Technology, Let’s Take a Break (and It’s You, Not Me)

I’ve always felt lucky to have been born in the perfect year (1983) to grow up alongside an incredible technology evolution – from land line phones and cassette tapes in junior high; to CDs and the first Nokia cell phones in high school; to texting, MySpace and Facebook’s first days in my early 20s; to 24/7 connectivity and media streaming via smartphones and other devices in my late 20s and early 30s. I loved the fact these innovations came about during these particular stages of my life; today’s senior citizens, for example, missed out on the fun until later on and are more hesitant to adopt new technology (unless you’re my 100-year-old grandma, who texts and uses Facebook daily. No joke.) And Gen Zers are stuck navigating adolescence in a world of posting and sharing. The way bullying took place when I was that age – verbally and in written notes – was bad enough; cyberbullying takes it to a whole new level.

As thankful as I am to have experienced this tech progression as I did, and to have all the resulting conveniences at my fingertips, I think we can all agree our hyperconnected world is leading us into sketchy territories. With every benefit of technology comes a drawback: We can always be reached on our devices, but that also means we’re always “available.” We get to receive as-they-happen news updates, but we also can’t escape the news cycle. And we can communicate without having to utter a word, but we’re losing – or in the case of the youngest folks, never developing – valuable social skills. I think it’s a shame that Gen Zers will never have the experience of suffering through a heart-pounding phone call to their crush’s land line, stuttering through a conversation with them and/or their parents. Yes, this was an incredibly awkward thing to do, but it also built character and helped prepare us for more difficult confrontations later on in the workplace and our personal lives.

And, while Facebook has allowed us to easily connect and share our lives with people around the world, it’s also, as we just recently learned, compromised the privacy of our data. In the weeks following initial reports of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, in which profile data for 50 million Facebook users was used to conduct ad targeting in the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, a #deletefacebook movement has gained traction, with consumers and businesses pulling their profiles, pages and ads. Unfortunately, deleting Facebook isn’t as easy as clicking “deactivate my account.” According to a New York Times video posted last week, you would need to change your logins for every third-party app that you’ve been using Facebook to log into, and manually block a long list of URLs that Facebook uses to track you on the internet outside of facebook.com.

And even if you do wipe your account clean, remember Facebook has other ways of obtaining your data. For example, if someone you know syncs their phone contacts, including yours, with their Facebook account, the site will have your name and phone number.

Even Gen Zers, who were practically born with smartphones in their hands, are starting to post and “like” less. A new report from marketing agency Hill Holliday, media agency Trilia, and research and analytics firm Origin, “Gen Z: The Social Generation” (which our Peter Strozniak will be writing about for our April 18 print issue), the generation is beginning to put the brakes on social media use. According to the report, 41% of Gen Zers say social media makes them feel sad, anxious or depressed; 64% are taking a break from it and 34% are quitting it altogether. Their reasons for quitting or considering quitting social media include too much negativity (35%), wanting more privacy (22%), too much pressure to get attention (18%) and feeling bad about themselves (17%).

Still in its early stages is the widespread use of smart speakers, which allow us to use voice commands to complete everyday tasks, from setting a timer to getting the status of your flight to shopping online. Advertisers seem to be pushing this new lifestyle of adopting Alexa or Google as your personal assistant, and some credit unions have even enabled members to complete transactions using smart speaker commands.

But these devices aren’t catching on as well as some might think – at least not when it comes to making purchases. As covered in a recent CU Times story, an Episerver report revealed 40% of consumers own voice-assisted devices, but 60% never browse items on them and even fewer use them to complete purchases.

And people aren’t too thrilled with the idea that their smart speakers are constantly “eavesdropping.” Basically, the smart speaker will pick up on phrases that indicate a possible future purchase, like an upcoming vacation, and use the data to target ads when the consumer goes online. Not incredibly invasive, but still a little creepy. Let me look up hotels when I want to, dammit!  

Is this the beginning of a cooling romance with technology? Is what was once exciting and life-completing turning codependent and unhealthy, and are we begging for some time apart? Only time will tell, but if the Facebook scandal doesn’t lead consumers to quit some of their online activities, it’ll at least cause them to step back and reevaluate them.

As far as what the Facebook scandal means exactly for credit union leaders, as Executive Editor Michael Ogden noted in his column last week, we don’t know yet. But you can bet many of your members are upset by this, and growing more concerned about who has collected their data over the years and how it might be used. So for now, a review of your privacy policies and your marketing team’s social media policies, as well as a reminder to members that their personal data won’t be used for marketing purposes without their permission, is probably in order.

As for me, I’ll be spending more time on Instagram – and unplugging my Google Home the next time the phone rings.

Natasha Chilingerian is managing editor for CU Times. She can be reached at nchilingerian@cutimes.com.