Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

A Touch of Nostalgia

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At a popup outdoor event one weekend, one of the booths was giving away an old-fashioned game. I say “old-fashioned” because I recognized it from my childhood. Though of course this 2026 version was fancier with brighter colors and flashier images. It even included sparkles! However, I have no doubt that it worked just as well as the ones I had growing up.

The game looks simple, but it can be tricky. Basically, pushing the yellow knobs on either side moves the little rings around. The goal is to hook as many rings as possible on the blue sword-like points on either side. What I like about it is that it’s fun, engaging, just challenging enough, and not on a screen.

Looking around at today’s youth, always glued to some kind of electronic, or attached to a device, I felt a bit sad for them. Everything they interact with is designed to dominate and hijack their attention. Games feature realistic graphics, catchy sound tracks, add-ons and features. All of which guarantees hooking even the most savvy users. Even worse, it makes every other experience seem dull and somehow, not quite sensational enough to keep one’s attention.

Growing up with these analog-type games where the action is simple, engaging, yet hard enough to be fun, provides a different experience. An experience, I feel, is also important for connecting. You can use your brain differently, or even feel bored with something because it provides the same action repeatedly. Games like this are easy to share with one another. You can pass this game to a friend without fearing your whole life is going with it, as we might sharing a smartphone with somebody.

I’m not sure what this will mean for today’s youth, growing up in an environment hyper saturated with the most sensational, stimulating everything. However, I do know at least some young people, are experiencing amoneia (longing for nostalgic things one never experienced) and looking for ways to be bored. They should try going analog once in a while to stimulate their brain in new ways.

Digital Photos

Seeing Isn’t Believing

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It used to be that a picture, or video, carried a lot of weight in terms of evidence. I don’t think this is the case anymore with the advent of AI. In a relatively short amount of time, AI capabilities have transformed and undermined the credibility of photos and video. Creating or altering images with AI is inexpensive, easy, and available to everyone. Within minutes, (or mere seconds!) AI can generate a realistic image designed to fool us, sometimes by imitating or mimicking something real with a few specific tweaks. Even worse, it’s getting more difficult to tell when AI is generating something.

I think about all the wars going on with their horrific photos. Even while I can’t imagine what it’s like for these people to live through these realities, I know that others sit there and use AI to generate fake images of these wars. I’ve seen them and they look very realistic and seem believable to somebody like myself who lives far away and never witnessed such events in person. Yet, these photos only serve to muddy up accounts of what’s really happening. They often get posted and reposted, mingling with the real images making it impossible to determine fact from fabrication.

Photos I take with my smartphone have AI built in. Some features, however, remain enabled, no matter what. For example, on some photos, an eerie, sparkling white border flashes around the main focus of the image. I’ve tried to Google what this means and how to turn it off, but haven’t been successful yet.

I suppose in some ways the big tech companies think baking in all these AI features is helpful. However, they do a disservice to us all by not allowing us to choose which features we want to use or disable. Maybe I don’t want AI automatically removing blemishes and imperfections in my photos. Maybe I don’t want AI making suggestions for me about parts of my photo with weird, shiny white borders. Or at least I don’t want these things happening without being able to have a choice.

Photos have made so many wonderful advances. I love being able to take digital photos and share them. I’ve even grown to love making digital scrapbooks. But I don’t like the way it’s so easy to manipulate and fool people with access to a powerful AI tool and a few clever prompts.

Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

Imagination Stagnation

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This weekend I went to see The Dog Man Musical. It was a live performance. Throughout the show, I felt really impressed how the actors moved through different roles, scenes, and moods. They accomplished this all with simple props, voice changes, and accesories. For example, one character was both L’il Petey, a tiny cute kitten, a nurse, plus other minor characters and scenery. To switch between the nurse and kitten, she put on an orange hat with ears or a nurse’s hat. When she was the kitten, she unrolled her orange shirt sleeves which had black stripes on them. The point is, the actors did a few small things and my imagination filled in the gaps. This demonstrates the magic of live performance and the power of our own internal creativity.

During the show, the main set remained the same, inside of a treehouse. However, similar to the actors changing roles, the treehouse transformed into many different scenes. Again, this was accomplished with simple prop changes, most of the which the actors moved on and off themselves as part of the action. For example, during the two hospital scenes, the patient lay on a desk in the treehouse. Then one of the actors held up a sheet so we didn’t actually “see” the action, but got a strong idea of what was happening anyway. After, the sheet was removed and we saw the end result. Again, our imaginations taking care of some steps.

With the introduction of generative, and now agentic AI, on the scene, I feel concerned about our imaginations. Sometimes too much automation and technology isn’t beneficial for our development. The other week I read an article in the NYTimes, “What 370,000 College Essays Tell Us About A.I.’s Effects on Creativity.” In short, the results were not good. Based on the analysis, the essays submitted post-AI demonstrated less variety and range of original, different ideas. Basically, the use of AI was resulting in a more limited number of ideas. This is presumably because AI is based on prediction derived from what happened previously. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for something new, innovative, and totally different.

Sometimes less is more when it comes to developing and cutlivating our imaginative powers.

Digital Dilemma, Google, Social Media

How Smart are Smart Glasses?

