Katie Couric’s new gig is a documentary series, “First Look: America Inside Out,” on the National Geographic Channel, and she’s tackling a topic that most everyone these days can relate to: technology and smartphone addiction.
The series itself will allow the journalist to report on “a spectrum of transformational issues impacting the country,” according to TechCrunch. After speaking with experts and researchers, she learned that smartphones cause a lot of anxiety, and that we don’t truly understand how they are affecting our brains. She said that companies like Facebook and Twitter intentionally exploit our reliance on the devices and that they “purposely and perhaps irresponsibly get us to go down the rabbit hole of information.”
Couric explored all facets of technology, including the development of robots. She looked at where they might be going in our culture, and whether they could plausibly replace humans in various jobs. Her conclusion was that automation will “dramatically change the world of work and probably our economy.” She even visited a sex robot factory in San Diego, where the robots could potentially replace lovers one day. She found it to be both strange and fascinating. They were “freaky,” she said. “It’s just very, very strange,” but also “fascinating.
The point of Couric’s in-depth look at technology was mostly to provide America with a perspective of which they might not be aware. The increased use of devices and reliance on technology is causing us to forego true human connections. Couric was quick to explain that she is far from a Luddite. She uses social media, has her own podcast, and firmly believes that there are positives to technological development. But she hopes that her series will be enlightening about the pitfalls.
The series is set to premiere on April 11.
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