"The Dark Side of Our Digital World" (Andrew Weiss)

TITLE: The Dark Side of Our Digital World: And What You Can Do about It (LITA Guides)
AUTHOR: Andrew Weiss
PUBLISHER: Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2020, (272 pages).

We live in a world of information technology. Almost everything in the world has a digital counterpart. One of the signs of the digital revolution is the impact of e-Commerce and the way we are living our lives. We are slowly moving from snail-mail to email; from texting to social media; and from face-to-face communications to video conferencing. Looking at the way technology stocks had usurped the top positions of traditional bricks and mortar companies, we know that the world of digital is here to stay. Our world has changed forever and there is no going back to the slow-paced world of yesterday.  For all the fascination and the optimism that comes with digital platforms, a few people are not content in simply consuming these stuff as they come along. They question. They critique. They look outside the box to try to challenge conventional ways of thinking. One such explorer is Andrew Weiss, a librarian and cultural observer who recognizes the dark side of the digital world, which is what this book is all about. It is essentially learning to use digital tools wisely while being aware of the insidious dark side. Written in four parts, the first three parts deal with the awareness while the final part offer steps toward redemption. 

Part One is about "Information and the Weapons of Mass Distraction," sharing the commonly used acronym (WMD) which is a conventional reference to the nuclear or biochemical weapons that kill masses. Information can be manipulated easily and quickly. Moreover, too much information can wreak havoc mentally and physically. So Weiss divides information into three types of pathologies: 1) Information Architecture & Research; 2) Information Technology; 3) Information Usage. Looking at the way information is designed, the author laments at how digital tools can remix, rehash, and remake works of the past into something devoid of their original contexts. Information Technology can be a useful tool for communications and information sharing, but they are also tools for surveillance and privacy invasion. Plus, the ease of information usage means that it can also be easily used and abused. Then there is the dark side of "online behavioral conditioning" which essentially locks us into a particular mold and controls how we behave. Through such means, people can be manipulated under the premise of making money. Other issues include the lack of transparency or the rise of vulnerability. People tend to be more upfront with a small speck of goodness while hiding logs of shame and negativity from the world. It is troubling when people look to such digital platforms in order to feel validated or to gain some sense of self-worth. Will technology bring about such affirmation? On decision-making, we also find it increasingly hard to make decisions without being influenced by other opinions. Enters the age of the surveillance state. It is scary to see how some corporations are stockpiling all kinds of information on the premise of keeping everything the world has. Weiss warns us to be more discerning between some "grand con" disguised as a "grand bargain." He is skeptical about Google's "Don't Be Evil" slogan, and suspects some underlying reason for them to even push that forward in the first place. Other data collection companies are guilty of the same thing.  Worse, these companies are sharing such information collected with authorities which threaten privacy and security concerns. Sadly, we buy into all the promises and minimize the pitfalls associated with it. Free services are not necessarily free. In fact, we pay them more than what they are giving us! 

Part Two deals with the impact of information overload and how some powers spread fake news for their own advantage. I like the way Weiss describes the flow of information like some fire hose that pumps water out uncontrollably. He points out the irony of having lots of choices but sticking with only a few familiar ones. In fact, too many choices can actually lead to paralysis in decision making. Perhaps, Weiss has a finger on something with regard to our modern problem: having so much but not knowing what to do with them. Using his library experience of information management strategies, the author proposes "satisficing," which is a blend of the words "satisfying" and "sacrificing." It is another way of saying to learn what is necessary. He also takes a look at "conspiracy theories" that the more the unknowns, the greater the speculations. He also tackles one of the biggest questions with regard to digital information: Who owns it? If one scans a public domain document and uploads it digitally somewhere, is he or she entitled to some compensation? In a digital world where everything seems to be easily copied, there is no easy answer with regard to ownership.

Part Three is about the way information is used as a power source to dominate and control society. From surveillance to tracking; information to disinformation; reality to virtual; the understanding of truth is becoming more vague. With the rise of automatically generated data and news aggregation, truth is dictated by algorithms written a while ago. Weiss warns us that left to itself, these robots in cyberspace may eventually control everything they were not meant to control. Weiss critiques social media which is increasingly a sea of misbehaviours such as phising, trolling, cyberbullying, and mischievous pathologies.

Part Four puts forth some possible solutions to recover the good side. He offers strategies to combat trolls and bots. Chief of these is educating people to take responsibility for their actions. On the one hand, hiding behind a pseudonym or anonymity in the name of privacy only gives space for the spread of untruths and slander. On the other hand, there are legitimate ways to protect privacy while still share information freely and wisely. He then proposes an "AI code of conduct."

My Thoughts

First, the issues Weiss brings up are critical ones, because they have a direct impact on relationships and how society increasingly functions. Weiss really means what he says. The dark side of the digital world looms large in our backyard. For many, they might already be dwelling in our living rooms. In a no-holds-barred critique of the issues pertaining to the use of technology and digital data, Weiss brings to the fore many issues that the ordinary Internet user might not even notice. They know that there is the danger of information overload, but rather than seeing it as a problem, they are simply living with it without knowing that it has impacted their decision-making abilities. It is not surprising to hear from one trying to make sense of the deluge of information, that they simply need more data to deal with the data overload! People have grown so used to collecting data per se, that their ability to collect these digital bits and bytes have far exceeded their ability to discern the use of these information. If we do not wake up to the dark side of such digital forces, we might end up becoming a tool for them instead of using them as tools for living.

Secondly, this book is a wake-up call for those of us who use the digital technologies too uncritically. I appreciate the author for highlighting many aspects of the digital world for us to start asking real questions about what the digital data is there for. I am worried that the "whatever" generation is growing. Instead of questioning the need for a particular data, they simply absorb it without much thought. Take the use of free Internet services for example. When the app prompts us to say ok to certain conditions before proceeding, most of us simply click OK without bothering to read all the fineprint. In other words, we are putting our trust and our personal information on the platform or app thinking that the service is free, without knowing that our personal details are being peddled for profit. Information may seem to be free but the cost for such information might be more than what we are prepared to pay. If only we knew.

Finally, I think there is room for a more redemptive perspective with regard to digital world. We need more thinkers to help us navigate the increasingly complex digital world. Weiss has helped us with the recognition of the negative effects, and also proposed some possible solutions. We need more. We need to go to the root of the problem in the first place. It is the use of such technologies that is also the root of the problem. Just like money can be used to do good or evil, digital technologies can also be a tool for any end. Who is it that drives the use of technologies? Not apps. Not platforms. It is people writing attractive programs to entice people to use them. This is the single biggest reason for commercial enterprises: To get more people into their products or services, with amoral reasoning. The world is dark because people are inherently sinful. Perhaps, the next book Weiss can write or co-author with is a more positive spin on the use of digital technologies.

Andrew Weiss is a digital services librarian at California State University, Northridge, with more than twelve years of experience working in academic libraries. He focuses primarily on scholarly communication issues, especially open access, copyright policy in academia, institutional repositories, and developing better strategies for data curation.

Rating: 4 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.