Rhoda Okunev - The Psychology of Evolving Technology: How Social Media, Influencer Culture and New Technologies are Altering Society

This Apress imprint is published by the registered company APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

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Technology is advancing at such an incredible speed that it is hard to keep track of all its progress. This book reviews many technological developments that are impacting our world as adults and influencing on our children. In many respects, the computers, smartphones, and smart devices with texting capabilities, social media, and video apps on them have transformed our world and made it feel smaller, more controllable, and much easier to manage. In less than a few seconds, we can communicate with others down the street or across the world. It is brilliant! Or is it? I mean, the consequences of these experiences could hurt us mightily. Even as adults we are constantly barraged on our phone with robocalls or people trying to scam us for money. Some pictures and videos are edited to make us believe events happened that did not occur. If we can be mislead as adults, how can we not worry about our children? Children especially can be tricked into scams, cyber-bullying, and sharing explicit photos or sexting. Not to mention, gadgets can lead to addiction to the smart device, lack of concentration, and obesity. Parents are forced to make vital decisions for their children every day about which technology devices is age-appropriate and important for our childrens successful growth in the areas of motor skills, mental capacity, and social development.

This book is a framework to start a conversation about this imperative and fundamental topic; it is by no means a scientific study or definitive explanation of how parents, teachers, mentors, or friends should make decisions. Each child is unique, and each child has an individual cognitive and social learning growth process. Therefore, each childs life takes a different and amazing journey of its own.

One thing is for certain: these technological advances are here to stay, and they are only going to get more advanced. Our world is dependent and thrives on progress. These technological advances rely on and are shaped by artificial intelligence. Data science uses machine learning algorithms and transforms them into applications for images, videos, and audio content. It can recognize faces and decipher writing biases, sentiments, and feelings. These advances are propelling our world forward in ways we could not have imagined years ago. While it has become much easier to communicate with others around the world, it has disrupted a simpler life, when smart devices were not constantly at our sides with their its apps and notifications.

Colleges and universities have programs to advance these applied analytical tools and skills to be useful and usable, and new technological advances are happening fast, especially with smart glasses. Now and for the foreseeable future it is time to embrace these robotic and machine learning advances and discover how they can benefit our lives and how we can learn to control their detrimental forces so that our moral character is not weakened or destabilized. In fact, we need to learn how they can strengthen our moral character and produce a more livable and peaceful world.

This book will discuss the theories of Jean Piagets stages of cognitive development and Erik Eriksons psychosocial development stages, along with the rapid advancements of computers, email, texting, video games, social media, and smart technologies that now utilize artificial intelligence. Well talk about how far technology has advanced, yet the maturation process of humans is still evolving through the same stages and growth process, for the most part, as our ancestors. This will be shown by using the age-appropriate milestones criteria of the Center for Disease Control (CDC), MedlinePlus: U.S. National Library of Medicine (Medline), and American Psychological Association (APA) factsheets.

Let us begin a whirlwind journey through the history of technological changes with the intent to show these awe-inspiring innovations that have changed the world and also have created many hardships. Some of these advances have made life fun such as video games, yet the world is more weary of cybercrime activities that seek your private information.

The first part of this book discusses the scientific advances in the context of the history of computers and personal computers, word processors, Wi-Fi, email, and texting. It discusses the history of smart devices, video games, and videoconferencing.

Specifically, Chapter reviews the history of computers and smart phones, including the invention of the iPhone, Samsungs smart TV and phone, and Googles Android. It also review the history of video games and video communication and conferencing.

Chapter reviews the most popular search engines, such as Google. The Internet and search engines have connected the world yet have exposed our families and livelihood to blackmail and the Dark Web. We are able to critique a restaurant or salon in one click, but if we click the wrong button on our computer, we might lose access to our data because someone on the Web decides to hold it for ransom. When Wi-Fi was developed, it connected the world in ways that were unimaginable before. This chapter will explore how and why email was invented for the military and academia.

Chapter also talks about the history of video conferencing. In addition, the chapter covers how we have the ability to make and edit videos on the fly.

Part II discusses the history of social media. Each and every person who owns a smart device can connect to multiple media apps to relay their thoughts in an instant.