不一样的角度来看待科技的发展:I was wrong. Too much tech is ruining lives作者:Vivek Wadhwa
Distinguished Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University College of Enginee
Just four years ago I was a cheerleader. Social media was supposed to be the great hope for democracy. I know because I told the world so. I said in 2014 that no-one could predict where this revolution would take us. My conclusion was dusted with optimism: a better connected human race would find a way to better itself.
I was only half right: nobody could indeed have predicted where we have ended up. Yet my optimistic prognosis was utterly misguided. Social media has led to less human interaction, not more. It has suppressed human development, not stimulated it. As Big Tech has marched onward, we have regressed.
Look at the evidence. Research shows that social media may well be making many of us unhappy, jealous and – paradoxically – antisocial. Even Facebook gets it. An academic study that Facebook cited in its corporate blog post revealed that when people spend a lot of time passively consuming information they wind up feeling worse. Just ten minutes on Facebook is enough to depress – clicking and liking a multitude of posts and links seems to have a negative effect on mental health.
Meantime, the green-eyed monster thrives on the social network: reading rosy stories and/or carefully controlled images about the social- and love-lives of others leads to poor comparisons with one’s own existence. Getting out in the warts-and-all real world and having proper conversations would provide a powerful antidote. Some chance! Humans have convinced themselves that ‘catching up’ online is a viable alternative to in-person socializing.
And what of consumer choice? Don’t book your next city break via Google. Research shows that a typical search for a family vacation begins with “the best hotels in…” or the “top ten hotels in…”. Yet these searches return paid-for links from big identikit hotel companies and well-funded broker websites. Local bloggers, like the guy in Jaipur or the girl in Paris who make it their job to suggest the most interesting stays, don’t appear until search page ten (AKA nowhere). Discovering real places, recommended by locals and run by real people, got a lot harder in the internet age. Guidebooks used to do the job, but few buy them anymore.
We are becoming unthinkingly reliant – addicted – to ease-of-use at the expense of quality. We are walking dumpsters for internet content that we don’t need and which might actively damage our brains.
The technology industry also uses another technique to keep us hooked: feeding us a bottomless pit of information.
This phenomenon’ is the effect Netflix has when it auto-plays the next episode of a show after a cliffhanger and you continue watching, thinking, “I can make up the sleep over the weekend.” The cliffhanger is, of course, always replaced by another cliffhanger. The 13-part season is followed by another one, and yet another. We spend longer in front of the television yet we feel no more satiated. When Facebook, Instagram and Twitter tack on their scrolling pages and update their news feeds, causing each article to roll into the next, the effect manifests itself again.
Perhaps we should go back to our smartphones and, instead of playing Netflix or sending texts on WhatsApp, use their core function. Call up our friends and family and have a chat or – better – arrange to meet them.
Meanwhile, Big Tech could carve an opportunity from a crisis. What about offering a subscription to an ad-free Google? In return for a monthly fee, searches would be based on quality of content rather than product placement. I would pay for that. The time-savings alone when booking a trip would be worth it.
Apple pioneered the Do Not Disturb function which stopped messages and calls waking us from sleep, unless a set of emergency-criteria were met by the caller. How about a Focus Mode that turned off all notifications and hid our apps from our home screen, to ease the temptation to play with our phones when we should be concentrating on our work, or talking to our spouses, friends and colleagues?
In the 1980s, the BBC in Britain ran a successful children’s series called Why Don’t You? that implored viewers to “turn off their TV set and go out and do something less boring instead”, suggesting sociable activities that did not involve a screen. It was wise before its time. The TV seems like a puny adversary compared to the deadening digital army we face today.
This is based on my forthcoming book, Your Happiness Was Hacked, which will show you how you can take control and live a more balanced technology life.
You can pre-order the book, coauthored with Alex Salkever: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Happiness-Was-Hacked-Brain/dp/1523095849
2018 HRTech China Annual Conference Successfully Ended on April 20th
HRTech China Annual Conference was successfully held in Shanghai Four Seasons Hotel last Friday, hosted by HRTech China and collaborated with SAP and SAP SuccessFactors as our strategic partner, and other great partners like Kingdee, FESCO, JD Enterprise Procurement Platform, WAIFUXIN(SFSCTech), GaiaWorks, KNX Kennaikesa, RenYun HRSSC, eQianBao(Tsign), ZESTLearning Zhuanwei, Yi Road Software, JingTeng Tech, FLY HOVER, Fadada, Pailixiang, LiangGongGuan, Umianbao, NACSHR as our sponsors.
On HRTech China Annual Conference, we have welcomed over 1,400 Human Resource professionals and executives coming from nearly 30 main cities of the Greater China Region such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, HongKong, Taiwan etc. And most of the audience is from 500 fortune company, internet and technology giants (Alibaba, Jingdong, Tencent, Baidu, Meituan, Didi, Huawei etc.) and nearly 50% are HR manager, Director, VP, CHRO or CEO.
HRTechChina invited about 30 HR executives and experts to share the latest research results and insights from human resources technology, demonstrate the most cutting-edge technology products and solutions, and discuss how technology can deeply change the human resource industry and how can we better leverage technology. We were honored to connect our great speakers, who are all the leading figures in Human resource industry in China; our attendees, who are already or come to be the future human resource experts; with the HRTech Vendors and experts, who are continuously using technology to provide better products and solutions; and they together to become the strong force in HRTech in China and push the industry to the next level!
During the conference, HRTech China announced the winners of 2018 HRTech Geek Awards and distributed the trophies to the outstanding HR executives and Vendors and companies. The mission of HRTech Geek Awards is to encourage the application of HR technology in better serving people and company; or the HRTech Providers who are continuously improving the technical level to create better solution or products. We have received 79 applications and the final winners are SAP SuccessFactors; Kingdee; FESCO; PingAn Group; WAIFUXIN(SFSCTech); FLY HOVER; RenYun HRSSC for their ultimate pursuit and exploration in technology and constant attempt in providing great products and service. Congratulation to them all!
The conference smoothly concluded at 5:00 PM. 2018 HRTech China Annual Conference was highly praised by our guests and widely acclaimed by the audience, and has become one of the most significant events in human resource industry in China. As we can see, human resource technology develops very fast, while the innovation and sustainable development will be the following issue of this industry. Just as Mr. Wu Ying, President of e-China Alliance and Chairman of China Capital Group said in the opening speech:“President Xi mentioned that technology、talent、economic development is bounded up together. The development of human resource technology has fit the theme.” HRTech China will always remain our intention—People first, Technology second and continue to disseminate the idea of technology empower and unleash people.
At last, We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all speakers for their active involvement and sharing, all sponsors for their generous sponsorship, all partners for their continuous support and all attendees for their enthusiastic participation, all volunteers for their efforts. HRTech China conference cannot succeed without any of you. We will continue serving all the members through high-quality events. Please stay tuned for the upcoming events! Look forward to meeting you soon at HRTech China Annual Conference& Exposition in Shanghai this November!
Click here to read the report of 420 HRTech Annual Conference in Chinese. http://www.hrtechchina.com/21437.html