The third blog post should reflect on a reading and discussion topic from class from weeks 4 – 6 (you may choose one that you feel most drawn to). What were some insights gained from this reading? Draw connections between the reading, discussion and your own experiences/insights from the everyday.
A reading that l found interesting was the ‘Automation, Wellbeing and Digital Voice Assistants: Older people and Google devices’ journal entry. This is something that l deal with in my everyday life with family members and found it interesting to see this be talked about academically. The article discusses the impact of digital voice assistants, both positive and negative, and the effect that it has on older people; the way it affects their social interactions and overall quality of life. One of the main findings l was drawn to was the effect and impact Digital Voice Assistants have on the well-being of people who are using them. There was a study of a couple Helen and Ken in the journal and they stated their usage of the tablet helped with managing chronic pain in their life ‘The music sort of helps to relieve the pain to some extent. It’s better than painkillers sometimes, it makes you sleepy’ (Duque et al, 2021). A real-life connection l had to this was my grandfather before his passing, he was also in chronic pain but used his digital devices as a way to distract himself, whether it be video calling family members, to watching videos on Facebook to distract himself from how he was feeling. While this article does highlight some of the struggles and learning curves it also highlights the positive effects that DVAs have on the lives of older people.
Duque, M., Pink, S., Strengers, Y., Martin, R., & Nicholls, L. (2021). ‘Automation, wellbeing and Digital Voice Assistants: Older people and Google devices’, Convergence, 27(5), 1189-1206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565211038537