Tag Archives: technology

We Let Them In: Is Privacy Dead?

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Protecting oneself on the internet is something that I'm highly passionate about. There are so many ways to get into big trouble within our online interactions that I've made it a personal mission to understand the true nature of the dangers out there.

This is the world that my children are growing up in. They have never known a life when the internet didn't exist. Social media in its various forms has become a massive part of the way they're expected to interact with the world at large, and it's my job, as their mother, to ensure that they know how to navigate this internet-based world safely.

With the increase in internet dependency within our daily lives, there are certain questions that have started to leak to the surface of my consciousness. Almost everything that we do is now online, with very few exceptions.

Sure, you have social media, YouTube and blogs, and TV through the internet means that we can watch what we want to watch when we want to watch it. However, you also have online banking, and you can buy your groceries online. I can pay for my car registration and file my taxes online. I order replacement gas bottles for the house through an app on my phone and I can report issues regarding water leaks or other hazards in my neighborhood using a different app.

My children are expected to submit their homework assignments online. They are even required to sit major exams using online tools. When they were still in high school, I got their report cards sent to me through an online website.

My husband gets his payslips online, and I get paid by overseas clients through online services. Even my royalty checks come in through online payments.

Everything about our world has shifted to online.

New Zealand, as a whole, has become a near cashless society, with EftPos found almost everywhere you go. Those payments go through the internet. Sure, I do have some cash in my wallet, but not much. Everything of importance is bought and paid for using online means.

Yes, this shift to an internet-based society has, for the most part, made our lives easier, but has it really made it safer?

How has this push to doing everything online affected our sense of privacy and security?

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Smartphone

A Month Into the Device-Free Experiment

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It's been just over a month since my family started this device-free experiment. Each week seems to have presented a different set of challenges, along with some further insights into how the internet and technology has changed our lives. Things have been said that make me cringe, but when I take a step back and really look at what we're doing, those comments really are a slap in society's face.

Let me just further build this picture for you.

I started this little device-free experiment, turning off the internet and the devices for one day a week, because my children seemed to be sinking themselves into computer games and Netflix, and I didn't like it. That first week was incredibly difficult for them. (It was difficult on my husband too.) But I pushed through...

The weeks that have followed have tales of their own.

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Device-Free Days: It’s an Experiment

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I’ve noticed that both of my children seem to have an aversion to reading. This is not something that I like to see, especially considering I’m a writer and editor, but I do understand it.

My 17-year-old son spends almost all of his free time playing computer games, either on his computer or 3DS. My 13-year-old daughter seems to be obsessed with Netflix and YouTube (and the movies on the hard drives or discs). Whenever I suggest to either one of them that they read a book, they just roll their eyes at me and chill out in their own fashion.

My husband and I aren’t much better. Every morning, my hubby is on his phone, surfing the internet and watching C-SPAN… or playing a game… or watching anime. And I spend a significant amount of time either on the computer or the tablet, writing or editing (and talking to my writing partner in the US via video chat).

So, I had the idea of going device free for one day a week: no smart phones, no tablets, no computers and no TV — and certainly NO INTERNET. The only exception to this device-free rule is Kindles — simply because not all books are in paper formats. Besides, have you ever tried to surf the internet on a Kindle? (I’m not talking about the Kindle Fire. I’m talking about the traditional Kindle that is an eBook reader only. They have an internet browser, but talk about frustrating in the extreme.)

To start encouraging the good reading and other non-technology-based habits, my husband and I decided to do this once a week, every week. We’re only one week down, and have encountered some interesting results.
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Confused Mother

Homework is to play computer games?

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It must be the dream of every boy who is so obsessed with computer games — to be told that their homework is to play computer games. Meanwhile, I’m far from impressed.

My son is currently in Year 12 (a Junior in high school). He’s one smart kid — a scientific mind that is heading down the road of engineering, just like his parents. One of his subjects this year is Digital Technologies, specializing in programming. Seems like a reasonable course to take in today’s environment.

Well, his big project for the year is to program a video game. It forms majority of his mark. He needs to fully document everything that he’s done. It’s this one redeeming factor that makes it okay in my mind. He’s a gamer and struggles with his addiction, but we’re working on it. However, his first homework assignment…

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We have EMP devices in the driveway.

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Sometimes technical glitches happen and technology fails on us. Many have often heard me discuss how wonderful technology is — when it works. Well, that's what happened to this month's episode of Conversations in Science: a technical glitch and it aired a day late. Hence, this blog post is a day late. It's ironic considering the topic for this month's show.

Jessie and I discussed what EMP devices really are and the impact they can have on technology. (Jessie, did you set off the EMP device in your driveway?)

What is an EMP device?
(First aired on KLRNRadio, Monday, January 9, 2017)

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