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Technology at the presidential debate

It’s that time of the decade again: the presidential election. Last Monday night, two presidential candidates battled it out in front of millions on television, tackling topics such as war, poverty, social discrimination, etc.

First of all I’d like to say that it is very strange that technology, in general, wasn’t adequately discussed in the first presidential debate this week. Even amidst the constant sniffling and scoffs coming from He Who Should Not Be Named, things such as President Obama’s birth certificate and the tensions rising around Syria were discussed. It’s quite amusing that things such as cyber-security and hacking weren’t discussed especially in light of Hillary Clinton’s recent email scandal. While this is just the first debate, I still think the most important topics should be discussed, and technology-related issues in this country sure rank as one of the most important topics.

The future of technology is still relevant and will always be relevant to every American, with arguably the most important being cyber-security and data protection. Besides Hillary Clinton’s recent email scandal, hacking is relevant to all Americans from the average gamer to the investment banker. With today’s societal reliance on the internet, it isn’t surprising that issues such as identity theft and account key-logging are everyday occurrences. After this debate, it is apparent that cyber-security related issues aren’t regarded as a high enough priority, or worse, the candidates don’t know enough about the issue as they should. I understand that this is only the first debate, but come on. Instead of denying the birthday of Hillary’s granddaughter, maybe throw in a couple words about data safety?

Besides personal data safety, even debatable issues that include technology, such as infrastructure and education, should have been considered by both of the candidates last Monday. During our current president’s terms, a study was conducted to determine the correlation of the speed of internet and educational/professional success. As would be expected, areas with higher internet speeds, at least within education, resulted in more successful citizens. Both income and education were topics discussed in Monday’s debate but with no respect to technology. How can a more educated future be possible with a mediocre at best technological infrastructure? Again, so many wasted words at the debate and not a single useful word for the technological infrastructure of our country and the people within it.

I don’t really have much to say about the candidates themselves but for the sake of all of us, who cares about the birth date of Hillary Clinton’s granddaughter?

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