Xiuyang Shen · Follow
Published in · 7 min read · 4 hours ago
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We are now living in the digital world unavoidably. You are reading this blog on your electronic device, isn’t it? Even the people of the remotest places are part of the digital world, though they are more likely to be one of the numbers about the poor.
What does it mean to “live in the digital world”? Let’s look at a day in a college student’s life. It seems to be a meaningless text, but what behind it is thought-provoking.
This student is waked up by the alarms she set on her phone, and before she put on the clothes, she checks whether she has missed any messages or emails sent to her last night.
After coming back from class, she starts to enjoy videos online. She turns off the advertisement about the discount for the lipstick she wants. She also read through some news from social medias.
It’s getting dark. The student takes conversation with a chatbot for fun. After all, she takes a shower, turns off the lights and goes to sleep with her alarms ready for the next day.
Are all these things familiar to you? Like what I mention at the beginning, the text is boring. However, this day is an excellent sample for living in a digital world. I will show you all of them in the following paragraphs.
She is using her phone as the alarm instead of having a real alarm. This is how technology benefit us. More and more functions are available on a single electronic device. We can set alarms, listen to music, read news and search for information with only a cell phone needed. The alarm connects to sleep time, and Apple makes iPhone and even Apple watch available for tracking the sleep time. This function generates the users’ data and achieve the aim for tracking.
This feature is quite useful for self-regulation, but it also means that the company can obtain more data from users. This is not the only point that there may be data breach. As long as we need the applications and websites to do their works, they are able to gather information about their users. The safety on personal information is always important, and many large companies try to keep it as safe as possible.
However, there are always accidents. The data breach happened in 2019 in Facebook was a serious example. The data breach 530 million including the phone numbers, names, locations and some email addresses. Other information included in user profiles were also lifted in the breach. Facebook is undoubtedly a big company, but such a serious data breach happened. We need more methods and guide to protect us online.
Did you realise that the student turned off an advertisement about the lipstick she wanted? This can the result of Big Data, but what if your shopping application send you advertisement about something right after you mentioned it with your friend? This possibility is worrying, and all we can do is speed up the legislation and force the companies to obey.
I believe that many people have the habit of checking whether there are any messages or emails after waking up just like this student. Sending messages online make communications fast and easy for people around the world. Together with the message part, the relaxing part on watching videos and reading news are also discussed here.
There is no doubt that modern technology has made receiving information faster and easier. In the past, people were not able to know what happened on the other side of the Earth, but now we are able to know anything as long as it is important in some areas. However, the easy and short information fill our pockets time. When there are no phones, people would prefer chatting with someone nearby or watching the surroundings. Some studious people would choose to hurry up and read books. There is nothing wrong to fill our pockets time with short news and information, but reading short things day after day would reduce our ability to concentrate. We are used to read the short things and concentrate on them only for a short time. This is of no benefit to our learning, while we should learn for life.
Chatbots, which this student is just asking questions for fun, suddenly become popular after the appearance of ChatGPT. It must be mentioned that here in University of Manchester, using ChatGPT for coursework is forbidden. It’s not just about avoiding cheating, but also protection. ChatGPT is good at making up things, which is a disaster for the scientific articles.
Chatbots like ChatGPT is also a kind of Artificial Intelligences. Therefore, Turing test can also be used for chatbots. None of the AIs has ever passed this test. Some people may clam that Eugene Goostman passed it, but the truth is it only managed to convince over a third of the jury. To pass the test, 50% in needed.
Though AIs are not able to pass the Turing test, they are already put into use in some ways. ChatGPT can be used for making scrips for movie commentary, and some people use them directly to produce low quality videos. AIs can help people, but they should never be the one creating. Human beings have the irreplaceable creativity and imagination. If the jobs require creativity are replaced by AI, human beings will slowly lose our relative skills, and those born with gift will have nowhere to show their talent. That goes against the original goal for having AIs to help us with our works.
