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Assertions that social media can negatively impact the development of children and teens

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Idea that AI will cause people to lose their jobs.

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Dec 21, 2022

Technological determinism implies that a society's technology determines a society's cultural values and social structure. Historians believe that the term originated from Thorstein Veblen, an American economist, and sociologist. However, Karl Marx gave the first significant elaboration of technological determinism. He thought a nation's technological development determines social relations and cultural practices.

For example, according to technological determinism, society creates smartphones before people need them. However, the smartphone then becomes a primary governing force in how a community lives. Furthermore, technological determinism makes our cultural expectations. In turn, it creates a collective set of customs and morals that direct how we behave.

Technological determinism is a controversial topic. Many experts suggest that believing in technological determinism means believing that humans have no control over the evolution of their lives. Either way, it's a popular theory, and you can link it to today's times.

Effects on the tech industry

The technology industry has boomed recently. The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged people to use technology more. A survey of worldwide CEOs found that companies accelerated the speed of their digitalization by four years.

Companies now need to use more technology to influence society. They also need technology to change how they communicate and manage their employees. In addition, companies have had to make their process digital. Examples include technological changes to online shopping, delivery, and contactless payment systems.

When you decide to work in tech sales as a career, you're at the forefront of changing how a society operates. The technology industry is growing, and experts believe the industry will be worth $5 trillion by the end of 2021 . There are so many products that can change the world, and you're at the forefront of bringing them to the people.

Examples of technological determinism in the modern era.

1 - Social media

If there's anything that has altered the life of human beings, it has to be the growth of social media. The most popular social media websites include Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In addition, the Chinese-based app TikTok has gained massive traction in the past two years, which is now worth over $250 billion .

Experts believe that social media usage will increase to 3.43 billion active monthly users by the close of 2023. There are 4.2 billion active social media users now , with 4.15 billion people active on social media through their mobile phones.

According to further research, social media users spend 145 minutes on average per day on social media. You probably didn't know that social media has infiltrated the lives of 7.7 billion people since it began in 1996. In fact, in 2010, only 970 million people worldwide had social media networks.

By 2020, over 3.81 billion people had a social media network page. The COVID-19 pandemic encouraged people to communicate with their friends through social media.

In the United States alone, over 231.47 million people have a social media account. That accounts for a growth of around 3.1% from 2019 to 2020 alone. Here are some stats on the most popular social media companies:

Facebook has 2.7 billion active monthly users

YouTube has 2 billion active monthly users

WhatsApp has 2 billion monthly active users

Facebook Messenger has 1.3 billion monthly active users

Experts argue about the impact of social media. Some believe it's a force for positive human change, but many argue it's brought about negative human change. Either way, social media is a prime example of technological determination.

Working in tech sales as a career in the social media space can be highly lucrative and influential. Companies need highly skilled sales staff to sell social media platforms and brands to customers and businesses. In addition, people who work in tech sales in the social media space can genuinely affect the lives of fellow humans.

2 - Artificial intelligence

The growth of artificial intelligence is likely to be a gamechanger in the way humans behave and act as the 21st century progresses. In recent decades, artificial intelligence has broken into the real world. As a result, it's becoming one of the most influential and essential technologies of our time.

Economists expect the growth of AI to increase by 33.2% between 2020 and 2027. Experts value the global AI market to be worth $327 billion. The largest AI patent owner globally is IBM. However, telecommunications and healthcare have adopted AI technology.

Furthermore, experts also predict artificial intelligence to eliminate millions of jobs worldwide. However, it would also create 2.4 million brand-new jobs. Over 38% of people believe that AI will eventually eliminate their job.

Economists also expect the U.S. to see a 16% decrease in jobs by the end of the decade as AI grows. About of major companies also believe that AI will positively impact society, just like the internet did in the 90s.

In truth, experts debate whether AI will be positive for the human race. Of course, it will make life far more manageable. But it's likely to shift jobs and the global economy in an unprecedented manner. Just like the internet changed the global economy, but maybe even more significant. There are so many tech sales jobs in the AI sector. Companies need world-class sales staff to bring excellent AI products to the market. These products include the following:

Robots

Facial recognition

Self-driving cars

Self-driving planes

Automated chatbots

When you choose sales as a career in the AI space, you will be shaping society well into the future. It's a prime example of technological determinism.

