#Democracy – Page 2 – Digital Journal

United Nations Economic and Social Council. (2018). Action plan for organizing the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages.

November 19, 2018November 18, 2018 by Orest Kinasevych

“Indigenous languages also represent complex systems of knowledge developed and accumulated over thousands of years. Local languages are indeed a kind of cultural treasure; they are repositories of diversity and key resources for both understanding the environment and utilizing it to the best advantage of local populations, as well as of humanity as a whole. They foster and promote local cultural specificities, customs and values which have endured for thousands of years.” (p 2-3)

Pacey (1983). Chapter 4 – Beliefs about Resources. (The Culture of Technology.)

November 9, 2018 by Orest Kinasevych

“One study group has argued that we have an obligation to future generations to think fifty years ahead, and criticizes most commercial and political planning for its ‘horizon blindness’ beyond about ten years.” (p 67)

Bowles (2018). The Digital Gap Between Rich and Poor Kids Is Not What We Expected.

October 29, 2018October 28, 2018 by Orest Kinasevych

“… as Silicon Valley’s parents increasingly panic over the impact screens have on their children and move toward screen-free lifestyles, worries over a new digital divide are rising. It could happen that the children of poorer and middle-class parents will be raised by screens, while the children of Silicon Valley’s elite will be going back to wooden toys and the luxury of human interaction.” (¶4)

Children’s Screen Time Action Network (2018). Our letter to the APA.

October 28, 2018February 4, 2019 by Orest Kinasevych

“Persuasive technology is the design[3] of digital devices and apps to influence human thoughts and behavior. While these techniques are used for positive purposes (e.g., more efficient website navigation), they are also employed with the guidance of psychologists and other behavior experts working in the tech industry to persuade users, many of whom are children, to spend long periods of time using social media and video game sites.” (¶4)

Pacey (1983). Chapter 3 – The Culture of Expertise. (The Culture of Technology.)

October 27, 2018December 1, 2018 by Orest Kinasevych

“Also noteworthy in this episode is the way each professional interprets the problem according to his own specific type of expertise. The chemist studies organic molecules, the automotive engineer redesigns vehicles, and the highway planner looks for ways to reduce congestion.” (p 44)

Feenberg (2017). Critical theory of technology and STS.

October 26, 2018 by Orest Kinasevych

“The dominant program is materialized in actual technologies through designed-in values and purposes. The dominant actors thus always have the ‘facts’ on their side. The anti-program may be confined at first to discursive expressions such as protests and demands articulating values different from those of the dominant actors. The subordinate actors’ demands usually appear to be unrealistic, ideological, in the face of the ‘facts’.” (p 6)

Pacey (1983). Chapter 2 – Beliefs about Progress. (The Culture of Technology.)

October 22, 2018October 22, 2018 by Orest Kinasevych

“… primarily, the factory was [page break] an invention concerning the organization of work, with an earlier origin than most of the machines it contained.” (p 18-19)

Manjikian (2017). Social Construction of Technology: How objects acquire meaning in society. (Technology and World Politics: An Introduction.)

October 21, 2018 by Orest Kinasevych

“While engineers physically construct or make an object, interest groups also construct the object — by virtue of the language they use to describe the object, the ways in which it is marketed and sold, and the ways in which it is regulated and understood.” (p 28)

Simon (2018). Delete Your Account Now: A Conversation with Jaron Lanier.

October 14, 2018 by Orest Kinasevych

“They are these other people who decide, called advertisers — or I prefer to call them manipulators, because they have been sold on the idea that they’re not just advertising. They’re not just getting a message in front of you, but are part of a mathematical scheme that will predictably addict you and then modify your behavior.” (¶10)

Mander (1991). The Importance Of The Negative View. (In the absence of the sacred.)

August 7, 2018 by Orest Kinasevych

“Meanwhile, industry, the media, and the government were all repeating the mantra that technology serves progress and that progress equals more technology.” (p 39)