Electronics and Power Dynamics
There is a power dynamic in play here. We’re not just consumers of technological artifacts. The discourse on big data and privacy have shown that the tech companies have reimagined us. We’re no longer clients, we’re also products ourselves. As with social media and algorithmic mediation, big tech doesn’t wont us to simply use their products. They also want to have complete control over how we do that, or when and where for that matter. I hypothise, that they go as far as to condition us through the devices we surround ourselves; smartphones, tablets and voice assistants. Looking at it this way, of course we can’t have a healthy self-determined relationship with technological artifacts.
Give critique more room. Showing, that alternative ways of imagine human-tech relationships are possible, maybe even focus on that imagination. Because, there is a pedagogy in how we let people interact with designed things. We learn through that. If we let people call voice assistants whores and kick them, that does something with us.