Gavin Luhr-the perils of new media technologies

http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/engine/mm/subscribe_mm/base/past_base.php?Link=New%20technologies

A summary of this article (the key points)
They take your money …

• Obsolescence is purposely built into new media products in order to perpetuate the consumer cycle e.g mobile phone upgrades every 12/18 months
• Average household spending on new media has risen dramatically in the last ten years. Mobile phones, multi-channel TV, broadband subscriptions, and online gaming subscriptions; products or services which 10 years ago either didn’t exist or were considered luxuries are now ‘essentials’ for modern existence.

… they steal your privacy

• Google has the ability to remember every search you’ve made, Amazon remembers the items you’ve browsed on its site, supermarkets know what you’ve bought; your ISP can track the websites that you visit etc. By taking advantage of the opportunities new media technologies offer, we often unwittingly give up our privacy.
• Many institutions are concerned about the security implications of mobile phones and PDAs as they may be used to steal valuable information, given their ubiquity and improved features such as data storage and good quality camera functions.
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are another innovation that could have consequences for civil liberties. They can be almost invisible to the naked eye, yet are capable of reporting on the exact location of the object to which they are attached. Retail makes biggest use of them at the moment, but who knows how else they could be employed.

… and they turn you to crime

• Billions of music files have been illegally swapped using peer-to-peer software such as the original Napster and KaZaA
• The culture of the Internet is seen as privileging collaboration and community; to many it is a symbol of what can be achieved without corporate interference.
• NMTs often provide environments in which the unacceptable becomes acceptable: the theft of ‘virtual’ items such as songs or films on the Internet; the assault and murder of innocent bystanders for entertainment on games consoles. Manhunt and the Grand Theft Auto series have been cited in legal cases involving young people apparently copying the violence they have already ‘practised’ in a virtual environment
• The dark side of Second Life for example, researchers found areas where child prostitution and indecent behaviour were found.
• Traditional systems of censorship and classification are futile; sex, violence and crime are increasingly available online or in console games. Operation Ore, the police investigation into child pornography on the Internet, has thrown up a shocking result: there were initially too many offenders to pursue them all. Are there no limits to what is acceptable when packaged as ‘virtual’?

Environmental issues:

• We all contribute to the environmental disaster inflicted by the production, and rapid discarding of, the latest must-have gadgets.
• UK: one million tonnes of electronic waste is generated each year, much of it full of hazardous substances.
• US: 70% of the heavy metals found in landfill sites originated from ‘e-waste’, an enormous health issue, particularly if allowed to contaminate groundwater.
• A UN study in early 2004 found that 1.8 tonnes of raw material is consumed during the production of the average desktop computer.

The phone mast threat:

• The potential danger posed by mobile phone masts has meant that local protest groups are abundant around proposed sites for new masts, particularly when they are to be located near schools.
• Some dismiss such objections as alarmist, but in an Internet search you will find lots of ‘evidence’ of the dangers. e.g. increased electromagnetic waves are suspected by some to have interfered with the reproductive capabilities of sparrows. There are now 75% fewer sparrows in London since 1994, a period that has seen the dramatic growth of mobile phone use.
• As our cities, schools and homes become increasingly reliant on wireless communications, what will be the consequences for our health? This is particularly relevant since the publication of research showing that under-10s should not be using mobile phones.
• In the media, new technologies are frequently presented as liberating, empowering and inspiring forces. However, their ‘newness’ means that their longer term implications are still not yet fully known. Only time will tell whether we should celebrate their massive potential – or beware their dark side.