,
it is also not nearly enough, and often much
too late-the technology is already " out there " long
before the intended, and unintended, consequences
are apparent. However, all is not lost, if we could
synthesize the recommendations of authors such as
Zarkadakis [29], Bartlett [22], and Klein [30] in conjunction
with promoting the use of public interest
technology and platforms [31] and a framework for
civic participation based on contributive justice [32],
[33]. However, perhaps what we need most of all to
deal with cognitive bias is the praxis of what might be
called collective detachment theory: how do we, as
a society, detach from a devotion to our devices and
reattach our collective selves to our shared values? 
g References
[1] K. Michael, " Modern indentured servitude in the gig
economy: A case study on the deregulation of the taxi
industry in the United States, " IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag.,
vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 30-41, Jun. 2022.
[2] N. Dow-Schüll, Addiction by Design: Machine
Gambling in Las Vegas. Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton
Univ. Press, 2012.
[3] R. Davies, Jackpot: How Gambling Conquered
Britain. London, U.K.: Faber, 2022.
[4] J. Robbins, " If technology is a parasite masquerading
as a symbiont-Are we the host? " IEEE Technol. Soc.
Mag., vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 24-33, Sep. 2019.
[5] C. Durand, Techno-Féodalisme-Critique de
l'Économie Numérique. Paris, France: Editions La
Découverte, 2020.
[6] J. Pitt, " The bigtech-academia-parliamentary complex
and techno-feudalism [editorial], " IEEE Technol. Soc.
Mag., vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 5-8, Sep. 2020.
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