The fear of being replaced by automation

8

October

2020

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The world is becoming more and more technology driven – IoT, big data analytics, AI and robots. We are living in an age in which automation technologies such as robots play an essential role. Automation has many benefits such as it increases productivity, optimises processes and saves costs (McKinsey & Company, 2017). However, the increase in automation also raises growing concerns of workers about being replaced by these technologies. Studies have shown that 1.5 million UK workers are at a high risk of being replaced by automation (White et al., 2019) and that automation will steal 20% of all UK jobs in 2030 (McKinsey & Company, 2017). Furthermore, research by the economists Frey and Osborne (2017) has shown that about 47 percent of total US employment is at risk of job loss due to automation. The question therefore arises, whether workers have to fear to be replaced by automation?

 

Some economists and researcher believe in the skilled-biased technological change theory. This theory suggests that the demand for low skilled workers decreases relative to the demand for high skilled workers due to technological changes (Bound & Johnson, 1995; Acemoglu & Autor, 2011). According to this approach, automation therefore decreases the demand for low-skilled workers. However, others such as the labour economists David Autor argue that automation does not decrease the overall level of employment, but rather substitute and complement jobs. Jobs that require repetitive tasks are likely to be replaces by automation whereas jobs that perform non routine cognitive tasks are complemented by automation (Autor et al., 2003).

 

What many people do not consider is that automation technologies also create new jobs. Automation changes the types of jobs available in the market by creating new job opportunities. Many new jobs have been created over the past years, due to automation technologies such as software developers, programmers and data analysists. Therefore, I do not believe that workers have to fear that they are replaced by automation. Rather than worrying about being replaced by automation, workers should invest in good education and acquire automation-proof skills such as communication, management and creative skills. Robots can replace humans in many tasks, however, some skills especially inter-personal skills, cannot be replaced by robots.

 

References:

Autor, D. H., & Acemoglu, D. (2011). Skills, tasks and technologies: Implications for employment and earnings. In Handbook of labor economics (Vol. 4, pp. 1043-1171). Elsevier.

Autor, D. H., Levy, F., & Murnane, R. J. (2003). The skill content of recent technological change: An empirical exploration. The Quarterly journal of economics, 118(4), 1279-1333.

Bound, J., & Johnson, G. (1995). What are the causes of rising wage inequality in the United States?. Economic Policy Review, 1(1).

Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2017). The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?. Technological forecasting and social change, 114, 254-280.

McKinsey & Company. (2017). Jobs lost, jobs gained: What the future of work will mean for jobs, skills, and wages. Retrieved 25 March 2020, from https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages.

White, S., Lacey, A., & Ardanaz-Badia, A. (2019). The probability of automation in England: 2011 and 2017.

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The spread of fake news

5

October

2020

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Social media networks allow us to be constantly connected with each other, share information with our followers and receive the latest news as it happens (Vinnakota, 2017). We have never been more connected than today. However, social media does not only connect, but also divide us. Google is not just a search machine and Facebook is not such a platform to see what other people are doing. Social media networks are designed to create addiction and manipulate our behaviour (Kennedy, 2020). The social media platforms are competing for consumer attention (Orlowski & Rhodes, 2020). Their business model is to keep people engaged on the screen. The platforms are free for users, but the user’s attention is the product with is sold to advertising firms (Orlowski & Rhodes, 2020).

One of the main issues of social media platforms is fake information. A study has shown that fake news on Twitter spread six times faster than real news (Vosoughi, Roy & Aral, 2018). “False news travels further, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth in every category of information” (Stokel-Walker, 2018). The concept of fake news is not a new phenomenon, but it has become a large problem in recent years due to the ease of spreading information via social media platforms (Alington et al., 2020). Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen how fast fake news are spreading and how many people believe in conspiracy theories. Therefore, it is important to be aware of false information and critically assess the authors and sources of the information (West, 2017).

This blog post is inspired by the Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ by Jeff Orlowski. I highly recommend all of you to watch this documentary. It is very relevant not only to our studies but also for our daily life with social media. It made me realize how manipulative social media can be and how easily we can get addicted to it. After I watched this documentary, I deleted Instagram (however, it only lasted 3 days). Feel free to comment below and tell me what you think about the topic and how you felt after watching ‘The Social Dilemma’. My main takeaway from the series is that former tech leaders, who invented social media platforms, do not even allow their children use social media.

 

References:

Allington, D., Duffy, B., Wessely, S., Dhavan, N., & Rubin, J. (2020). Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Psychological medicine, 1-7.

Orlowski, J. & Rhodes, L. (2020). The Social Dilemma. United States: Netflix.

Kennedy, M. (2020). Review: Put down that phone, urges doc ‘The Social Dilemma’. ABC News. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/review-put-phone-urges-doc-social-dilemma-72875929.

Stokel-Walker, C. (2018). Fake news travels six times faster than the truth on Twitter. New Scientist. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://www.newscientist.com/article/2163226-fake-news-travels-six-times-faster-than-the-truth-on-twitter/#ixzz6Ztmr0kwg.

Vinnakota, R. (2017). How Social Media Divides Us. The Aspen Institute. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/social-media-divides-us/.

Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science, 359(6380), 1146-1151.

West, D. (2017). How to combat fake news and disinformation. Brookings. Retrieved 5 October 2020, from https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-to-combat-fake-news-and-disinformation/.

 

 

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