There’s an analogy used often in politics that elections are like a pendulum. One party wins the majority of seats; they make promises, but then when (inevitably) those promises are not delivered, another party sweeps into power a few years later.
Technology, like politicians, has made a lot of promises. In 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, in his founder’s letter, said he wanted to create a “tightly knit online group” that would make “traditional institutions stronger.” Claims about AI have gone on for decades. Such as a 1958 news story about the “Perceptron” that could “walk, talk, see, write, reproduce itself and be conscious of its existence.”
While technology has delivered on many promises, such as quicker communications, better graphics, faster speeds, and more, it’s also not ushered in some of the grand dreams its founders and tech enthusiasts boast about.
We have misinformation, environmental concerns about tech energy uses, spam, scams, and bots, and many people, understandably so, are pushing back. Some of that pushback is happening at the local level with an increase in smartphone bans and adult support for those bans.
This is a topic I spoke with recently with Dr. Christopher Ferguson, a researcher and psychologist at Stetson University. We teamed up for a lively and feisty EdWeb webinar talking about moral panics, the research behind social media and mental health, and these bans. You could almost see the pendulum swinging in the comments during the webinar. Participants were divided when confronted with some of the research showing little correlation, not causation between social media and teen mental health. There was an ad hominen attack and personal stories being shared. There was cognitive dissonance, frustration, happiness, and confusion.
Society is in a difficult spot. Things are changing quickly, and fears and anxieties are being fanned by misinformation and parties who don’t have our best interest. Facebook, in its beta form, came out 20 years ago, and a lot has changed. We’re confronting a reality that wasn’t the message we were sold.
This swing of the pendulum is hard. One message that Dr. Ferguson and I tried to relay in the webinar was that there’s not ONE reason for things or ONE narrative. Those meta-narratives, feelings, and scapegoating make us feel better, but they don’t really address the issue. The issues are complicated. Social media can divide or bring us together. AI can both improve people’s lives or take people’s jobs. Both are true. Sitting with those multiple truths is not a very satisfying story, but it’s what we have.
