Let's discuss the implications for our field, technology.
It appears to me that it's calling out the particular pitfalls of the Silicon Valley mindset being rubber stamped on the rest of the world in terms of design and engineering. But this isn't that new - it's been commented upon before at length (e.g. logical optimistic young engineer's view of the society via building a social network).
But it's probably wider than this. I think it's actually speaking out how we collect samples, data. We expect that 10000 people in one area to think the same as 10000 people in another area, even if they are in the same administrative country and the same geodeomographic characteristics. What matters for some behaviour is culture. Games and experiments could be looked at culturally rather than just geographically.
What should we take home for this? I think probably two things, that we are different from the rest of the world, and that the world has variation within it. To take this into account could be a new form of responsiveness.
But isn't tech is a change agent in itself? Most tech by it's very nature emphasizes the individual by making them less dependent on their immediate social context. This applies to everything from the internet to the washing machine.
Basically, most technology stimulates people to think and act more like Westerners.
Also, taking this into account is raising the bar very high for SV, where most companies already have problems recognizing the minor differences between them and fellow Westerners.
I'm still waiting for the first major American service to understand the differences between language, nationality and geography...
I wonder how strong of a connection the emphasis on "the individual" has with the decreased anonymity in such technology.
It seems that platforms like 4chan provide the capability for more of a "group-think" than platforms like Facebook, even though platforms like Facebook propose that they assist in connecting large swaths of diverse people.
Comments
Let's discuss the implications for our field, technology.
It appears to me that it's calling out the particular pitfalls of the Silicon Valley mindset being rubber stamped on the rest of the world in terms of design and engineering. But this isn't that new - it's been commented upon before at length (e.g. logical optimistic young engineer's view of the society via building a social network).
But it's probably wider than this. I think it's actually speaking out how we collect samples, data. We expect that 10000 people in one area to think the same as 10000 people in another area, even if they are in the same administrative country and the same geodeomographic characteristics. What matters for some behaviour is culture. Games and experiments could be looked at culturally rather than just geographically.
What should we take home for this? I think probably two things, that we are different from the rest of the world, and that the world has variation within it. To take this into account could be a new form of responsiveness.
But isn't tech is a change agent in itself? Most tech by it's very nature emphasizes the individual by making them less dependent on their immediate social context. This applies to everything from the internet to the washing machine.
Basically, most technology stimulates people to think and act more like Westerners.
Also, taking this into account is raising the bar very high for SV, where most companies already have problems recognizing the minor differences between them and fellow Westerners.
I'm still waiting for the first major American service to understand the differences between language, nationality and geography...
I wonder how strong of a connection the emphasis on "the individual" has with the decreased anonymity in such technology.
It seems that platforms like 4chan provide the capability for more of a "group-think" than platforms like Facebook, even though platforms like Facebook propose that they assist in connecting large swaths of diverse people.