Personally, this course itself is completely new. I am learning online, which is common in recent years, but all the learning contents are on an open platform in blog style instead of giving the scientific PowerPoint and recordings from the professors. The informal teaching style took me a few weeks to get used to it, as the starting weeks were busy, and the online materials were easy to miss. Also, writing in informal style is not easy for me, as all I have wrote are lab reports and simple stories. The blog post style writing is completely new for me. I did not do well in my first work. Though the improvement in marks was small for the second one, I still learnt a lot from the feedbacks.
Back to the course content, I took about 1 to 2 weeks to get used to the teaching style. I was amused by the contents. They are different from what I imagined and makes me feel like unprepared for the course. In my imagination, this course will be focusing on some advanced technology that will be put into use in future.
However, as more course contents were released, I found them connected to each other. The Internet part is the base of the whole course, so it is introduced the first. Students are supposed to think from both positive and negative side of the questions, and that’s why Critical analysis is the second part.
Chatbots is the part of the course since ChatGPT suddenly comes into public view. This is quite different from my courses, as it is connected to the very up-to-date events. I am able to link classes to real-world situations, which helps me to think more about what is happening. There is an old saying, the spectators see the chess game better than the players. It is always not easy for those experiencing the event to think critically, and such combination provided gives me a chance and an exercise on it.
Besides the critical thinking of the real-world situations, the other contents like the Ethics thinking and Simulated spaces also teach me a lot. What I learnt can be sorted to the influences to the society and the new technologies. The ethics of technology is always the topic, and it is not far from anyone, as the wave of innovation will not let anyone go. Humans are often divided on moral issues because of the specific situations and the different personal experiences. It seems to be a nice idea to let the AI decides the moral issues in order to avoid the influence on personal positions, but as the FAQs page of “Delphi” pointed out, there are too much limitation on AIs to let it work out the moral problem.
From this course, I learn a lot about things I used to take for granted, and have deeper understanding of the world I lived in. The ability of writing will probably be useful in future, and the ability of critical thinking will make me think more instead of following blindly.
FAQs
How does digital world affect your life? ›
Research shows that when digital media is used excessively by humans, it can negatively influence their behavioral and cognitive development as well as their physical and mental health. As a society, it seems that as much as digital media has connected us across boundaries, we are more disconnected to each other.
What are the advantages of living in a digital world? ›Digital technology makes it easy to stay in touch with friends, family, and work remotely, even if you are in another part of the world. You can express through words, video, audio, and exchange other media. Websites, apps, and software have all been designed to help users to socialize.
Does digital technology improve our life? ›Improved Quality of Life
From communication and transport to healthcare and connectivity, technology has enhanced our lives for the better. The best part is that it is ever-evolving by facilitating more advanced features. For instance, we have come far from traditional audio calls to instant messaging and facetime.
physical inactivity and obesity. poor sleep quality. social issues, such as social incompatibility and anxiety. aggressive behaviors.
What does it mean to say we live in a digital world? ›The digital world is the availability and use of digital tools to communicate on the Internet, digital devices, smart devices and other technologies.
Is digital world good or bad? ›On the good side, digital technology can connect a child to information and to a larger community. It can bring future opportunities for work and career. But on the bad side, it can also bring great harm and stress – especially for a child who does not know how to use the internet thoughtfully.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of digital life? ›The advantage of digital life is that we have a new opportunities of social media. The disadvantage of digital life is that people are get cut from our society. The advantages of digital life is that we can reach more and more people within a second. The demerit is that we have become non-social.
What are the positive effects of technology? ›Expanded security, enhanced communication, increased information, education, and, last but not least, amusement are vital aspects of technology. As a result, it's more important than ever to comprehend the advantages and disadvantages of technology.
How does technology affect us mentally? ›How does technology affect mental health? Some studies have shown a link between high use of social media and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Other studies have linked increased screen time (not only social media) to negative effects on mental health.
How technology affects human behavior? ›Increased isolation, reduced social interaction and social skills, and increased human-to-machine interactions are all a result of an overuse of technology, which has created a wall between many people globally.
What is digital life and how would it benefit society? ›
digital life allows us to receive online education at any time and almost everywhere. information for research can be easily found through search engines like google which can provide thousands of results for a single question.
