Tech Hurts Hearts: Perspectives on Remaining Human: Digital Technology Dehumanizes Users

Tech Hurts Hearts: Perspectives on Remaining Human, by Dave Masko. This multi-faceted look at the human need for “connection” celebrates the lives of people who “unplug” from Big Data. It’s a dystopian review in which “Big Brother” information technology watches everybody and everything online; while revealing how smartphones use shapes a user’s mind and behavior. In turn, this “wired” behavior shapes a user’s future and takes them out of the present and into the digital realm that “is not real-life,” say those interviewed by photojournalist Dave Masko. For instance, Masko spent more than two years interviewing subjects who shared their real fear of George Orwell’s vision of an all-seeing and odious force that is today’s information technology industry. The use of social networking, smartphones and search engines means users are constantly monitored; while those interviewed for this book ask “where’s the outrage?” Still, there are many users in this environment who long to really “connect” with somebody other than an Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) machine. A father told his toddler son at a central Oregon coast lake this past summer about trust and love and happiness not coming from a “screen” but from real people that one can see, hear, touch and even smell. The father wants his son to touch other people and interact with them in real ways not found online. No man is an island, yet this totalitarian “tech” society is trying to create just that; while “IT” knows users are social animals that need human connection. The thesis or argument of this book is everybody is “connected” online due to fear; while also wondering how to “unplug” from the tech beast before it is too late. This book offers advice.