Dr Brigitte Viljoen

Various roles in Managerial positions including HR

PhD investigated human beings' experiences interacting with AI social robots and/or digital avatars in a social context and looking at what is happening and how it will inform the future.

Digital technology, specifically types of digital relating and communication such as social media, have been changing so rapidly – a digital revolution - that research was still new to this area and my research aim was to disclose meaning of the impact of digital communicating and the unfolding of human development and attachment – especially for children and teenagers. Technology seems so integral in our way of relating to each other, especially for digital natives. Yet people seem busier, more stressed, less caring of others and somehow unavailable. Something seems to have changed in the way digital natives relate and connect with others, compared with previous generations. This study was also a sociological endeavour as it was exploring how humans (especially the younger generations) were changing the way they communicate to a larger degree and how this has impacted human neurologically, psychologically and socially, and what this might mean for our future.