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Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

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Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#41

Post by imoverclocked »

Noise.

Auditory: I can't tell you how accustomed to hearing stuff constantly everyone is. Cars (even just the tires on a busy street), Air Handling, Refrigerators, Beeping timers (ovens/microwaves/calendar reminders).

Visual: Web notifications, web advertisements, billboards, "news," spam phone calls/texts.

Social: Many people have an expectation that sending a message entitles them to an immediate response. In the age of quick answers from Google, people often forget about slowing down for the speed of thought.

Mental: We (humans) can only make so many decisions in a day yet we are overwhelmed with false dichotomies constantly in order to choose one or the other of basically the same thing.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#42

Post by abtinf »

maxk42 wrote: post #35

Interest-driven communities online paired with censorship lead people to increasingly radical points of view. Before social media, people were forced to interact and get along with people with varying points of view. Now, we choose to isolate ourselves into groups of like-minded individuals where dissent is silenced, leading people to believe that extremism is normal.

So the world was free of bigotry prior to social media?

Does it matter what one is extreme about? Shouldn’t we be extreme on certain issues, like the difference between food and cyanide?

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#44

Post by danschumann »

abtinf wrote: post #30
xwdv wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is so much tech in life, it’s hard to know where to even begin. Seems like every time you want to do something it starts with a google search on the best way to do it. If you don’t, you risk wasting a lot of time or money, and then people will call you an idiot for not googling it first, and sometimes the person calling you an idiot is your own self. Life has become nothing but a series of google searches and f…

So life was better before google—when there was still the risk of wasting time and money, and only limited means of research?

And people around you had relevance. Your librarian was relevant as a gatekeeper of information. Now we are isolated and even if we do get the best information, we are somehow not satisfied. People are becoming dumber as information is becoming more available, a paradox.

Meanwhile, we are centralizing these institutions and therefore power brokers are being more disparate from the powerless, using the technologies that were supposed to give voices to the masses. Now the masses can enforce you to only speak in lock step with them.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#45

Post by capkutay »

we're all going to have arthritis in our thumbs from typing on our phones so much. I got a hand MRI for a separate injury, but my doctor noticed I had early signs of arthritis at a relatively young age. it's a lot more common because of heavy smart phone usage.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#46

Post by abtinf »

unlinked_dll wrote: post #39

Internet usage starts with users querying information they want, and services learning/adapting to deliver information in a format/context based on their activity. This has created some stellar search tools, a personalized network of services and communities available to people, and made the internet a paradise for new content from all over the world. Despite that all the information in the world is available to us,…

> It doesn't lead to free exchange of ideas and values, it has created polarized societies

Technology created polarized society? Before internet search, we were better educated and understood each other better?

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#47

Post by joombaga »

haylel wrote: post #4

When you're about to get a message on your cellphone and it interferes with nearby speakers and makes weird chirping noises.

I've never understood why this happens. Is it my phone sort of ACKing the call back to the tower? Because it has to be my phone sending something back, right? Random cell signals are hitting the speakers all the time.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#48

Post by nomadluap »

peterhadlaw wrote: post #3

Semi-related to the Cruise AV, but should we be worried about a sudden increase in LIDAR everywhere from the perspective of protecting eyesight? I understand there are regulations and such to limit the "power" of the light, so just looking for more info.

There's already been one allegation that a vehicle-mounted LiDAR unit has damaged a camera [1].

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/01/man-says-ces-lidars-las...

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#49

Post by qeternity »

kylecazar wrote: post #27

The world's tourist must-see spots are seeing an unmanagable spike in foot traffic.

As an expat all of my life, I’ve really noticed this in the last 5 years. It’s also extremely hypocritical because I find myself walking around in places I have lived before, or been to many times, and feeling angry at the “tourists” ruining it.
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