IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019 - 84

Don't just bow to the flower pot -
question why.
private (the controller must allow a user to view their
profile) and the median number of followers was 194
[14]. Though this data is only a small subset of the over
600 million users who visit Instagram every month, it
still points out two interesting characteristics. First, he
found that only 28% of users have private profiles;
therefore by extension a majority of Instagram users
have public profiles that can be seen by anyone who
searches for a particular username. This means that
the content being posted by a majority of Instagram
users can be seen by anyone. Second, the program
found that an average user had about 200 different
users following them, and that at a minimum about
200 people have access to the content being posted by
a user. The extent to which a single post can reach so
many people is something that is unique to the cloud.
Giving the ability for someone to communicate with
200 people while many others are also communicating
in the same space is impossibly irreproducible in physical space without some sort of degradation of the information being communicated.

Computer Scientists are not Working on
Neutral Platforms
Surprisingly enough, it is not individuals trained to
understand the intricate nature of one's being who are
given the power to monitor how a given technology
uses one's conscious will, but rather those trained in
the field of computer science. Software engineers,
those behind this hypnosis, are writing code, and developing software that causes this hijacking to occur. In
Lawrence Lessig's Code is Law, Lessig shows how software engineers do not sit behind ethical neutrality
when platforms they craft cause ethical dilemmas.
"Cyberspace demands a new understating of how regulation works... It requires a broader account of 'regulation,' and most importantly, the recognition of a newly
salient regulator" [4]. Since the inception of the Internet, computer scientists inadvertently have been given
the power to be this regulator. The way they develop the
architecture of their products completely determines
the way users interact with it. This can manifest into
nefarious examples described by Ex-Google Ethicist,
Tristan Harris, pertaining to how apps hook people
with the use of a pull-down refresh bars.
However, computer scientists also have the ability to
develop positive services like completely private search

engines (DuckDuckGo), and the way a product is developed can determine how users are affected by it [15]. If
Facebook did not have a profile feature, but was rather
completely anonymous, the implication of the use of
Facebook on one's identity would be quite different.
Furthermore, the unconscious biases that reside within
each individual computer scientist bubble to the surface
when design decisions are made. Once again, these
seemingly conscious decisions are no more than a compilation of the unconscious values linking intention to
actions. More specifically, when a professional culture
exists with the belief that the code these regulators
write is ethically neutral, these regulators are less likely
to question the unconscious biases that form their
design decisions. These design decisions make computer scientists and software engineers ethically responsible for the outcomes of their products.

Reclaiming Our Conscious Will
In this section we look at possible solutions to escaping
control of our conscious will. We first describe the magnitude of the entrenchment of DT in our identity, in
order to highlight why abandonment of these platforms
is not a viable solution - at least not for everyone. Furthermore, we use analysis of this entrenchment to suggest that future development of software ought to
monitor its societal dependence in order to reduce
intentional, or even unintentional, commodification of
its users conscious will. Finally, we finish this section by
providing suggestions on how to reclaim the use of
one's identity without losing the benefits that these platforms might provide to society.

Recognizing Technological Entrenchment
In order to reclaim our conscious will, analysis of the
power imbalance between platforms and their users is
required. First, users currently cannot opt out of certain
applications without experiencing social ramifications.
With 71% of all teens using Facebook, the pressure to
stay connected is high [16]. The social pressure to stay
connected isn't felt just by teens, but also by adults.
"Recent news stories have suggested that employers
may be reluctant to hire people without a Facebook profile on the grounds that Facebook usage has become so
common that not having an account is seen as somehow abnormal" [17]. With so many individuals on Facebook, not having one is considered socially deviant and
odd. In order for a current user of Facebook or any
other popular social media to quit, they must overcome
this social norm and deviate from what is considered
the new form of discourse by society. Furthermore, if
they are able to quit, they miss out on the many social
interactions that do occur on these platforms, interactions not limited to communicating with family and

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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JUNE 2019

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019