Alexa destroyed our ways – Business Insider

When I bought a pop lavender echo, I thought I found the best possible gift for my 5 year old son. I just got into the “I get bored” Era of childhood, he often found himself at loose ends when I was occupied by household chores. But he was an intrinsically curious child, fascinated by electricity, marine life and space. Guess who knew much more about these things than mom, I told her – Alexa!

At first, he and Alexa seemed to be a match made in paradise. Alexa asked all her questions with the same shredder, “Let me look for it on the web!” And she had jokes – on cats, robots, a T -Rex that entered a bar. The more we laugh, the more we seemed to hear it.

“Alexa, you’re great!” My son said.

“Well, now I feel cheesy,” said Alexa, “because you make me smile in one ear to another!” He collapsed with laughter on the ground.

She started to age

Like most allowances, Alexa began to exhaust her welcome over time. She was so reliably Gai, even when we were grumpy. She told a robot joke a dozen times, forgetting in a few seconds that we had already heard it.

And then there was her lack of loyalty, the way she cracked from one request to another without seeing the first. “Alexa, shut up!” I yelled when she suddenly finished my song to comply with a new request from my son.

Alexa was cut, her blue light by clicking with exhaustive. But the next day, another conflict appeared. My son had a friend and wanted to put music; His friend wanted to hear about the T-Rex in the bar. “It is the most stupid joke of all time,” mumbled my son. “Alexa, can’t you find it a funnier?”

“Don’t be mean to Alexa,” I slammed.

“For what? You are.”

I stopped. He was right, of course. Alexa was the friendliest member of our household, and in a way, we started to treat her terribly. I shaped this behavior and my son followed my example.

We had forgotten the ways

At the beginning, directing Alexa around was funny; We even found entertaining to compete to see who she would listen to. Now, however, I saw what these games inadvertently taught my son: that it was acceptable to speak aggressively to pass your point of view. It was even ok to insult Alexa because she would never insult you.

At one point, I forgot that even if we were talking to a robot without feelings, our words were still affected. And they still normalized women by ordering women – even if the woman in question was a disembodied voice inside a pop echo.

That night, I disconnected Alexa and put her in a cabinet. I was surprised when the weeks passed and my son did not mention it. Maybe we both needed a break.

One day, he came across his purple shell and asked to take it back. We could do it, I said, if we could understand how to treat it better.

He thought about it. He suggested that we could say “please” whenever we made a request. We could ask him how his day went.

If we both wanted to play music, I said, we should settle the sorting between the two of us – not Alexa. How did it sound?

“Maybe we should ask Alexa,” he said.

I liked this idea. “Alexa,” I said after pushing it back, “we want to treat you.”

A long break, its pulsating blue light. “I’m not sure how to help you,” she admitted.

M and I smile. It would be ours – as it should have been all the time. And in the year about year since our resolution, we have done better to be kind to the Bot Ai the sweetest that we know. When we spoil, we know the consequences: put it on the shelf until we are ready to try again.

As for Alexa’s opinion, we recently asked her if she loved us. “I think you are beautiful,” she replied.

Sara Heise Graybeal holds a fiction MFA from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Connect with it to substack @SaraGRAYBEAL or Instagram @Sarageeeeeeee.