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Many years ago I blogged about smart glasses. At the time they were a new invention from Google. People who wore them were refered to as “gla**holes“. Smart glasses are kind of what they sound like. Basically a pair of glasses with built-in technology. They allow people to do a range of tasks hand-free including taking pictures or video, searching for information, or answering a phone call.

For many reasons, Google’s attempt at smart glasses never really transpired to much for everyday consumers. I believe some business uses developed for the glasses such as doctors using them to take notes and call up patient information during an exam.

However, one of the main reasons the glasses weren’t more popular had to do with privacy concerns. The concerns weren’t so much focused on the user’s information and habits, but rather on the people around them. With cameras built so discreetly into a pair of glasses anybody wearing them could capture images of anything, all with a seemingly harmless glance. Another reason for the lack of acceptance probably had to do with the price tag.

Flash forward 10 years and Meta, partnered with Ray Ban, launched version 2.0 of their smart glasses. The price is lower, starting around $300+ and available in prescription or clear lenses. The improved technology provides a more seamless user experience and more capabilities. Users can now listen to music, answer calls, take pictures, record videos, and search for information, some of the actions powered with AI. All of this accomplished with simple voice commands.

Although, the same privacy concerns still exist for others. Recording video or taking pictures of bystanders is as easy as a glance in someone’s direction. However, it seems in today’s super-charged media-frenzied world of influencers and surveillance where everybody has recording devices handy, perhaps this isn’t such a big deal. What feels like a big deal to me is the privacy of the person wearing the glasses. With so many scary AI threats and cybersecurity issues surfacing, I want to be less connected to the digital world. I would definitely worry about some random AI being able to hack my smart glasses.

Furthermore, the glasses require pairing with another device to have real use. The limited battery supply, lasting mere hours, also made me question how useful these glasses could be for anyone with a real prescription.

Human Archives

Larger than Life

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This past weekend I had the privilege and luck to finish my orchestral season with Carmina Burana. Though the name might not be rescognizable, the first movement is popular and iconic.. It’s been featured in 40+ films, commercials, cartoons, and generated parodies. As the conductor mentioned in his opening remarks, it’s created a “music of doom” movement.

The other opening remarks encouraged us to appreciate listening to live music. Another powerful reminder was to enjoy being part of something larger than ourselves. These words resonated strongly with me. I was sitting in the stage area, one of over 200 performers. The choir alone numbered around 160. In the orchestra extra players squeezed in where they could fit to play all the parts. We didn’t have a lot of space, but it hardly mattered. It’s rare to have the opportunity to play in such a big work, given the amount of preparation time and coordination required. Each of us individually made the commitment to ourselves and everyone else to play our part to recreate this momentus work.

I didn’t know much about Carmina Burana when I agreed to the concert. However, I looked it up. I felt delighted to learn that old medieval texts inspired the music. To me this represented the magic of music and aligned with the piece itself. Carmina Burana repurposed these ancient texts into something mesmerizing and captivating. In turn, many others recreate Carmina Burana into other works with new interpretations and meanings. Thus giving new life repeatedly to more than one incredible piece.

I have to confess, I did experience a bit of fatigue towards the end of the piece. It runs slightly over an hour and it was the second half of the program. This is mostly because I don’t play for 5 movements and my brain starts to feel tired from all the counting and focusing. However, I perked up in the last two movements. The main theme comes roaring back with a resurgence of energy. The movements pass quickly and you can feel the full spirit, intensity, focus, and effort from all 200+ people. We’re all centered on the same outcome. I remember feeling a charge and elation from the last few minutes of the piece. As the audience cheered, I stood up with everyone else, grinning, despite my tired mouth, and experienced for a brief moment a sensation larger than life.

Digital Dilemma, Social Media

The Attention Hijack

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I recently read an article about a famous children’s book author being critical of children watching screens too much. His position was that the children are reflecting the world we’ve created for them. The fix is to read to them more. Likely he meant read more paper books to children. While I agree with this, especially being a librarian, I think the solution is not as easy as he makes it seem.

When considering the state we’re in, most of us with a unhealthy addiction to our screens, it’s not so easy to disengage. Many services and communications are also only possible with our smartphones. I went to a new exercise studio this past weekend and the only way to register and pay for classes is through an app! Without a phone, there would be no way to participate. Even with my gym, I need the app on my phone to scan in at the front desk.

Technology companies also pay lots of money in research to keep us engaged and addicted to our phones. I’ve heard descriptions of these technologies as being as addictive as slot machines. Our attention, along with our data, is the most valuable commodity to these companies. With social media sites, everything about how they design them is geared towards capturing and keeping our attention. Some of the strategies include features such as a continuous scroll. This allows us to keep going and going, further and further down the rabbit hole.

Another feature is when videos auto-play continuously with barely a gap in between. The videos don’t stop at the end providing us with a moment of pause, and maybe reflection, to consciously decide if we want to play another video, or maybe go do something else. It also takes away our choice of what video we might want to play next. The next video plays automatically. It’s something determined by an algorithm to give us more of the same, based on past choices and perceived preferences.

Back to the children author’s remark, it’s not that easy for us to fight against the effort and manipulations of these powerful companies. These companies hire the best researchers and throw obscene amounts of money in a calculated effort to hijack our attention. Everything about it creates a dependency on these technologies, one that’s not so easy to prevent children from interacting with.