How Modern Technologies Can Impact US Elections and Other Daily Habits
Nowadays, there is an increasing trend where technologies have a visible impact on our daily lives. The biggest technology trend of the last couple of years – artificial intelligence – is capable of influencing people's views, opinions, and decisions. Artificial intelligence or AI can often mislead people because not everyone has the time and willingness to verify the source and credibility of information. Therefore, AI-generated images can spark heated debates. AI is, of course, not the only technology that impacts our daily lives.
Technologies that affect our daily lives:
● artificial intelligence (AI)
● the internet
● personalized ads
● machine translation
Significant modern technologies also include algorithms on various popular internet platforms. Since we use the internet every day, we find most of the information there. Previously, information sources such as TV and newspapers were much more reliable because information was verified before publication or announcement. However, on the internet, both verified and unverified information can be published, and information circulates much faster. This can confuse people, especially during election times. Choices need to be made, but who to vote for? Various news is constantly published, which can often be completely contradictory, leading to rapid changes in people's opinions.
Negative Consequences of Technology
Innovation and development are ways to improve people's daily lives, but sometimes, along with all the positives, we also have to deal with negative consequences. There is so much information on the internet that it is easy to get confused. Additionally, information can be quite contradictory, which often confuses and complicates decision-making, such as when buying a product or deciding whom to vote for in the upcoming elections. There can be a multitude of pros and cons for each element we try to explore, and we cannot always be sure of the accuracy of the information.
In any field, there are both positive and negative consequences, so it is definitely advisable to learn about the positive and negative aspects of the technologies we use daily in order to use them to our advantage, minimizing and avoiding the negative aspects as much as possible.
Special attention should be paid when following current events in Latvia and globally. The more significant the event, the greater the likelihood that various methods are used to manipulate or persuade more people. Currently, such influence can be felt in relation to the US elections, as it is a significant event not only in the US itself but globally. Even without actively seeking it, we can read various news and updates about election-related topics on various social media platforms. Even if we are not following the events closely, this information we come across stays in our subconscious, and over time, everyone forms an opinion about one candidate or another. US presidential election odds are high, making this event currently relevant in Latvia as well.
Positive Impact of Modern Technologies
There is no need to fear innovations and new technologies, as they often improve our daily lives, for example, by facilitating information retrieval, speeding up our work pace, enabling easier communication with others, and helping us find the most suitable entertainment options. Nowadays, it is easy to find the best restaurants, the most visited tourist attractions, the cheapest airline tickets, or the best casino offers. It just takes careful consideration to distinguish the useful from the meaningless.
Even personalized ads can be useful, even if many find them annoying and intrusive. Since ads show products and services in which you were interested at some point, you may find exactly what you were looking for in this way. The quality of these ad algorithms is not always the best, so sometimes we see ads that do not interest us, but in this way, we can discover something new. Perhaps you were unaware of or had not considered the existence of a certain product or service before, but you learned about it through ads. This can be genuinely helpful.
Technologies like machine translation allow us to learn more and communicate more easily with other people. This way, we can translate, for example, reviews about products, services, or companies written in a language we do not understand. While this translation may not be precise and grammatically correct, it is sufficient to understand whether the comment is positive, negative, and what its essence is.
Artificial intelligence is currently the most discussed technology. Many worry that it will replace many professions, that people will soon lose their jobs, but it is not as dramatic as it sometimes seems. AI can currently assist various professions, but it cannot fully replace humans. Even if AI supposedly writes a piece, content, or translates text, a human needs to verify and correct it because there are almost always errors in it – especially in the Latvian language.
Even the visual materials generated by AI are not always as human-made. We often see silly images where a person has six fingers on one hand or strange proportions. However, it should not be forgotten that sometimes AI can generate an image whose authenticity is quite difficult to determine. Such images can influence people's opinions, so one must always be cautious when looking at images, especially about current events.
Benefits of modern technologies:
● easy and fast information retrieval;
● the ability to communicate with people on the other side of the world;
● the opportunity to discover and try new things;
● increased productivity.
New technologies make life easier if we can use them correctly. It is recommended to take an interest in all innovations and learn as much as possible – to avoid manipulation and influence, as well as other possible consequences of modern technologies. Knowledge will help you use technologies to your advantage, improving and facilitating your daily life or work.
