Tech 63100 Week 11
Technology and Society
Question: Why is healthy food more expensive?
The Extraordinary Science of Additive Junk Food
More than half of the United States population overweight with nearly a quarter of the adult population clinically obese (Moss, 2013). In fact, this is a global problem. In 2013, 30% of the world's population was obese or overweight with the United States at the op of the list. (NBC News, 2014). In 2022, this number increased to 43% of adults overweight with 16% living with obesity (WHO, 2024). Research define "overweight" as having a body-mass index (BMI) over 25, while "obese" refers to a BMI over 30 (NBC News, 2014). The health impacts are seen in the 24 million Americans with type 2 diabetes and another 79 million with pre-diabetes, often caused by poor diet (Moss, 2013). Yes, the capitalism drive for profits contributes. This chapter presents case after case where industry makes unethical decisions to generate profit at the cost of population health. Nothing resonated more than Stephen Sanger, CEO of General Mills, saying "Don't talk to me about nutrition... talk to me about taste." (Moss, 2013). However, the cost to eating healthier may be another driver. Families who make intentional decisions to eat healthy still struggle because healthy foods are usually twice as expensive compared to their less healthy food counterparts, on a per calorie basis, pushing consumers to less healthy, ultra-processed options (Karsit, 2027). In this case, capitalism still plays a role as industry brands healthy as "premium" and thus associates a premium price tag on healthy. However, the other driver is supply chain. Fresh food needs to be re-stocked more often due to a shorter shelf-life. Labor shortages, supply and demand, and inflation are also factors (Tanaka, 2024).
Exponential Age
Question: Why is social media so addicting?
Exponential Citizens
Azhar (2021) discusses how exponential technologies are disrupting the relationship between citizen and society and between citizen and market. Specifically, exponential technologies are allowing private companies to encroach on the "moral limits" to markets in the following ways:
Emergence of new, private rule makers where only a handful of private organizations determine the needs of society and through those determinations influences how we interact with the world through their platforms, which we heavily depend on and constantly interact with.
Encroachment of markets into our private lives through the explosion of data that allows companies to profile and exploit private citizens.
Privatization of the way we interact with one another impacting who we meet, what we think of them leading to polarizing views that divides society into opposing groups that barely interact.
The consequences of exponential technology on the interaction of citizen with society and market is predominantly driven by social media platforms. In 2022, there were 4.7 Billion social media users with an average of 2.5 hrs spent on social media platforms daily (Hootsuite, 2022). Of the children who spend three or more hours on social media, 27% suffer from poor mental health. Studies show the urge to check social media pages being one of the strongest temptations in today's society to the point where 55% of drivers report checking social media while driving (Hoffman, 2024). If social media is bad for mental health and allows private companies to control the information we consume and the people we interact a, why can't we, as a society, simply walk away from social media? Because it's addicting. Today, 10% of the U.S. population has a social media addiction. This is because engagement with social media platforms releases dopamine to produce the same neural circuitry caused by gambling and recreational drugs. In the physical world, people talk about themselves 30 to 40% of the time. In the digital world where people can filter content to create a narrative around their life and accomplishments, people talk about themselves 80% of the time. The constant stream of retweets, likes, and shares causes the brain's reward area to trigger the same kind of reaction seen with drugs like Cocaine (Bhatt, 2024). Roughly 25% of social media platform users are under the age of 13 (Hootsuite, 2022). Thus, social media engagement and addiction starts early making the habit even harder to break as these kids grow up and in future generations.
The Virus in the Age of Madness
Question: Did social media have an impact during the COVID-19 lockdown?
Delicious Confinement
Lévy (2020) discusses the mental struggle of being in confinement when the stay-at-home order (i.e., "lockdown") was issued during the COVID pandemic. During this time, mental health was certainly an issue. Those that were comfortable in isolation took this time to focus on their to-do lists, hobbies, and interests. Those that needed social engagement took to social media, making social media the mainstream channel for information acquisition and social support. During this time, social benefitted society by increasing social support and reduced loneliness; improved subjective happiness; improved self-related mental and physical health; and reduced feelings of fatalism and stress. However, it also heightened feelings of COVID-19 related panic; increased anxiety; enhanced psychological burden of COVID-19 and increased depressive symptoms (Cho, et. al., 2023) due to the propagation of false information (Alghamdi, et. al., 2022) and constant stream of COVID-19 information. Social media also provided a low cost (often times free) platform to provision telehealth which helped improve both mental and physical health (Alghamdi, et. al., 2022)
Analysis
Through this week's reading I saw a consistency in how companies can leverage addiction to maintain consumers. The food industry using technology to "hook" consumers to continually purchase their products at the expense of physical health. The technology industry intentionally creating features that would induce dopamine release to create an addition to their platforms at the expense of mental health. I also saw how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted both industries. COVID-19 created supply chain issues that resulted in higher prices especially for perishable food items that are typically healthier than processed foods resulting in higher prices and more inflation that makes healthy options unaccessible to the masses. It also created more dependency on Social Media as people sought to connect as they were confined to their homes in an effort to slow down the spread.
References
Alghamdi NS, Alghamdi SM. (2022, Jul 7). The Role of Digital Technology in Curbing COVID-19. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 19(14). Retrieved March 2024 from NIH National Library of Medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9320375/.
Azhar, A. (2021). The Exponential Age. Diversion Books.
Bhatt, A. (2024, Mar 3). Social Media Addiction. Retrieved March 2024 from Addiction Center: https://www.addictioncenter.com/drugs/social-media-addiction/.
Cho H, Li P, Ngien A, Tan MG, Chen A, Nekmat E. (2023, sep). The bright and dark sides of social media use during COVID-19 lockdown: Contrasting social media effects through social liability vs. social support. Comput Human Behavior. 146. Retrieved March 2024 from NIH National Library of Medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10123536/.
Hoffman, K. (2024). Social Media Addiction. Retrieved March 2024 from AddictionHelp.com: https://www.addictionhelp.com/social-media-addiction/.
Karsit, I. (2023, Dec 27). Healthy foods are often more expensive. Here's why. Retrieved March 2024 from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/27/healthy-foods-are-often-more-expensive-heres-why.html.
Lévy, B. (2020, Jul 28). The Virus in the Age of Madness. New Haven: Yale University Press
Moss, M. (2013, Feb 20). The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food. In D.G. Johnson, & J. M. Wetmore, Technology and Society: Building our Sociotechnical Future (pp. 367 - 378). Cambridge: The MIT Press.
NBC News (2014). Infographic: Obesity Skyrockets Across the Globe. Retrieved on March 21 from NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/infographic-obesity-skyrockets-across-globe-n116996.
Tanaka, C. (2024, Jan 8). Why is healthy food so expensive? Retrieved on March 2024 from CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/question-everything-why-is-healthy-food-so-expensive/.
WHO (2024). Obesity and overweight. Retrieved on March 2024 from World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight.