I tend to use predictive text on a regular basis when texting, performing Google searches, and using apps on my phone.  I have to admit I never really thought about where it comes from or the technology behind it.  I’m aware of fake news and know that you have to question the credibility everything you see on social media and the internet.  I know how to quickly find out if something I’m reading or viewing is from a credible source.  And I find it infuriating that when I perform a Google search for a certain brand of shoes, that the next day in my Facebook feed there are ads for the exact thing I searched the day before.

Being curious, I decided to write a number of sentences using predictive text on my iPhone, which I use to communicate with friends and family, colleagues, and my students on a daily basis.

Here are the sentences that I wrote:

This is not my idea of technology and I don’t think we should have access to the public space in our future

This is not my idea of technology but it has the potential to offer some great work in the future

This is not my idea of what the future looks like

This is not my idea of a good time for me to come get you

I was curious what would happen to my sentences when I took different paths.  As I read through these thoughts, I really thought they sounded like my own personal ramblings of predictive text.  The sentences and thoughts weren’t really complete and I can’t see myself posting these thoughts on a microblog.  As I’m very particular about what I share and I certainly wouldn’t share the above sentences on any public platform.

I was also curious what would happen if I wrote some of the other sentences.  This is what I wrote:

Education is not about to be a problem for you

My idea of technology is to be able to make it work for you and your life

Every time I think about our future we are going in the front door to get to our house

We use and read predictive text on digital platforms on a regular basis. For me, I found that the predictive text that was generated didn’t necessarily reflect my true thoughts and opinions.   I am very conscience about what I post online and know that the above sentences that I produced using predictive text is not something that I would publicly post.  When I post something publicly, not only does a statement have to reflect my thoughts, feelings, believes, etc., it also has to be grammatically correct.

I don’t really feel like the predictive text sounded like me or spoke in my voice.  I did notice that emoji’s popped up in some of my predictive text, as well as, some words that I communicate with on a regular basis.  The words I noticed that popped up were Moodle, ACUA, email, appointment, meeting, and lake (given I have a lake lot and have been communicating about the lake frequently in the past couple months, I’m not surprised this word showed up).  I wanted to try to incorporate these words, but in trying to follow some sort of sentence structure, I wasn’t able to because it didn’t make sense to in the thoughts/sentences I was creating.  However, I would have been curious to see if I did select one of those words, where the predictive text would have taken me.

In terms of the impacts of algorithms on business, politics, academia, and education, after listening to Cathy O’Neil this week, I think the effects can be positive or negative.  She indicated that algorithms aren’t fair or perfect, which resonated with me.  I think we always have to be thoughtful in interpreting what is real and not and always question if what we are reading or viewing is from a credible source.  We live in world where technology can sway opinions, and not only do we have to question what we see, we also have  to educate ourselves.

 

References

O’Neil, C. (2016). Weapons of math destruction: How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy (First edition). New York: Crown.