Amy Allcock

I came across the article “Wired up, plugged in, zoned out” this morning which made me livid. I’m usually a pretty calm person when reading the paper on a bright Sunday morning, but the paranoia and one-sidedness of this article deeply troubled me. While I could go on about all of the benefits of technology and some of the drawbacks, it basically comes down to the fact that we can’t wholly blame the technology for how it is used and instead we have to look at the users and why the users make the choices that they do. I felt compelled to make a comment on the Globe and Mail site (a first for me) which went as follows:

I use personalization to filter out the junk that is delivered by the so-called “common sources” that this article praises. Personalization will eventually result in the death of pop culture and I can’t help but wonder if that is such a bad thing if that means we no longer have to read about Bradgelina or listen to “My Humps” by the Black-Eyed Peas.

Personalization gives the user the choice in what they want to consume. Some people will make choices that result in an echo chamber and others will make choices that result in a bazaar of opinions and options. Instead of cursing the technology for giving us the power to choose perhaps we should look at how we are making choices. Individuals need to be taught how to evaluate various news sources and empowered with critical thinking skills to assess the content being provided by those sources. Personalization by technology is here to stay and instead of yearning for the good ol’ days of the “daily masses” we should be encouraging individuals to create the best possible ?��Ǩ?�daily me”.

It may seem out of context without having first read the article but my point is clear - the problem is not that we can choose but how we make choices. Personalization technology will keep advancing like the juggernaut that it is and we need to keep up to speed by ensuring that information literacy and critical thinking skills are taught so that we are making the choices and not the technology.