Surveillance Capitalism, Gender and Equality, or Race and equality

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Surveillance Capitalism
In Jean Twenge’s article “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation” she expresses concerns that teenagers and young adults seem to interact actively as they are over reliant on smartphones. Face-to-face interaction is important and helps to form deeper bonds and even interpret non verbal cues, and electronic devices have enhanced interaction, but mostly in the virtual world. The impact of smartphones on social interactions and the mental health of users cannot be ignored given that technology has had a profound impact on how young people interact (Twenge 3). Electronic communication has increased interactivity and connection, but also increased distance between smartphone users who are also alone digital industry has thrived partly because extracting personal data and information
Heavy smartphone users focus too much on online communication rather than building authentic personal relationships including that of children and the parents. Smartphones are ever-present in the lives of those born from mid 1990s and one of the challenges nowadays is that there is less interaction and higher rates of mental health problems among this generation. Connection is important, but when people sacrifice conversation they are less likely to develop good communication skills and increasingly people who are heavily reliant on the internet for information get distracted and concentrate less (Carr). There is an illusion of close relationship when relying too much on smartphones for communication, unlike in the previous generations when human interaction helped to improved personal relationships.
Growth of the internet allows people to access more information and connect with those they want, but it also makes it easier for people to be isolated. Being interconnected has allowed internet users to engage more with people regardless of their location. People tend interact with specific people based on what they share and their similarities, which implies that certain things can be amplified because they are specific to certain groups. Seife argues that as people have become more interconnected some are more isolated and even with access to information they show bias to what they believe even when confronted with facts since there is tendency to conform. It is no surprise that many avoid negative information and people isolating themselves based on their thoughts.
Technology mediates social interaction and even as there are more people online users, these internet users may not necessarily understand the scale of internet surveillance. Social media has been marketed as a way to e...