Digitized Lives: Culture, Power, and Social Change in the Internet Era

Product Information

A foresight strategist based in Washington, D.C., predicted, “Probably the most significant change in ‘digital life’ in the next 14 years will be the geometric expansion of the power and ubiquity of artificial intelligence. I consider it likely that bots (writ large) will be responsible for generating an increasing portion of our cultural and social information, from entertainment media to news media to autonomous agents that attend our medical and psychosocial needs. Obviously, a lot can go right or wrong in this scenario, and it’s incumbent upon those of us who work in and with digital tech to anticipate these challenges and to help center human dignity and agency as AI becomes more pervasive and powerful.” Mark Lemley, professor of law and director of the Stanford University program in Law, Science and Technology, said, “We will live more of our lives in more – and more realistic – virtual spaces.” Carly Graham - Curriculum Lead, Senior Leader, PE Lead & Year 4 teacher, St John Fisher Primary School

Johanssen, J. (2021a, ed.). Psychoanalysis, sexualities and networked media. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. Special issue, (2). Johanssen, J. (2018b). Towards a psychoanalytic concept of affective-digital labour. Media and Communication, 6, 3. https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1424 Chapter 1: How Do We Make Sense of Digitizing Cultures? Some Ways of Thinking through the Culture–Technology Matrix Johanssen, J., & Wang, X. (2021). Artificial intuition in tech journalism on AI: Imagining the human subject. Human-Machine Communication, 2, 173–190. https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.2.9

Flisfeder, M. (2021). Algorithmic desire. Towards a new Structuralist theory of social media. Northwestern University Press.

S. (1998). Cyberspace, or, how to traverse the fantasy in the age of the retreat of the big other. Public Culture, 10(3), 483–513. Tugwell, S. (2021). What lurks beneath: The erotic charge of the Laplanchean unconscious and the digital object. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-021-00216-6 Chapter 3: What’s New About Digitized Identities? Mobile Bodies, Online Disguise, Cyberbullying and Virtual CommunitiesDweep Chand Singh, professor and director/head of clinical psychology at Aibhas Amity University in India, said, “Communication via digital mode is here to stay, with an eventual addition of brain-to-brain transmission and exchange of information. Biological chips will be prepared and inserted in brains of human beings to facilitate communication without external devices. In addition, artificial neurotransmitters will be developed in neuroscience labs for an alternative mode of brain-to-brain communication.” Digital access to education has the potential to help time-poor teachers, support new pedagogies and drive educational attainment for all - but not all students or households have the same access to devices, and not all areas enjoy the same reliability and speed of internet connection. DeVos, J. (2020). The digitalisation of (inter)subjectivity a Psy-critique of the digital death drive. Routledge. Johanssen, J. (2019). Psychoanalysis and digital culture: Audiences, social media, and big data. Routledge.

Peter B. Reiner, professor and co-founder of the National Core for Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia, proposed the creation of “Loyal AI,” writing, “As artificial intelligence comes to encroach upon more and more aspects of our lives, we need to ensure that our interests as humans are being well-served. The best way for this to happen would be the advent of ‘Loyal AI’ – artificially intelligent agents that put the interests of users first rather than those of the corporations that are developing the technology. This will require wholesale reinvention of the current rapacious business model of surveillance capitalism that pervades our digital lives, whether through innovation or government regulation or both. Such trustworthy AI might foster increased trust in institutions, paving the way for a society in which we can all flourish.” Beresheim, D. F. (2020). Circulate yourself: Targeted individuals, the yieldable object & self-publication on digital platforms. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 37(5), 395–408. Bainbridge, C., & Yates, C. (Eds.). (2014). Media and the inner world: Psycho-cultural approaches to emotion, media and popular culture. Palgrave Macmillan. Stephen is Head of Digital Learning, Creativity and Innovation at EBS and his subject specialism is Robotics and Design and Technology. During his time at EBS, Stephen has had the sole responsibility of developing the CAD CAM for staff and students in the school. He also introduced Autodesk software and its mobile applications into the EBS Design and Technology curriculum. A considerable number of these experts focused their answers on the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). They say these digital enhancements or alternatives will have growing impact on everything online and in the physical world. This, they believe, is the real “metaverse” that indisputably lies ahead. They salute the possibilities inherent in the advancement of these assistive and immersive technologies, but also worry they can be abused – often in ways yet to be discovered. A number of respondents also predict that yet-to-be envisioned realms will arise.

Katie King, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies, University of Maryland, College Park; Author of Networked Reenactments: Stories Transdisciplinary Knowledges Tell Throughout history, technological revolutions have changed the labour force: creating new forms and patterns of work, making others obsolete, and leading to wider societal changes. This current wave of change is likely to have profound impacts. For example, the International Labour Organization estimates that the shift to a greener economy could create 24 million new jobs globally by 2030 through the adoption of sustainable practices in the energy sector, the use of electric vehicles and increasing energy efficiency in existing and future buildings.