IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2023 - 8

Editorial
beliefs and preferences, while under certain circumstances
contradictory information is not just rejected,
but can actively reinforce those beliefs. There is a
proliferation of evidence (e.g., [15] and [16]) to
suggest that well-being is diminished by, or through,
mobile devices or social media apps running on
those devices, in the ways that device usage affects
memory, concentration, and sleep patterns, producing
a wave of well-being apps in response (e.g., [17]).
As a result, an awareness of the health risks involved
has become almost common knowledge, but unless
and until accompanied by the equivalent of health
warnings on, and standardization of, cigarette packets,
these academic studies are likely to fall victim to
confirmation bias and possibly increase attachment;
therefore, this common knowledge is unlikely to lead
to any collective action to address it.
Loss aversion is the bias whereby people perceive
the loss of utility in giving up (or going without) an
object as greater than the gain in utility associated with
its acquisition. This bias can be exploited by ensuring
the device becomes a surrogate attachment object,
for example, replacing the childhood teddy bear [18].
Then, instead of being an ever-present source of comfort
as a child, the device-app pair becomes a potential
source of existential validation through " likes, "
" kudos, " reputation, or other forms of social credit
scoring or approval rating. Although the pursuit of
such validation can be manipulated through variable
rewards and so be a cause of increased anxiety rather
than satisfaction, losing it is perceived as much worse
because it also loses the investment of time, energy, or
money required to get it in the first place.
Loss aversion is given as one reason for the
endowment effect, which refers to the cognitive bias
whereby people rate an object that they already
own of greater value (higher even than market
value) than a similar item they do not own. This is further
reinforced if the object is associated with emotional
or symbolic significance. While there is more
functionality in a single handheld object than was
ever included in a Swiss Army knife, with a mobile
device there is both functionality and personal history
bundled up in the same object-for example,
it serves as both camera and photo album, as both
message exchange channel and " sentimental shoebox, "
and both music player and " mix tape " medium
(homemade musical compilation of an-often personal-playlist).
Therefore, ownership is also critically
important for leveraging the endowment effect,
8
which might explain why service providers are so
keen to offer device upgrades that are often functionally
otiose and generally inconsistent with corporate
claims of sustainability, although the upgrade
is effectively paid for by binding the user to a longterm
service contract (longer than the expected life
cycle of the device).
Self-blame is a cognitive process where someone
attributes the causes and consequences of adverse
interactions in a toxic relationship to themselves,
rather than the other party. Consequently, when someone
realizes they have just wasted another evening
(and maybe night) watching cat videos or bad movies
on a streaming service, let alone lost a week's wages
in one session at an online casino, the tendency is to
be resentful at oneself and be filled with self-loathing,
rather than reappraising the toxic relationship with
the device and/or " service " provider.
The false consensus effect is the belief that one's
opinion or situation is more common in the general
population than it actually is. As a consequence, it
becomes a reason not to terminate a toxic relationship
because, " after all, " aren't all relationships similar?
Doesn't everyone have the same experience? The irony
is that, in the case of the toxic relationship between a
user and their device, the consensus isn't so very false.
Toxic societal relationships
Technology has always been about more than simply a
route to increased productivity and economic growth;
technology also provides the opportunity to enhance,
enrich, and empower-basically, to improve shared
qualitative values or people's quality of life (however
that is measured). On the flip side, technology also provides
the opportunity to develop and project organizational
control, which itself can be weaponized to quantitatively
determine human value as an asset to that
organization, or to reinforce asymmetric power relationships
[19]. In exchange for the undeniable benefits
of progress enabled by advances in science and technology,
it is possible for other components of a functioning
" democratic " society-human rights, political
self-determination, knowledge gatekeeping, well-being
and welfare, and infrastructure and security-to be
undermined. The concern then is whether the societal
benefits of technology are being outweighed by the
collective harm, and if the relationship between society
and technology has also turned toxic.
For example, the distraction and disassociation
contrived by engrossment with the (so-called)
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2023

Contents
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2023 - 1
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2013
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