3 - Drones

Drones have exploded in popularity in recent years. Drone technology started as hobbyist gadget technology for those looking to capture incredible photos and videos. Nonetheless, these flying gadgets are a prime example of technological determinism. Various industries, including the movie industry, construction industry, photography industry, farming industry, and so many more, have been directly impacted by the introduction of drones.

In 2020, the sales of consumer drones grew to over $1.25 billion, with over 8% of Americans now owning a drone. In addition, over 15% of Americans have flown a drone at some point in their lives. Experts believe that drones will improve the workplace and change human habits in the following ways:

Increase work efficiency

Improve productivity

Decrease workload

Refine customer service

Change security and military operations

Decrease business costs

Furthermore, the EU Commission believes that drones will account for 20,000 flights every single year in Paris. Experts also predict drones could become transportation providers for humans. They also think drones will become excellent for increasing survival rates in disaster zones. These places include areas hit by floods, hurricanes, or earthquakes.

Drones are part of the world's future, and if you work in tech sales, you can help bring drones to the market. Drones are a form of technology that can better humanity. The industry needs highly skilled salespeople to promote the products.

Learn more when you join Uvaro

The future is phenomenal for tech sales, and there are growing in this sector. Tech sales as a career is an excellent way to learn about technology, make good money, and gain invaluable skills that can be applied throughout your life.

Check out Uvaro's available courses to identify how we can prepare you for success in tech sales (and maybe more!)

We would love to hear from you, so today!

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Technological Determinism: Impact on The Tech Sales Industry

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What is technological determinism and how is it impacting your career? Learn more about how technological determinism is changing the world of tech sales.

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AI has the ability to ruin people’s careers, particularly well known or famous people through fake videos from deepfake 

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AI has the ability to ruin people’s careers, particularly well known or famous people through fake videos from deepfake 

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Negative impact of social media on children

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For many years now, a group of researchers and activists have warned about the potential dangers of children using social networks. The warnings resonated with me emotionally, since so many people I know - young and old - have struggled with their own relationships to apps like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It seems logical that what many people experience as a kind of icky feeling after too much scrolling manifests as something much more serious in others - particularly in young people.

Anxiety over this state of affairs has contributed to a significant uptick this year in state-level regulation aimed at getting kids off their phones. (The other reason, of course, is a total failure of Congress to act.)

I've long been sympathetic to the idea that young people need greater protections from the social networks they use daily. But I've also had my doubts about how aggressively we ought to compel them to intervene. Data on the relationship between children, teens, social networks, and mental health has been slow in coming, limited in scope, and contradictory in its findings. Looking at the research that has trickled out so far, I have more than once found myself throwing up my hands in confusion.

Synthesizing more than a decade of research, they conclude that the potential for harm is significant

Recently, though, I've begun to feel like we're making real progress on understanding how social networks affect young people. For too many children, frequent use of social products really does seem bad for them. And the research now appears robust enough that lawmakers can be confident in demanding more from the companies that produce them.

That was my main conclusion today after reading the surgeon general's advisory today on social media and youth mental health. Over a brisk 19 pages, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and his team synthesize more than a decade of research into risks posed by social networks and conclude that the potential for harm is significant. While the report also makes welcome acknowledgement of the benefits social networks have for young people, it also highlights specific areas where action from social networks, lawmakers, and parents are long overdue.

"Nearly every teenager in America uses social media, and yet we do not have enough evidence to conclude that it is sufficiently safe for them," the surgeon general writes. "Our children have become unknowing participants in a decades-long experiment. It is critical that independent researchers and technology companies work together to rapidly advance our understanding of the impact of social media on children and adolescents."

The full report is well worth reading in its entirety. But several aspects of the surgeon general's findings are worth calling out.

One, children are starting to use social media too young. The report found two in five children have begun using social networks between the ages of 8 and 12 - a deeply vulnerable time where it seems unlikely to me that the potential benefits outweigh the risks. And this comes despite the fact that companies' own terms of service typically forbid children under 13 from using them. Platforms really ought to do more to keep young children off their platforms - and not openly court them with cynical growth-hack products like Messenger Kids from Meta.

