‘Predatory Tech’ – what comes in your mind after reading these words? Possibly, you will breakout and think about them differently to find the meaning of the whole term. If you look at various aspects of this term, you’ll understand that associating it with different situations brings out different outcomes, though the core meaning remains the same. Let’s have a look at the meaning of predatory tech:
Predatory Meaning: From the point of view of Biology
Biologically speaking, a predator is an animal who kills some other animal for food (for his living). He lives on the lives of other animals. Here, don’t get confused between a ‘predatory’ and a ‘parasite’. ‘Parasite’ is a type of animal species that live on the host animal’s body, whereas ‘predatory’ can be considered as a collective term, a trait or type of behavior among animals. Predatory meaning implies taking advantage of the weaknesses of other living beings for their own benefit.
So how this biological-sounding term is related to human behavior?
Meaning of Predatory Tech:
Predatory behavior or instinct has different meanings- it means plundering, robbery, exploiting someone else to fulfill their own selfish interests, etc. If we think from the business point of view, predatory behavior means firms exploiting the consumers to gain profit. In this modern world of technology, when tonnes of information is available on the internet with a single click, we have to be aware of predatory tech – A question comes in our mind every time we google something, or look for some information on sites like Wikipedia & others – “Is everything that I read here is true? Is it authentic? What is the source?”.
And if an authentic source is not available, the content can be a predatory source, meant to exploit users. The Predatory tech meaning in Hindi also goes on the same lines- Predatory meaning ‘Lootera’(Plunderer), ‘Parbhakshi’ (someone who lives on other animal’s life) and tech is obviously, about technology.
Mere understanding of predatory tech meaning is not sufficient. In order to properly understand its application in human lives, we will take two examples:
Predatory Journals or Predatory Publishing
As discussed earlier, the authenticity and credibility of all the information available online is becoming a major issue. And the concept of predatory tech relates with this issue as well. Some online publishing sites are very active in terms of publishing new content. This content includes research articles, scientific articles, basic information, and everything. But after a detailed investigation, it was revealed that there had been no peer review of the material published.
Such content also lacks editorial checking of the matter, and ignorance towards the research ethics. All content of this type lacks authenticity. And those who publish such content are known as predatory publishers, as in a way, they take advantage of the unawareness of the users who make use of this information.
Publishing an article or research is not an easy task, it requires a lot of effort. You have to abide by research ethics. especially, when writing about some scientific facts or information, one has to be up to date about the latest scientific developments. We cannot just form our statements and theories without finding a proper base. But predatory publishing avoids all this and acts like an illegal shortcut.
Now one may ask that why do people or researchers go to such predatory sites for publishing their content? The answer to this lies within the question – these sites take advantage of the unawareness of the people about technology. When one realizes that there are fewer complications are involved in getting their content published, that person will obviously go for it. This is how much predatory sites trap the people.
But not every writer or researcher is a victim of predatory tech scams. Some try to take advantage of this platform, and go for it intentionally, willingly, to gain fame. It is because of this reason that finding out the real victims of predatory publishing activities.
However, there are several trusted sites and organizations that are working to identify and prevent predatory journals and publishers. They keep releasing the up-to-date list of predatory publishers, to make users aware. All said and done, it becomes our responsibility to go for authentic and credible information at first, and avoid being a victim of such predatory tech.
Online Predators:
‘Online predators’ is altogether a different term, which is more related to predator tech meaning. With the increasing use of the internet and social media sites, more and more people connecting through social media networks. This includes people from all age groups – from kids, youngsters, up to adults. Though it has a positive side of increasing connectivity, it also has negative effects. And increased cases of ‘online predators’ is one of the major problems.
Online predators mean those who make use of social networking sites to sexually abuse young children or kids. This is a type of online sexual abuse that takes place through online chatrooms, social media messengers, and other such mediums.
Studies have shown that most vulnerable victims of online predators are kids, or teenagers who make extensive use of social media. The privacy of their life suffers, and they easily fall prey to such predators. Receiving unwanted chats and messages, unwanted contacts is the first step of this process.
If kids fail to identify and understand the true motives of people who contact them, they can be easy victims. Mostly, the online predators are middle-aged people who are either going through a stressful personal life, or have some kind of mental disorders, and seek pleasure through abusing others. And the victims, as said earlier, are mostly kids.
How to tackle this? Sharing. Most of the victims avoid sharing their problems with others, because of numerous fears, and this adversely affects their mental health. To avoid being a victim to such predatory tech or online predator, or to come out of it, one must share his problems with others. It could be friends, or parents.
Also, there are a number of governmental and non-governmental organizations working to identify the online predators, and punish them, and also to support the victims and help them overcome it. And sharing can help them to improve.
This was all about predatory tech and meaning of predatory tech. as said in the beginning, predatory tech is a complex term and means different in different situations. But a proper understanding only will help to prevent this behavior which is undesirable for the society.