The podcast covered a few aspects of manipulation. The first part was how tech devices like our cell phones manipulate our lives without us even knowing. The tech companies are intentional about gaining our attention through our phones. Cell phones have become an integral part of our lives. We wake up to our phones and it impacts our thoughts throughout the day. Tech companies want us dependent on them to continue to buy and use their products. The speaker proposed regulating technology in the way government is regulated. The next speaker discussed how journalism, in recent years, has come under attack for distributing fake news. But he distinguished between journalism and fake news. Fake news tries to manipulate the way people think or act. It is a step beyond journalism. The purpose of journalism is to find and report the truth, to bear witness and hold power accountable. Legitimate journalists use verifiable resources and are held accountable by their editors and producers. People who broadcast fake news can say what they want without any accountability and those that disagree with legitimate news now just label it as fake. The next part was about memory and how it is flawed, malleable and controllable. Many think memories are fixed and work like a play back of a recording but they are much more impressionable, sometimes without us even recognizing it. Loftus, a UCI professor, discussed how it is not difficult to alter someone’s memory. A person can be fed distorted information and remember things that didn’t happen. Then Ramirez, from Boston University, talked about neuro technology procedures that can erase memories or erase the charged emotion and keep memories intact. Those that suffer a traumatic event might benefit from something like this.
It was interesting to hear the studies about memory. I could relate to many of the examples Loftus talked about. I thought the changes to my memory were just me but now I see that it is normal memory function. When she mentioned how we remember our grades better than they actually were it reminded of me of when I dug out my high school report cards to find a certain grade I needed for a class in community college. In my memory I got mostly As and Bs but when I found the report cards I was surprised that I had a couple Cs. It made me laugh. I also have different memories of childhood than my sister does and she’s only 5 years younger than me. We had the same parents and lived in the same house. I thought the reason for the difference in our memories was because of the different circumstances between our childhoods but after hearing this talk I’m thinking there might be more to the difference.
When it comes to regulating use of technology what type of regulatory controls would be appropriate?
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