There's an odd meditation on creepy technology over at Slate. The piece begins promisingly, offering many examples of uncanny digital and pre-digital media.
Then it diffuses into uncertainty. Sometimes creepiness is a merited feeling, if there are good reasons, like the ones sociologists give. Such as privacy, unless it's not. Or fearing tech is an accurate response to something when we... just don't know what or why. Because that's useful, somehow. Harrumph.
That uncertain part of the article does yield a useful gem, finally, when it hesitatingly offers a conclusion. People fear new tech because it's easier than doing something more wise:
What we don’t know is exactly how the ads will be configured, how accurate the information scanning will be, and what kind of safeguards will protect consumers against having their information misused. It thus is easier to be worried than prudent.
It's easier to install filters than teach internet literacy. It takes less time to insist on acceptance than to instill a critical thinking attitude. Letting old media instruct us about the new is less demanding than doing one's research.
(thanks to Charles Cameron)
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