Technology Misuse and Addiction in the 21st Century
Title: Technology Misuse and Addiction in the 21st Century: Smartphones, Social Media, Gaming, and CyberSex
Abstract: The availability of advanced and complex technologies in our society has led to both opportunities and challenges. On the opportunity side, we now have smartphones that move with us that help us “on-demand” wherever we are, social media that allows for instant micro-communications and multimedia sharing, educational games for learning and simulation and video games for entertainment, and a multiplicity of online worlds where we can interact together in open communities. However, the potential for these technologies to be misused by users is evident, as offline behaviors may be triggered by online availability 24 hours a day, every day of the year. There is no “off” button to the online world, it is always there, available, enticing connectivity. Additionally, and perhaps particularly of concern, is the manner in which addiction has been “built-in” to the design of a variety of systems, technologies and applications. We once considered these mechanisms as “stickiness” drivers to encourage repeat visitors to a web site, we now are faced with embedded code that means behaviorally our technologies know us better than we know ourselves, based on historical actions and predictive algorithms, with an ability to keep us engaged near continuously. In this lecture students are exposed to a variety of addiction scales, we learn about some fundamental behaviors and feelings that can lead someone to reflect on their technology practice, and then mechanisms to overcome triggered behaviors through healthier digital nutrition. The point of the lecture is not shame but raising awareness of societal issues that need urgent addressing, to recognize unsustainable habits and practices and learn to address these using a variety of approaches, and become a more functional member of the online and offline community at large.
Keywords: Nudging; manipulation; behavioral economics; social psychology; ethics; persuasive technologies; addiction by design
Biography: Katina Michael is a professor at Arizona State University, holding a joint appointment in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and School of Computing, Informatics and Decisions Systems Engineering. She is also the director of the Society Policy Engineering Collective (SPEC) and the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society. Katina is a senior member of the IEEE and a Public Interest Technology advocate who studies the social implications of technology. She has held 13 annual workshops in the social implications of national security space and chaired 3 international symposia on technology and society (ISTAS) in Wollongong, Toronto and Phoenix. She is the Senior Editor of the socio-economic impact section in IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine and was the editor in chief of the award-winning IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. In 2019 she took on the role of working group chair for the IEEE P2089 standard. In 2017, she received the Brian M. O'Connell SSIT Distinguished Service Award.
In the 1990s, Katina was employed as a senior network planner at Nortel Networks and systems analyst at Andersen Consulting and OTIS. In 2002 she entered academia as a lecturer at the University of Wollongong and in 2013 became a member of the executive team in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences as the Associate Dean – International, overseeing 8 partner and twinning arrangements for the University in the UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, China and Hong Kong. Katina completed a Masters degree in transnational crime prevention in the Faculty of Law with a UOW postgraduate scholarship in 2007, and was later invited to teach cybercrime in the law school. Her PhD was on systems of innovation in the automatic identification industry.
Thank Yous:
Thank you to the brilliant Prof Neal Anderson for the invitation to enter his online classroom at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (ECE303 Junior Class). I loved the spirit of this classroom. Never before have I received cheers over Zoom (at the beginning and the end of the lecture)- so that’s one for the memory banks! What was supposed to be a tight 50 min delivery turned into something bigger. Thank you to all the 120 students who turned up, and to the more than 80% who stayed on, despite adjoining classes at the busiest time of the American session. Clearly, this is something that we need to talk about more.
Recommended Readings:
Katherine Albrecht, Katina Michael, M. G. Michael, "The Dark Side of Video Games: Are you addicted?", IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine, 2016, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 107 - 113.
Katina Michael, "Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone, Social Media, and More?: The New AntiSocial App Could Help", IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 4, Oct. 2017, pp. 116 - 121, DOI: 10.1109/MCE.2017.2714421
Elena Nasaescu, Inmaculada Marín-López, Vicente J. Llorent, Rosario Ortega Ruiz, Izabela Zych, 2018, “Abuse of technology in adolescence and its relation to social and emotional competencies, emotions in online communication, and bullying”, Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 88, November 2018, Pages 114-120, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.06.036
Natasha Dow Schull, 2012, “Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas”, Princeton University Press.
Kimberly Young, 2017, “Help for Cybersex Addicts and Their Loved Ones”, IEEE Technology and Society, https://technologyandsociety.org/help-for-cybersex-addicts-and-their-loved-ones/
Recommended Viewing:
· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDx9djMuIFg (Mental Health and Social Media – 30 min)
· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5qJjNM2Kx0 (Stare into the Lights my Pretties – 2 hours)
· https://www.katinamichael.com/documentary/2017/5/24/technology-addiction-and-the-social-implications (Technology Addiction - Irresistible – 10 minutes)
Interview:
Media Articles:
· https://www.katinamichael.com/media/2017/12/19/online-addiction
· https://www.katinamichael.com/media/2017/2/23/facts-and-figures-the-rise-of-social-media-addiction
· https://www.katinamichael.com/media/2015/9/15/social-media-addiction-unliking-facebook
Other Resources Used at the Lecture:
· https://www.katinamichael.com/seminars/2017/7/25/what-is-technology-addiction-and-how-does-it-affect-us (Lecture delivered to University of Newcastle in 2017)
· https://technologyandsociety.org/help-for-cybersex-addicts-and-their-loved-ones/ (Kimberly Young)
· https://attitudelive.com/watch/In-My-Mind-Social-Obsession (Documentary - Katina Michael anchors)
· http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.852.454&rep=rep1&type=pdf (Kimberly Young)
· https://www.healthyplace.com/addictions/center-for-internet-addiction-recovery/relationship-between-depression-and-internet-addiction (Kimberly Young)
· https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Internet_Addiction_Test_IAT/vaRaDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover (Kimberly Young)
· https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/ (Student Recommendation from UMass-Amh)
· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDF86KJtMkg&t=2s (Live Performance - Katina Michael)
· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32N8VOUsCco (Live Performance - Katina Michael)
· https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cc.forestapp&hl=en_AU (Forest App - Stay Focused)
· https://www.linkedin.com/in/camadair/ (Game Quitters)
· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik7tO4SPI_w (*Reckful’s* Last Tape)
· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZVTbFuZrNw (Talking Depression with *Reckful* - Part 1)
· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yQpzk_xhH0 (Talking Depression with *Reckful* - Part 2)