"Technology is not neutral. We're inside of what we make, and it's inside of us. We're living in a world of connections - and it matters which ones get made and unmade".
- Donna Haraway, 1997
Last year, we were invited to contribute to two events - one was the UIG conference in September 2021 as well as with the Berlin World Usability Day in November with the topic "Trust, ethics and integrity. It is precisely this topic that has gained a lot of momentum in the tech industry in recent years: On the one hand, the much-discussed topic of inclusion and diversity in design and, on the other, the topic of ethics in relation to digital technologies, which has been gaining momentum in the industry for several years. We have already briefly discussed the relevance of both topics in our Post "What's coming/remaining in 2020?" discussed.
Technologisation of our everyday lives as a social process
The quote from Donna Haraway mentioned at the beginning is actually more relevant than ever, as digital technologies are omnipresent and determine our everyday lives in many ways. But who actually decides what all these digital products and services look like? Who designs and develops these products/services? This question is particularly relevant as the digitalisation and therefore the technologisation of our everyday lives is not just a purely technological process, but also a more social process is. Technology is often portrayed as "neutral" or even "objective" - but it is not. Existing social inequalities and social constructs, such as gender, come to light or are held up to us like a mirror, sometimes with considerable consequences.
Stereotypes that we are not even aware of can be directly transferred to our digital products and services. Digital assistants, for example, are equipped with a female voice as standard, which corresponds to the prevailing feminine stereotype and reinforces it. Another example: The credit card (Apple Card) introduced by Apple in 2019 hit the headlines because the algorithm granted women many times less credit than men with the same income.
In this short 20-minute presentation, Stefanie sheds light on what these implicit social constructs mean for the development of digital technologies and what consequences we should draw from them. Have fun watching!
