I have no problem with technological solutions to social problems. The key question for me is, 'Who gets to implement them?' and, 'What kinds of politics of reform do technological solutions smuggle through the back door?'
Interpretation
Technological solutions can address social problems, but the implementation and the political implications behind them are crucial.
In this quote, Evgeny Morozov highlights the importance of scrutinizing who is responsible for implementing technological solutions and the underlying political motives that may accompany these reforms. He suggests that while technology can provide answers to social challenges, it is essential to consider the implications of who benefits from these technologies and how they may perpetuate certain political agendas.
In practice
During a conference on social innovation, one might quote Morozov to spark discussion about the ethics of implementing new technologies.
Just as Josef K, the protagonist of Kafka's 'The Trial,' awoke one day to discover that he had become part of some unfathomable legal carnival, we, too are frequently waking to discover that the rules of the digital game have once again profoundly changed.
Technological defeatism - a belief that, since a given technology is here to stay, there's nothing we can do about it other than get on with it and simply adjust our norms - is a persistent feature of social thought about technology. We'll come to pay for it very dearly.
For many oppositional movements, the Internet, while providing the opportunity to distribute information more quickly and cheaper, may have actually made their struggle more difficult in the long run.
The newspaper offers something very different from Google's aggregators. It offers a value system, an idea of what matters in the world. Newspapers need to start articulating that value.
Social media's greatest assets - anonymity, 'virality,' interconnectedness - are also its main weaknesses.
The decentralized nature of online conversations often makes it easier to manipulate public opinion, both domestically and globally. Regimes that once relied on centralized systems of media control can now deliver ideological messages more subtly, with the help of little-known intermediaries like anonymous commenters on websites.
I find it amusing that I'm on the Internet now, because I've criticized it, but mainly I've criticized it on the basis of, 'What are you going to do with it?'
If I designed a computer with 200 chips, I tried to design it with 150. And then I would try to design it with 100. I just tried to find every trick I could in life to design things real tiny
Social engineering bypasses all technologies, including firewalls.
All these social media sites allow us to confuse truth and popularity. That has to be fixed. Because every normal citizen has a right to know what is factual versus what is amplified by good actors or bad actors.
I was in Bangalore, India, the Silicon Valley of India, when I realized that the world was flat.
Every time you write an email, it is in the public domain. There are all these ways where security is not as good as people believe.
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