Alexa: Disruptive to Our Children’s Future
By 2021, there will be almost as many voice activated virtual assistants as people, according to research firm, Ovum.
Reaching over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices installed worldwide by 2019, the virtual assistant has undoubtedly disrupted different aspects of our lives including shopping, our offices, marketing and our overall relationship with modern computing.
This is becoming more detrimental as such technologies are disrupting something else; our childrens’ development.
Children growing up now are the first generation surrounded with such pervasive AI where on a regular basis, information is seamlessly accessible with questions instantly answered, tasks autonomously managed and items purchased.
“The first four words my toddler understood were ‘mom’, ‘dad’, ‘cat’ and ‘Alexa’,” explains Samantha Kelly of CNN Business.
By eliminating the need for a more ‘literal’ user interface, voice is transforming computing, however, this poses various downsides for our children’s development.
Threat to Creativity
The growth of voice assistants surrounding our kids means they can never be bored.
Entertainment is just a command away, literally. This may provide kids with boredom relief, making their parents’ lives easier, however, it doesn’t serve the child’s critical thinking or creativity.
According to Adrian Savage, the editor of the online life coach site, www.lifehack.org, boredom adds value to the way we think and behave.
“Boredom is nearly always essential to creativity. It isn’t true that creativity is mostly sparked by having a specific problem to be solved. It’s far more likely to arise because the person is bored with the way something has been done a thousand times before and wants to try something new. Boredom stimulates the search for better ways to things like nothing else does,” explains Savage.
Lack of Human Interaction
Many parents could argue that Alexa provides children with a high level of autonomy as they choose their own music or stories from a wide range of options, however, what about the stories that are told by their parents or the songs they sing together?
Autonomy and the readily available content is phenomenal, however, like everything AI, we must teach ourselves (before we teach our kids) how to coexist with such technologies.
Excessive interaction with Alexa could limit the quality and quantity of human social interaction and connection.
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek of Temple University underlines that virtual assistants aren’t sophisticated enough to understand a child and should never replace human interaction.
“The biggest thing we have to remember with little people is we can’t let anything come in between the human conversation,” said Hirsh-Pasek.
This is because the conversations both, our children and ourselves have with such technology aren’t actually conversations, but shallow commands. While this doesn’t represent how we interact in reality, it might become the norm for children at a young age, posing the risk of either replacing or negatively impacting the way they converse.
“Even adults’ interactions with smart speakers are superficial, thin and lack most of the hallmarks of person-to-person conversation,” said Alexis Hiniker, an assistant professor of human computer interaction at the University of Washington.
The Verdict
Is AI bad for humans?
Quite the opposite. Tech has never been bad. The way we allow for it to narrate our lives is what will hurt us.
The key phrase to takeaway is: coexistence.
We must coexist with AI and voice activated virtual assistants such as Alexa to allow it to add value our lives, rather than take over it.
Sources:
- Kelly, Samantha Murphy. “Growing up with Alexa: A Child’s Relationship with Amazon’s Voice Assistant.” CNN, Cable News Network, 17 Oct. 2018, edition.cnn.com/2018/10/16/tech/alexa-child-development/index.html
- “Boredom Is Good for You, Study Claims.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 May 2011, www.theguardian.com/science/2011/may/06/boredom-good-for-you-claims-study.
- Alsin, Arne. “How Voice Technology Is Disrupting Modern Computing: And Why Investors Should Be Listening.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 22 Feb. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/aalsin/2018/02/21/how-voice-technology-is-disrupting-modern-computing-and-why-investors-should-be-listening/?sh=77f610ea6f50.
