Design X AI - 02
TECHNOLOGY, FEAR & EXCLUSION
Well technology has brought us pretty far, and has made massive gains of progress, but toward what? There is an underlying promise and assumption in words like “innovation”, “futuristic”, or “technological advancement”. These words, at a basic level, are optimistic because we operate on the belief that when the leading edge of human capability advances, the benefits will somehow impact and benefit the common good and general public. A trickle-down effect where a breakthrough in modern medicine should give everyone hope for the future of healthcare. In some industries this is absolutely true - cars have become safer, and TVs are cheaper. But in many ways, the Jetson’s promises of the future have jumped the shark, and the ugly realities of the digital-age have begun to rear their heads.
One term which can help characterize many of these issues is “Technostress”: the anxiety, tension, or distress caused when a person is overwhelmed by new technology, has risen exponentially since the early 2000s. Caused by an increasing dependency on technology which itself continually evolves. Key forces creating technostress include, “techno-overload: Being overwhelmed with tasks associated with technology., techno-invasion: The feeling that technology has become too prominent and causes too much change in one’s workplace and/or personal life., techno-complexity: Not receiving the resources needed to properly understand and operate new technology., techno-insecurity: Fear of losing one’s current position if one lacks knowledge of technology., and techno-uncertainty: Uncertainty arising from the speed of technology evolution surpassing the speed needed to learn new technologies”. The pains and problems associated with Technostress have been generally associated with STEM careers, and still are, but as the rate of change and cultural dependency on digital systems continues to mount, technostress has broken into the mainstream with no signs of stopping.
A broader view of this problem in the general population, and in civilian life, could be referred to as the digital divide. This is “the gap between those who have access to technology, the internet and digital literacy training and those who do not”. This may conjure images in your mind, like a person with a learning disability struggling to navigate a complicated self-checkout system at a grocery store, leaving them anxious, defeated, and avoidant of the process altogether. Or perhaps someone without reliable internet or a personal computer is required to use a service like Zoom or Teams for the first time for a job interview, and they struggle to communicate with the subtle remote-work language style that has evolved since the pandemic. Or an older person who struggles to navigate their healthcare app, leaving them feeling isolated and unsure how to receive medical support guidance. This list goes as long as you’re willing to hear it. Often, those who have the greatest needs are those who are most grossly excluded.
While innovative technology in the digital age has all the necessary capabilities to help those in need and begin to close systemic gaps of inequality, prejudice, and accessibility, what we can observe in practice is quite the opposite. Powerful companies use powerful new technology to give voice to the loud, fuel to the fastest, and power to the powerful; regularly favoring economic gain over social impact.
So harnessing AI tools for your business to accelerate innovation and technology may sound badass, but this may be pushing the tech-train into hyper speed where many people have already been left abandoned at the station.
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DESIGN X AI is an 8 part blog series written 100% by my fallible human brain. I’m a designer, not an AI expert.