Agency occurs when humans and technology work together. Technology thrives off of and depends on human interaction in order to gain information. One example of agency with technology and humans on a very basic level is google searches. The human has agency when they turn on their computer, click on safari, and type a word into the search engine. The moment that they hit enter, however, the human loses their agency. Technology decides which websites pop up first, whether it’s based on sponsorship, popularity, or incoming links. We blindlessly trust the top links to be the most reliable and factual. Even though the human clicks on the website, the choices in front of them, the order in which they appear, and the information they contain are influenced by technology and data. Humans do not have much agency over the media they consume, as almost everything is mediated and customized based on user data. It’s unsettling to think about how much control technology has on our lives, especially because many people do not realize that it’s happening.
2 thoughts on “Agency – Chloe Fandetti”
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I agree that technology agencies depend on the interaction of humans. They provide convenience according to the people’s searching records. Also, people nowadays have a dependency on technological agencies. As the example you mentioned, people lose their agency when websites pop up. Humans are in a passive mode of receiving information, which is a threat to people. These technology agencies are controlling different sides of our life but many people don’t realize it. Human needs to think about how to use these technological agencies as a tool in the right way.
I think it’s very accurate that we humans are so used to click on the first option we get when we look something up instead of the most reliable. We’re so accustomed to trusting the internet to make choices for us because we realized they “know us so well”. It is indeed unsettling that we trust this computer instead of our own brains or other human beings. Although, the only reason as to why it does this is because we gave it the power to do so. It wouldn’t have this ability if we weren’t constantly interacting with it and giving it information about us.