Two, we're learning a lot about what kinds of children are at higher risk of harm from social networks. It includes adolescent girls; kids with mental health issues; kids who have been cyber-bullied; kids with body image issues and disordered eating; and kids whose sleeping patterns have been disrupted by social media. Parents of children in these categories should pay particularly close attention to their kids' social media use.

"Changes in brain structure similar to changes seen in individuals with substance use or gambling addictions."

Three, there's growing evidence that frequent social media usage can negatively affect the development of the body. "Small studies have shown that people with frequent and problematic social media use can experience changes in brain structure similar to changes seen in individuals with substance use or gambling addictions," the report states.

Moreover, it noted that "a longitudinal prospective study of adolescents without ADHD symptoms at the beginning of the study found that, over a 2-year follow-up, high-frequency use of digital media, with social media as one of the most common activities, was associated with a modest yet statistically significant increased odds of developing ADHD symptoms."

Four, a simple intervention that seems to produce significantly positive results is simply to reduce the time children spend using it. Spending more than three hours a day on social networks doubles the risk of bad mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety. Voluntary screen-time controls don't seem to be doing enough here; lawmakers should consider creating and enforcing daily time limits for apps like these.

All that said, social network usage clearly also has real benefits for young people. Most young people, even. There's a reason 95 percent of them use it!

"For example," according to the report, "studies have shown that social media may support the mental health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, transgender, queer, intersex and other youths by enabling peer connection, identity development and management, and social support."

Seven out of ten adolescent girls of color report encountering positive or identity-affirming content related to race across social media platforms. A majority of adolescents report that social media helps them feel more accepted (58%), like they have people who can support them through tough times (67%), like they have a place to show their creative side (71%), and more connected to what's going on in their friends' lives (80%).

And in other cases, the authors found research suggesting that social media actually prompts some children with mental health care issues to seek treatment, in part because they're learning about it there.

This is useful, I think, because it helps us understand who social networks can be particularly beneficial to. Understanding how and why LGBT kids benefit from these networks disproportionately, for example, could help platforms make themselves safer and more beneficial to everyone else.

Of course, there's still a lot we still don't know. In part that's because, to climb back on an old hobbyhorse of mine, platforms are still too stingy with the data that might help researchers understand them better. Part of this is for good reasons related to user privacy; part of it is for the bad reason of not really wanting to understand too deeply the harms their own platforms can cause.

We have enough data to make good recommendations for platforms, lawmakers, parents and children

"There is broad concern among the scientific community that a lack of access to data and lack of transparency from technology companies have been barriers to understanding the full scope and scale of the impact of social media on mental health and well-being," the surgeon general's report states.

I'm hopeful this will change, though. Thanks to the European Union's Digital Services Act, academic researchers now have a legal avenue to safely request and study platform data, and I imagine it will be hugely beneficial toward the cause of better understanding social networks' effects on mental health and many other issues.

In the meantime, we have enough data to make good recommendations for platforms, lawmakers, parents and children. For platforms, good suggestions include conducting independent assessments of the effects on their products on children and adolescents; establishing scientific advisory committees to inform product development; and sharing data with researchers in a privacy-protective way.

Recommendations for policymakers include developing age-appropriate health and safety standards for platforms; funding more research on the subject; and cutting off growth and engagement hacks for kids.

It's a lot to take in. And I know that plenty of you - especially those who work at social platforms - still might not be persuaded of the evidence that's available.

But the more data we see, the harder it gets for me to keep an open mind on the subject, particularly for younger children in the high-risk groups mentioned above. If I were to become a parent, I'd endeavor to keep my kids away from media through middle school. (Though I imagine I wouldn't be able to totally prevent them from at least some unsupervised use of YouTube and TikTok.) I'd also plan to continue monitoring their social media usage and any effects it might have on their mental health through high school.

When I first started writing a newsletter about social networks, the consequences of children using it were largely a mystery. But little by little, we're beginning to understand both the risks and the benefits. And on the question of whether using social networks poses risks to children, the surgeon general's warning today suggests that the answer is almost certainly yes.

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The surgeon general's wake-up call for social networks

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The US surgeon general reviewed a decade of research on social media like Facebook and TikTok and found that the potential for harm is significant.