What if instead of always commenting first on social media we stopped for a moment to think?
The speech by Isabella Corradini, social psychologist and expert in human factors & digital awareness, Scientific Director of Themis , a socio-psychological and criminological-forensic research center, and co-founder of the Link&Think Research Lab, an interdisciplinary research laboratory focused on the social aspects of digital innovation
In these days the news of the blocking of the Guarantor for the protection of personal data regarding the use of ChaptGPT, the natural language processing tool based on artificial intelligence, capable of performing various functions, including answering questions asked by the user or write/summarize texts that are requested. I will not go into the merits of the Guarantor's decision, although I have my own opinion on the matter, because this is not the aspect I want to bring out in this article.
What I want to highlight however is that today, especially in the debate on issues such as digital innovation, it seems that the main trend is to "jump into the fray" by completely removing the moment for reflection, necessary to be able to make reasoned assessments. Yet we know how digital technologies are producing significant changes in our daily social and working life, which would require an in-depth examination. Instead, never before have experts and so-called experts chasing each other with comments on articles and posts on social media to have their say, taking sides as if they were watching a football match, in some cases unfortunately also transcending interaction, because in any case social networks , given their nature, certainly do not favor an articulated debate on topics that deserve much more space for discussion.
What I observe is the growth of this tendency which can be translated into "the impulse to be the first to comment on the fact", as if there were no tomorrow. It doesn't matter if you haven't documented yourself enough on the subject, what matters is giving vent to your desire to "be there" and demonstrate to others that you are still on track.
It goes without saying that this way of intervening on complex topics, such as ChatGPT for example (but there can be many topics on which to give examples), makes the public debate ineffective, as well as entailing the real risk of causing the quality of the information to expire . Which is certainly devastating from the communicative point of view and, above all, has the consequence of not circulating correct information (one wonders if this is not the real goal in the end…). Not to mention that the effort in producing articles on the subject in a frantic way in that specific moment is not justly rewarded, considering the Internet cauldron in which they will end up, even proving to be ephemeral and soon outdated.
The frenzy to want to excel is also the basis of certain positions: the classic comment of those who – probably not having many arguments – give as justification that certain things must be done absolutely and quickly, otherwise Italy risks remaining the bringer lag behind other countries. In short, there is always the fear of falling behind, the important thing is always to go forward "whatever it takes", how and with what consequences it matters little. Just think of all those who get excited by reading about companies that decide to invest heavily in Artificial Intelligence, but who care little about the fact that those same companies plan to lay off thousands of people in exchange for the investments.
In a recent meeting in Milan which I attended with a group of professionals with different skills (the DL&Net coordinated by my lawyer friend Andrea Lisi), we commented on this "anxious way" of interacting, present above all on social media. We asked ourselves the question, wondering if it's better to argue straight away or think about it even one day more, at the cost of losing the moment of glory. We have all come to the same conclusion, namely that there is a greater benefit for society if, before diving into the sea of articles and posts created for the occasion, we stop to think and then address the subject with a clear mind and in a reasoned way, also documenting himself on the subject. Moreover, in this way we do not get lost in the magnum sea of articles that come out close to the events.
Stop and think: something that should be an integral and enriching part of human nature, but which we are debasing. You want social media, you want technological innovations, you want the fears dictated by being "behind", the fact is that today stopping and thinking is no longer in fashion. They tell you that you are out of step with the times, and not infrequently the result is to see blunders published.
The paradox is that, however, in educating the little ones in the conscious use of digital technologies, one of the most used slogans is: think before posting! But isn't it adults who should set a good example?
You don't have to be there necessarily, you have to be there with intelligence… and certainly not the artificial one!
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/e-se-invece-di-commentare-sempre-per-primi-sui-social-ci-fermassimo-un-attimo-a-pensare/ on Sat, 08 Apr 2023 06:13:34 +0000.