“From my perspective as a psychiatrist, Siri, the iPhone’s virtual assistant, could prove more toxic psychologically than violent video games or some street drugs,” Dr. Keith Ablow writes for Fox News.
“Siri is even funny. Tell her you love her, and she replies, ‘All you need is love. And your iPhone.’ Or, ‘You are the wind beneath my wings,'” Ablow writes. “Funny, right? Well, not really—not when you stop to consider that you have just been coaxed to interact with a virtual entity. Perhaps without thinking about it, you have tacitly agreed to use a proper name to refer to a computer program, to agree the computer program has a gender, to laugh at ‘her’ quips and to rely on her to guide you to places to eat or to give you a reminder about when to call home.”
Ablow writes, “I believe that personifying machines and interacting with them as quasi-beings actually dumbs down our interpersonal skills and encourages us to treat other people like machines. Ultimately, it diminishes our ability to empathize with one another, because we’ve been chatting up a non-existent person and can get used to considering real people as essentially non-existent, too… ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Batshit insane quackery.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “BlackWolf” for the heads up.]
I went to my psychiatrist and said nobody talks to me. He said “next.”
I went to a psychiatrist. The doctor said, “You’re crazy.” I said, “I want a second opinion!” “Okay, you’re ugly too!”
Are you the “Jane Shepard” I think you are or are you really called Jane?
I’m Jane. You should have put in a third Henny Youngman joke here!
Not true at all too I just said to Siri I love you and it said you hardly know me, the responses vary, we’re not idiots for the most part LOL
MDN take is what I expected.
Actually, the internet itself is responsible for the average citizen becoming “more sociopahthic.” However, it doesn’t mean they are sociopaths. Siri is the same thing but a little worse, but this is just technology impacting our organic circuitry. It’s inevitable. Apple can’t be blamed for this. The idea is , for example, as more people become trolls on message boards, they start to think of others as “virtual people” and say psychotic things. MDN takes have always had this quality to me. They rejoice in other conpanies failings without considering the human impacts of these events. They attack anyone who would say anything but glowing things about Apple and act like they are fighting cancer or something. So I just thought the article and the MDN Take were right on the money. Thanks for the chuckle!
Seriously, Thomas, you may have an original idea here about the trolls. I’ve been thinking about them as Virginia cockroaches—born and bred, but it may the the power of the medium itself that transforms otherwise decent people into those loathsome creatures. Don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself—thanks.
I think the problem lies in the ‘instant gratification’ the technology provides in going ‘bang, bang, bang’ and shooting off a response without taking some time to consider, review and adjust that response as the written word once allowed us to. Now we can get instantly outraged and almost simultaneously respond without allowing a cooling off period where you might think better of what you wrote, or how you wrote it, let alone whether or not you’ve ‘grabbed the right end of the stick’ (that means correctly comprehended what you’ve read and subsequently reacted to, for those not familiar with that phrase).
It results in sending angry emails and posts to people who really aren’t the intended target of your misdirected anger. For example, you’re feeling stressed about something, and rather than dealing with the source of that stress, you take it out on another person.
That’s why I always try to write a draft without an addressee and revise it a few times, so I can’t accidentally send it when I’m in a mood where I might later regret it. More people need to do this.
Thinking about what you’ve said, it’s beginning to dawn on me that the internet environment is somehow operating on our minds (which are not evolved for this) to create anomalous behavior which is only now beginning to be studied and understood by psychologists. Maybe not including Ablow et al. Stuart, I really appreciate your response—in this case, at least, someone’s feedback had an effect.
Sounds like all that ‘the medium is the message’ stuff McCluen (sic?) did years ago.
Also, will people be saying, ‘Siri told me to do it’? and people will complain, and have already, that Siri is the new ‘Truth’ – what Siri says must be true – just like my neighbor next door.
This is true and email and chat have done more damage to friendships, families, marriages, etc. Some people do not realize they should take a beat and step back before replying, and once you’ve hit send, the words are spoken. To a person such as my sister who can’t cope with conversation, she has become a maniac with email and texting, to the point where it’s obvious that there is no communicating with her at all, she’s just lost it and if she thinks of anything, or anyone, she unleashes at them via email or text yet won’t talk on the phone or in person. This really harmed her and our family. Sadly.
This dude is an idiot.
the psychiatrist is RIGHT!
apple products are TOXIC!!
“diminishes our ability to empathize with one another”
EXACTLY
now that my mom has got her Macbook ( a used one given to her by that moron in her Mixed Martial Arts cum Tai Chi class) she’s glued to it and ignores my needs. Once she had a PC and and as it was always fizzing out she had plenty of time. Now she says “Go fix your own peanut butter sandwich hon” and I HAVE TO IT MYSELF!! yeah I’m past 30 but I’m STILL her son.
Worse… once I was her genius child able to keep her netbook running, fight of virus infestations (I can name 300 of the most well known!) , able to defrag her drive and fix Windows conflicts.. now with a Mac .. I’m a NOTHING. She just breezes along without problems transfixed.
She’s even doing PHOTO EDITING and sending pix to FACEBOOK. She posted that picture of me on the floor in my underwear after being fried by a live wire trying to fix my busted Xoom tablet..
gash I hate apple.
PSYCHOLOGIST DOC WARN HER PLEASE!!!
Paroxysm of uncontrollable laughter, culminating in a clean wipe (of makeup). Please, make it stop.
This is a joke right? I can’t stop laughing! But don’t blame Apple! LMAO
The Doc is a quack!
All planes and boats are “she’s” as are all cars … except mail vans!
