From the time I was old enough to be asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, I have answered with a community-oriented job. I value work that leverages a person’s skills to do the most good for the most people; that’s why I went into teaching. I wanted to help others to be stronger communicators and have the tools to think critically about the world.
So when I decided it was time to leave my job as a high school English teacher, my strong convictions about community engagement gave me pause. When I had chosen my first career, I had quickly dismissed anything at a for-profit company, certain that it meant selling out. I overlooked how the ubiquity of technology means that it can be used to give agency to people who are oppressed.
Because of my early misunderstandings and doubts about technology, I’m going to highlight three apps that exacerbate current issues in regard to class, gender, and race, and three apps that work against systemic oppression.
Class
In November 2015, Seattle called a state of emergency on homelessness. As of January 2018, over 12,000 King County residents were homeless. It is a contentious issue; there are always disagreements about how homelessness should be handled, but Seattle has received a rise in backlash after promoting its Find It, Fix It app.
The app itself is inoffensive; it provides a convenient way for citizens to report issues around the city. According to the website, you can request service for graffiti, illegal dumping, or dead animals. However, since putting posters around town that encourage people to “See a tent? Report a tent,” people have submitted hundreds of fake alerts.
Hilariously, many of the alerts flag the downtown REI’s many display tents.
On the other end of the spectrum, local startup Samaritan aims to make it easier to directly donate to nearby homeless people. If you are experiencing homelessness, you can apply for a small fob that you keep on yourself. The fob alerts app users that someone nearby is in need. App users can then read your story and decide if they want to donate money.
Using the fob does have limitations that may make people more likely to donate: “To keep their beacon active, beacon holders meet with a counselor monthly to set and follow up on goals.” Additionally, the money they receive may only be used at specific locations, such as Grocery Outlet and Goodwill.
Whether or not people choose to donate, the app is an interesting way to humanize people who are often encouraged to be invisible. Giving app users access to the stories of homeless people could lead to more empathy and understanding. At the very least, it’s encouraging that nearly 13,000 people have downloaded the app.
For more information about technology impacting Seattle’s homeless population, I recommend reading The Atlantic’s article.
Gender
Technology is part of a larger culture, so it’s not surprising that there are so many insidious apps available to help you photoshop yourself skinnier, lighter-skinned, or without acne. But when that technology doesn’t just conform to these expectations but actually helps people to more easily control others, it is especially dangerous.
Absher is a government-supported Saudi Arabian app that allows men to easily give or deny travel permission to those under their guardianship, including adult women. “Specifically, male users can register women’s names and passport numbers, select how many journeys she can take and how long she can travel for” (Time). The app also alerts users when one of their dependents leaves the country, giving them further reach and control.
Some have made cases for why the app is actually an improvement. One example given is of a college student who studies abroad in Australia; the app allows her father to sign off on her travel without being in the same city. Clearly, the app is not the problem, but the underlying restrictive, sexist laws. Regardless, the app implicitly violates human rights.
While I’m no longer a teacher, I still believe that education is one of the best ways to empower people. One easy way for people to be empowered is for them to have an understanding of their own bodies. However, a small 2010 study revealed that “74 percent of men and 46 percent of women questioned were unable to identify the cervix” on a diagram (Vice). While we wait for public schools to provide comprehensive sex ed, we can turn to Clue for help.
On the surface, Clue is a period tracker app that allows people to determine when they are likely to menstruate, have symptoms of PMS, or be most fertile. While these are great functions, I am most impressed by Clue’s commitment to providing research and articles on subjects that are often stigmatized. By packaging them with a functional app and a smooth interface, more women have access to information about their bodies.
Race
A number of explicitly racist apps have made headlines in the past few years, but I would like to highlight the ways in which crowdsourcing information can lead to a misuse of technology.
RedZone offers some useful functions for people traveling to a new city. The navigation app uses crime reports to draw their routes and take users through statistically safer areas.
Objective data is useful, however, the crowdsource feature is where issues can come into play. Just as Nextdoor revealed which of your neighbors are racist, RedZone allows people to comment on their perceived safety at different locations. While that seems reasonable, we need to remember that we live in a country where the police get called because people of color are taking naps in their dorm’s common area.
Because of America’s long history of oppressing people of color, it’s hard to imagine that RedZone’s ratings will be anything but racist Yelp reviews.
Technology is also being used to actively combat some issues that immigrants face. Notifica allows users “to plan, learn and act if you are at risk of being detained by deportation agents.” In addition to providing resources and information on immigrant rights, the Notifica app lets users preprogram phone numbers and a message. If the user is about to be detained, they only need to press a button that sends the message and their location to their contacts.
At a time when children return from the first day of school to find that ICE has raided and their parents have been detained, this technology can help families stay in contact with each other and legal representatives.
From the bad to the good, the technology we create comes from the values we hold. While we can create apps that deliver food to our doors, we can also use technology to provide education, resources, and agency to people who experience oppression.
Top comments (1)
This is definitely a conversation that I'm excited to see more of! Some other good companies to add to the list: