Can digital tools still set agenda and alter human behavior, perspective and beliefs without human interaction? State your arguments

The task for this assignment is based on the article written by Tartleton Gillespie titled The Stories Digital Tool Tells. It focuses on how humans take notice of technology and the stories that are told via digital tools. To give a generic defintion, a digital tool is defined as an outlet in which the tools are characterized by electronic and computerized technologies, according to IGI Global. Basically, it is what we use everyday via our phones, computers and television. A piece of technology has a story to tell as it has an agenda.

Gillespie uses the term to describe how humans take action on certain situations. Politics and agenda are closely linked in influencing the actions of a human at a certain point. Can technology be able to fix our problems without changing people's attitude or does it impact us in such a way where behavior is then altered? Or as stated, can digital tools still set agenda and alter human behavior, perspective and beliefs without human interaction?

I have a hard time figuring out the answers for these questions. Does it mean that technology is bad and how we don't need to depend on it constantly? Or is it that we depend on technology so much that it will overtake our human lives without the dependency of a human? It took me a while to answer this question until I read more futher on the article.

Acccording to Gillespie, he states that technology is neutral in which they are in control as does a human and it becomes a tool for our daily function. Most people believe that it doesn't have a personality, insight or political agenda but it actually does, based on Gillespie's understanding of it. He states that creators are always imprinting agenda onto the objects. This has lead to the existence of social problems. To quote from his article, he knows that technology has consequences that go beyond the functions it is expected to perform.

Gillespie expressed that it is difficult to seperate the object from its politics because they were viewed by humans as impartial. They never questioned how and choose to follow, making them impartial actors. Will these tools be in control of humans and how it come to be?

He added that technologies submerge the agenda into the material itself, making them difficult to uncover. It is very difficult to view and consider them to have any politics or agenda in the pre-Internet world. As society progresses and technology advancing to become more interactive and intergrated, so did people's opinions and influences. With how the Internet is used currently, their opinions from videos and posts highlight what Gillespie had attempted years ago.

People have now become opiniated, knowledgeable and cynical over the Internet, being a common digital tool, to boost social, productivity and emotional. It is heavily interwined and it is impossible to escape that agenda setting of technology to alter behavior and construct social norms. So yes, digital can still set agenda and alter human behavior, perspective and beliefs without human interactions because of the advancement of technology and Artifical Intelligence as well as personalization in which people can pick and choose what they want or don't want to see. Every tool has a function by design and therefore will always be political as it will be seen as an agenda setting without the need of the creator in the forseable future.

Resources;

The Stories Digital Tools Tell by Tarleton Gillespie

https://www.academia.edu/584522/The_Stories_Digital_Tools_Tell

What is Digital Tools

https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/digital-tools/66587