At no point during his Siri introduction demonstration, did Scott Forstall actually say “Siri” DURING a query. Scott simply asked the question after holding down the Home Button for two seconds. However, the consumer has somehow used the software under the assumption that “Siri” had to be spoken prior to any query being made (as well, many people incorrectly refer to “Siri” as “Surrey”). I’m sure people can tell the difference between what to expect from inanimate objects vs. human beings, just like violent video game play does not turn the player into a violent person in reality.
“. . . Siri, the iPhone’s virtual assistant, could prove more toxic psychologically than violent video games or some street drugs,” Dr. Keith Ablow writes for Fox News.
Oh. Fux News. No wonder. 🙄
Most of you should be comedian’s I can’t stop laughing. Thanks I needed that!
Why are you all talking about my girlfriend?
Siri and I just want to be together… Is that so wrong?
I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but…Siri is seeing other people.
This dude was smart before he he went to college. Now he just got dumb.
According to Siri Dr Ablow (Dr Blow for short) may be proof that it is hard to be nuttier than some Psychiatrists.
Maybe if he would get rid of inner demons by just talking to Siri for a 45 minute hour. That will be $300. Please pay at the front desk.
“I believe that personifying machines and interacting with them as quasi-beings actually dumbs down our interpersonal skills and encourages us to treat other people like machines.”
Interesting. I wonder what the good “doc” thinks about the iPad being used as a device to help autistic children increase their communication skills.
Ref: http://goo.gl/iyfgQ
This our future. Adapt.
This moron is dumber than that Kenyan community organizer bafoon that we will dump in less than a year.
Could be. But do everyone in the universe a favor and shove your “predictions”. Meanwhile, learn to spell. Maybe reasoning will follow.
This is typical fear of the unknown combined with a religiously intense defence of the supremacy of the human state which he clearly fears this will threaten. Funny enough Turing felt that this was a way of discovering the beauty of the human condition not a threat to it. When its a genius pitted against a charlatan I guess I will go with the former.
I would advise this shrink to stay away from Siri.
And patients.
Headline-whoring for Fox is all.
I hope this guy never steps foot on a boat. He’d classify us sailors all insane.
Perhaps someone should tell the good shrink that users of the “British (Queen’s) English” implementation of Siri find themselves talking to a male, slightly butlerish, personalisation. I’m not sure what users over here have taken to calling him…
Fox News, “nough said.
We’ve been doing most of that to our cars anyhow. And for some the car answers back.
Physician Heal Thy Self
Yeah, cause Skyrim and Heroine are TOTALLY the same thing.
@ everyone
This is an interesting article and an important perspective. Technology can be progress but they are not one and the same. The power of artificial intelligence (not sure if Siri is really an example of true AI, but whatever) needs to be balanced with the importance of being human and having community with each other. Perhaps the danger of Siri is not as dramatic as the doctor thinks, right now, but I think it is an important perspective going forward. Not all technology is good progress for mankind. We need to pick and choose. That has always been the case. I fear that the explosion of web related software development has taken precious resources from health research for example. Some of the programmers and developers could have been scientists researching health and wellness for example.
Food for thought.
Such as those software engineers at IBM that developed WATSON and are now exploring its use in the field of medicine to help doctors and medical researchers?
Ref.: http://goo.gl/pnMyj
yes, research WATSON and you will find little there
exploring its use in the filed of medicine – WATSON will not cure a disease or tell us how to cure a disease – they are trying to use it to make differential diagnosis (like House on TV) and that is called an inference engine and not real AI
Regardless, if you call it true AI or an inference engine, I think you might be missing the forest for the trees here. Are you saying this advancement in computer science (WATSON) is not a good use of modern technology for mankind or are you just trying to impress everyone by saying it does not conform to the technically accurate definition of AI?
Even if it doesn’t, SO WHAT?? What’s your point? And, by the way, I think you meant “field of medicine” not “filed of medicine.” Indubitably, right?
Take my word for it, scientists and coders are two entirely different animals. Puts me in mind of Giraffes and Moles. Both are mammals.
pretty rude and unwarranted comment – giraffes and moles? “coders” is a catch all term for yucks that are not good programmers and who release crap software – there are some great programmers working in internet software but they would have been in a different scientific field but for the internet – get it now?
I see that you omit doing capitalization in your posts here. Yeah, I know it’s a big pain to have to reach all the way over on the keyboard and hold down that “shift” key and that you can’t be bothered with such trivial, mundane stuff, but here’s something to keep in mind and might come in handy in the future:
“Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.”
That’s a body slam. +1
or in my case crippled hands due to rheumatoid arthritis, I’m lucky if I can type at all, so I don’t care about punctuation, capital letters etc, I’m just happy when I can type, AT ALL
Hmm, I see that you’ve made 7 posts in this thread alone and most appear to be very well written and contain capital letters, punctuation, and one is even fairly lengthy.
Emu oil has helped me from time-to-time when some of my joints have become inflamed. You might want to give it a try. Usually not available in local retail stores, but can be ordered online.
http://www.pure-emu-oil.com/emu-oil-arthritis-pain.html
You are a perfect candidate for dictating via Siri or Dragon Dictate.
I have severe osteoarthritis in both thumbs, and use both – Siri on my iPhone 4S, DD on my MacBook Pro.
Slow news day? This has to be a joke, the lack of personalization happened with the PC, Siri is of great use to me being disabled and housebound. I’m so happy to have it. Dangerous already happened via the Internet and PC as described here.
This comment stream is boring – couldn’t be arced reading past first few insults.
The article is dumb – as are pretty much each comment – you guys are really dumb…. and seriously some of you sound like you need help. It’s a shame none of you have a fucking close about psychiatry and what it actually is…
Oh well.