• Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Login
Watchdog Uganda
  • Home
  • News
    • National
    • Politics
    • World News
    • Media Outreach Newswire
    • Africa News
    • Tourism
    • Community News
    • Luganda
    • Sports
      • Football
      • Motorsport
  • Op-Ed
    • #Out2Lunch
    • Conversations with
    • Politics
    • Relationships
  • Business
    • Agriculture
    • CEOs & Entrepreneurs,
    • Companies
    • Finance
    • Products
    • RealEstate
    • Technology
  • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
  • People
    • Showbiz
      • Salon Mag
  • Special Report
    • Education
    • Voices
  • Reviews
    • Products
    • Events
    • Hotels
    • Restaurants
    • Places
  • WD-TV
  • Donate
  • China News
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • National
    • Politics
    • World News
    • Media Outreach Newswire
    • Africa News
    • Tourism
    • Community News
    • Luganda
    • Sports
      • Football
      • Motorsport
  • Op-Ed
    • #Out2Lunch
    • Conversations with
    • Politics
    • Relationships
  • Business
    • Agriculture
    • CEOs & Entrepreneurs,
    • Companies
    • Finance
    • Products
    • RealEstate
    • Technology
  • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
  • People
    • Showbiz
      • Salon Mag
  • Special Report
    • Education
    • Voices
  • Reviews
    • Products
    • Events
    • Hotels
    • Restaurants
    • Places
  • WD-TV
  • Donate
  • China News
No Result
View All Result
Watchdog Uganda
No Result
View All Result

Are Facebook, Google and Amazon improving mankind?

watchdog by watchdog
6 years ago
in Special Report, Voices
4 0
ShareTweetSendShare
By Dr Ian Clarke
I attended a conference by the National Council for Higher Education to launch a programme of research into IT, social media, artificial intelligence and big data. In writing this column I have to put a caveat – I am a dinosaur as far as IT is concerned. I grew up using pen and paper and did not learn keyboard skills until I was forty. For me tablets are what I prescribe to patients, though I have grown to like laptops, since I can now type and don’t have to read my own writing (which in the tradition of doctors is largely illegible).
Having said that, I have no choice but to use the tools of today, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, so my natural curiosity has led me to read around where these big IT companies are taking us as the human race. It now seems like a long time since Steve Jobs and Bill Gates went head to head for the domination of personal computers, a battle that Bill Gates won, while Steve Jobs was fired from his own company. Bill Gates, by dint of getting his windows program packaged onto IBM computers, came to dominate software for the PC market. Steve Jobs had worked with Steve Wozniac to design the first personal computer (which said Hello), but then Apple’s operating system was marginalized by Microsoft.
Fast forward to when Apple brought Steve Jobs back from the cold and he came up with the i-phone, which took the world by storm, making Apple the most valuable company in the world today. Meantime Jeff Bezos saw the potential of online shopping and beavered away selling books online in a company he named Amazon (which means a strong woman). Along the way he used AI to predict customers needs and robotics to replace a human workforce. Of course Amazon would not have been possible without the advent of the Internet, which changed the world.
During this time a couple of Stanford graduates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, decided to develop an internet search engine which would trawl all the internet websites, their goal: to organize all the information in the world – not a small task. They were in competition with Microsoft and several other companies, but they were just better and more trusted (‘Do no harm’) and got way ahead of the competition such that their name, Google, has now become a verb for search.
Then came Mark Zuckerberg, with his University site for rating girls, which developed into Facebook, linking billions of people around the world. These are just some of the giants in the age of the Internet, but what does it all mean to you and me? Practically all middle class people now have smart phones, which have become the hardware by which we access the internet, including Google, Facebook, Amazon and other social media such as WhatsApp, Instagram (owned by Facebook), and Twitter.
But are these companies all working for our best interest? The European Union thinks not. Google was just fined over one billion dollars for anti-competitive practices. And Facebook has not fared better: after initial denials, they reluctantly acknowledged that Russian sites had infiltrated the American elections, and they had even paid in rubles (a bit of a giveaway). When Steve Bezos was asked about the future of AI and robotics his response was that the government should be prepared to pay people for doing nothing (his warehouses are now staffed purely by robots).
The bald truth is that these companies are set up to make money for their shareholders, which is not the same thing as doing good for mankind. Companies such as Facebook and Google make money from advertising and thus direct searches towards sites that have paid them more. They also harvest the data on users and through AI understand the pattern of hits and likes so that they can design advertising tailored to the profile of an individual. Google and Facebook know people better than they know themselves and people don’t even realize they are being manipulated in their choices.
The algorithms are also geared to categorize people into groups. For example, if a person expresses views akin to a white supremacist, he will be directed to sites that agree with his existing biases – thus strengthening them. The overall effect is to make the world more polarized, as we have recently witnessed in terms of both American and British politics.
In essence we live in a world, which is being far more manipulated than we realize, and the overall effect is more extremism and increased unemployment. The average person is now seeing his pay packet shrink, or is facing unemployment. And because of this he is becoming more resentful, and more extreme, he may be blaming immigrants on his plight, but missing the point that he has now become simply a consumer of what is being served up to him by these behemoths.

Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
Share21Tweet1SendShare

Related Posts

Community News

Ann Ssebunya: Uganda’s Radio Personality and Mental Health Advocate Transforming Lives Through the Drugs Hapana Initiative

6th July 2025 at 23:58
Lifestyle

Who’s Brigadier General Paddy Ankunda; his rise, military career, education, achievements

6th July 2025 at 14:56
Business

Who is Bosco Muwonge, Uganda’s elusive real estate billionaire?

4th July 2025 at 08:16
Next Post

‘I know what it means to lack everything as a child’- Sheebah defends Fresh Kid

  • Prostitution in Uganda- Courtesy Photo

    10 dangerous hotspots known for prostitutes in Kampala

    1118 shares
    Share 447 Tweet 280
  • Silent Billionaire Bosco Muwonge Buys Mukwano Arcade at UGX 250 Billion Cash Down

    44 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 11
  • LIST: New salary structure for civil servants starting July 2020 out; scientists, lecturers get juicy pay rise

    2287 shares
    Share 915 Tweet 572
  • Who is Bosco Muwonge, Uganda’s elusive real estate billionaire?

    29 shares
    Share 12 Tweet 7
  • Uganda’s Billionaires 2025: Once Again Sudhir Ruparelia Leads a Resilient Pack

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
Facebook Twitter

Contact Information

Watchdog Uganda is a portal for solution journalism, trending news plus cutting edge commentaries in the fields of politics, security, business, tourism, entertainment, technology, agriculture, climate change, environment, public health et al. We also give preference to Ugandan community news and topical discussions. The portal also publishes community news and topical discussions.

Email: editorial@watchdoguganda.com
To Advertise:Click here

Latest News

Reason Over Regulation: President Yoweri Museveni Urges Ugandans to Embrace Science and Reason in Natural Resources Management

8th July 2025 at 09:15
Sudhir Ruparelia is the undisputed king of Kampala

Why Sudhir Ruparelia is Ahead of John Bosco Muwonge in the Class of Billionaires

8th July 2025 at 00:42

Check out

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Minister Muruli Mukasa

LIST: New salary structure for civil servants starting July 2020 out; scientists, lecturers get juicy pay rise

24th May 2020 at 10:45
Pregnant woman

Shock as 17-year old boy impregnates his two sisters during Covid-19 lockdown 

17th June 2020 at 08:17
Sudhir Ruparelia is the undisputed king of Kampala

Billionaire Sudhir’s wisdom on how to invest in real estate

0

How a boy’s destiny turned from cotton grower to communications guru

0

Reason Over Regulation: President Yoweri Museveni Urges Ugandans to Embrace Science and Reason in Natural Resources Management

8th July 2025 at 09:15
Sudhir Ruparelia is the undisputed king of Kampala

Why Sudhir Ruparelia is Ahead of John Bosco Muwonge in the Class of Billionaires

8th July 2025 at 00:42

© 2025 Watchdog Uganda

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • National
    • Politics
    • World News
    • Media Outreach Newswire
    • Africa News
    • Tourism
    • Community News
    • Luganda
    • Sports
      • Football
      • Motorsport
  • Op-Ed
    • #Out2Lunch
    • Conversations with
    • Politics
    • Relationships
  • Business
    • Agriculture
    • CEOs & Entrepreneurs,
    • Companies
    • Finance
    • Products
    • RealEstate
    • Technology
  • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
  • People
    • Showbiz
      • Salon Mag
  • Special Report
    • Education
    • Voices
  • Reviews
    • Products
    • Events
    • Hotels
    • Restaurants
    • Places
  • WD-TV
  • Donate
  • China News

© 2025 Watchdog Uganda