Weekly Reflection – March 23

Citizenship

Online citizenship is an interesting topic. It doesn’t feel that long ago that such issues were only the subjects of science fiction like Minority Report or 1984. Today, the issues of online privacy, false representation, and hidden monitoring are very real. We discussed in class whether our phones are “listening” to us or not. We’ve all had eerie feelings of doing something, talking about something, or watching something only to look at our phones and, without doing anything, have something pop up related to our private discussions. While I understand the point that having a phone constantly listen would drain the battery, use data, and might be easily detectable, I also wonder if phones could use voice activation to listen for specific phrases or words based on previous phone behaviour. I do not necessarily believe this but the fact that we are having this discussion in class makes it a valid concern rather than tin foil conspiracy.

Another issue the amount of online false information. Deepfakes, AI images, voice manipulation – there is seemingly no end of nefarious tools that allow scammers and bad actors to exploit individuals. I really worry for those of us who haven’t had the education around online predatory technology. The rate of seniors falling prey to online, or text/phone based scams seems to be increasing at an alarming rate. According to the AARP, American adults over 60 lost a record $12.5 billion in 2024. This was up from $10 billion in 2023 and only $3 billion in 2020 (https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/older-adults-ftc-fraud-report/).

These issues are only going to get worse. I’m not sure what the BC curriculum has to address issues like this but I feel that there should be mandatory classes at a fairly young age to increase awareness, literacy, and skills to maintain a safe online presence.