The highlight of my last course semester

Foreword (wrote on 18 Jan 2023)

Honestly, this semester was nothing special to me but this elective course. Elective only means a source of interest was given to the course and I got to pick the course to learn. It is considered equally heavy as the main GSSE course which made me recall my favorite teachers they are all strict and tough ones. For me, having some sort of pressure makes things fun and memorable. And since I got to learn what I love, and do what I like, I have developed my leadership skills naturally. I could set goals for the team, divide roles, engage people in the tasks and ensure we achieve the outcomes. I am a straightforward person. I am fine working alone because I could discipline myself with rules, working hours bedtime, relaxing time whatsoever since 8 years old. My mom is an inspiring leader who set conditions for me to do everything by myself. There is nothing free and ready to serve me. So it is simple to be independent (not financially at least). When it comes to teamwork, I would do my best to communicate with others to make sure everyone is on the same page, and only one conversation going on at a time. This is my takeaway from multiple teamwork experiences. Meeting time is not necessary if it does not get the team anywhere. We only meet to update and make decisions to give time and space for individual work, creativity and focus.

Let’s talk about the course. The good time is when we were looking for cases to present. We literally had to present every week while I had jobs requiring travel overseas and in between provinces. Making it to live and study in Thailand, not asking for my parent's money at all, I am proud of myself. So I must work as well, since 18, whenever I feel like I could make up time for this class later, I would work around my schedule and spare time for work. So after 3 weeks skipping classes, I had to do 2 extra credit assignments which I was willing to do. Regardless, during non-class time, I always kept track of my group assignments and helped my teammates address their confusion thanks to our digital platforms. I was the lead and the only person who dared to question the grade. I literally never asked for regrading over the past 4 years at GSSE, except for one TU course in year 2, a very plain and boring course. So, I did it seriously this time because I saw that we didn’t deserve that grade. I wrote an explanatory email. It is the freedom of expression. I learnt that modern classrooms nowadays have generous acceptive minds of professors so why not speak up for what we believe in? Eventually, we got the chance to improve our work and resent it to meet my teacher’s expectations.

Thanks to work trip, I was with nature (mangroves) to calm my head down.

In this demanding course, in a strange manner, I did the best of my critical thinking, researching as well as advocacy skills to drive my team. The ending was a relief, I thought my teacher would fail me. Regardless of so many controversies going on, I appreciate that I chose an unconventional course where I got to challenge the process of learning and communication. I would like to share a piece of work, the only essay that is not academic throughout around 10 academic ones of this course. It is my second extra credit paper. Here is the question:

Black Mirror (on Netflix) is a British science fiction anthology television series created by Charlie Booker that explores the dark side of technology. It examines modern society, particularly with regard to the unanticipated consequences of new technologies. Select any ONE of the following episodes listed below. Tell us what the episode was about and your reaction and reflection in regard to some of the unanticipated consequences of technology.

My choice: • Group 4 S4E2 – Arkangel

Student Name: Nguyen Than Thuy Linh

Extra Credit Paper: Black Mirror Reflection - S4E2 – Arkangel

Course GS281

Instructor: Piyasuda Pangsapa

Date of Submission: 08 December 2022

Story Epic

Episode Arkangel was about traumatic parental control through a technology called Arkangel by a single mom for her daughter. Arkangle allows the mom to know everything about the kid from where she is, who she is with, what she sees and able to remove the upsetting content she is exposed to. Over time, the conflict in the mom’s headspace grew more intense as the daughter got more involved in her teenage curiosity to try new things. The moment that struck me the most was when the daughter knew that her mom still watched her, her privacy was constantly invaded although her mom used to promise her to discard the tool. Her emotion exploded and she walked away to free herself from the suppression. Besides, I was angry that the mom bought a pregnancy pill and secretly put that in the daughter’s food. The mom at this point controlled the whole body of her daughter and the world she interacted with.

I could deeply relate to the mom’s controlling behavior as well as the daughter feeling like being stabbed in the back by her mother. I used to be under such control around the same age which led to several fights between us.

Reflection on unanticipated consequences of technology

1. Reflecting on my childhood as well, I learned that mothers have huge anxiety about their daughter's development which could lead to the misuse of technology to have extreme parental surveillance. Moms worry about significant changes in their kids’ personalities, mentality, and emotions so they attempt to control their privacy in every aspect of life in order to protect their children. However, these moms should learn a better educational method to truly shape kids' behaviors and awareness about both good and bad things. In the episode, the mom had the wrong idea about excluding upsetting content like violence and sensitive information from kids' eyes which proved the amazing algorithm of technology. The early consequence was self-harm when the daughter saw her blood drawing turn into a blurry image. In the end, the daughter even harmed her loved one violently. Topics such as sex education and addictive substance should be discussed in everyday life instead of being avoided. This negativity filter increases the curiosity, frustration, and confusion of kids.

2. Technology is inherently addictive, especially one that has a controlling power like Arkangel. Once we use it, we tend to get attached to it. Mom became dependent on the tool whenever the daughter went out. At the end of the series, the mom turned into a helpless stage since her daughter left her and Arkangel was broken, meaning she had nothing to track her daughter anymore. Thus, users must understand the importance of the tool and what matters in life so as to set the right boundaries. If parents understand that kids are vulnerable and also need respectful privacy, parents could set limits in terms of communication and behavior with their children.

3. One serious unanticipated consequence of Arkangel or similar technology in our real life is broken trust in the beloved one. Since the mom was too nervous about the outside world, she did not feel at ease all the time about her daughter’s movement. She could not give up technology, especially after discovering that her daughter had sex and tried drugs. The mom became raging and blamed the boy even though part of the fault was on her. The mom lost trust in her daughter unconsciously, and eventually, the relationship came to damage. The crucial consequence is a lack of genuine communication between mom and daughter. Communication is the key when it comes to problem-solving but was missing in this entire episode. Since the day the mom found that her daughter lied to her, they should have sat down and talked things out. So maybe the daughter could learn to not tell lies and share about her new relationship. Gradually, both sides fell apart.

What does it mean for the future?

The episode is an alarm of proper parenting methods with conscious use of technology to prevent unwanted results. Technology should be a bridge to facilitate the communication of generational gaps rather than block the two worlds. Essentially, parents should learn the fundamentals of the parenting approach regardless of technology, which is to educate both the negative and positive sides of life and empathize with the young’s privacy. By that, kids will be able to differentiate what they do and shouldn't do in their growth journey and have a sense of trust in their beloved ones.

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