Zarard-Manifesto

The tenet I chose is the one where the critical engineer doesn’t just marvel at a new technology because it is new and combines cool elements of technology. The tenet says that the critical engineer looks beyond how their work is implemented to see how it will actually have an impact, more so the critical engineer digs into specificity of the impact of their work. An example of this is the advent of the social media platform. When Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etcetera became popular it was initially conceived of as a way to share light-hearted photos, jokes, and stories. However, the engineers didn’t really look in to the depth of what it means to be social. Being social means to sometimes be envious, which is why people who spend unhealthy amounts of time on social media are prone to depression. Being social means to compete to get the most friends, to ask people for money, to argue, and to ignore. But because the focus originally was on the technology and the ability, it wasn’t until years later where the apps were refined to account for things like fraud, hate speech, suicide posts.