What is the fear of digital world? ›Technophobia is the irrational fear of technology. Although it's not a clinical diagnosis, some people think of it as a specific phobia. People with technophobia may feel irrationally afraid of computers, robots or artificial intelligence.
Are we entering a digital world? ›We are living in what has been aptly termed the digital era, a time of rapid technological change led by digital technologies. The new technologies are reshaping economies—and societies.
Why is digital world important? ›Social Connectivity
You can communicate by words, video, audio, and exchange other media. Websites, apps, and software have all been created to help users to socialize. Social media, messaging, texting, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones, mean that nobody need feel isolated in the digital world.
Key Digital Responsibilities:
Respect the opinions and ideas of others. Obey all intellectual property laws. Do not use or share others' work without permission. Follow rules and/or codes of conduct for every Internet site.
The disadvantages of digital technology include the spread of disinformation, addiction to social media, compromised personal privacy, increase in the crime rate, breaches in data security, loss of traditional lifestyle and values, development of more deadly weapons of war, loss of jobs and information overload.
Why digital is better? ›Q #2) Why are digital signals better than analog signals? Answer: Digital signals have a better transmission rate, the lesser impact of noise, lesser distortion. They are less expensive and more flexible.
What are the three elements of the digital world? ›The Four Classical Elements Of The Digital World: Process, Service, Event, and Information.
Is technology good or bad for society? ›Equal opportunities. The universal value behind technology is bringing equality to products and services and minimizing socioeconomic gaps among societies and people. As described above, tech makes health and education available to more people, making it easier to learn and get care, no matter their background.
What is the most impactful piece of technology in our lives? ›The most iconic is the smartphone, which has revolutionized communication. From being able to call and text easily to accessing the internet and all its services, smartphones have revolutionized how we live.
What impact does technology have on society? ›
This helps students learn better than sitting down for lectures and reading from textbooks. These technological advancements made learning more fun and convenient. Another way technology has impacted society is through communication, how we talk and communicate with one another worldwide.
Does technology make us happier? ›Technology—the Internet, smartphones, and social media—can hurt our happiness, particularly if we let it interfere with or pull us away from face-to-face interactions. But, if we're thoughtful about how we use technology, it also has the potential to make us happier.
Do people depend too much on technology? ›The Dangers Of Technology Dependence. If you think you are too dependent on technology but wondering why technology is bad for society, well, this dependence can be dangerous. Technology can impact us physically, mentally, and emotionally if we are not careful. It can also be harmful to others.
What would the world be like without technology? ›Without these technologies, food would not be as plentiful or accessible, leading to higher rates of malnutrition and therefore lower life expectancy. Also without technology such as vaccines being widely available, diseases would run rampant throughout society and kill off many more than they do today.
What are the advantages of the digital society? ›In a digital society, people can communicate with each other more easily and quickly. This means that they can share information and ideas faster, which can lead to better decision making. Another advantage of a digital society is that it enables better access to information.
What are 4 advantages of digital system? ›Although many original communication systems used analog signaling (telephones), recent technologies use digital signals because of their advantages with noise immunity, encryption, bandwidth efficiency, and the ability to use repeaters for long-distance transmission.
What is the advantage of digital community? ›Stand out from the competition with a better customer experience. Generate leads and acquire new members. Improve your products and programs by gathering and addressing feedback. Decrease support costs by crowdsourcing support.
Why is learning in a digital world important? ›Digital learning can help students and teachers to get a better understanding of the most effective teaching methods for them, helping the delivery of teaching and learning to be more effective.
How does digital change society? ›By utilizing digital platforms, people are able to find out about topics they were not familiar with. For instance, the accessibility of climate change information has led many people to become more environmentally conscious in recent years.
What is the best example of digital system? ›The digital computer, more commonly called the computer, is an example of a typical digital system. A computer manipulates information in digital, or more precisely, binary form.
What are 3 examples of digital systems? ›
Digital systems are all around us in the form of computers, smartphones, scanners, cash registers and digital ticket readers.
What is the value of a digital community? ›An online community is about creating meaningful relationships that are nurtured with feedback, thoughts and engagement among customers or members. This translates into greater brand loyalty and better long-term relationships, as well as opportunities for the entire community.